Why Mary is Queen of Martyrs

On September 15th, the liturgy of the Church invites us to remember the sufferings of the Virgin Mary, Mother of our Savior. “Your pain, O sacred Virgin, was the greatest that a pure creature ever endured.” (Saint Anselm)

The "obligatory memory" of Our Lady of Sorrows – on which the Church invites us to meditate more profoundly during this Octave of the Nativity of Our Lady – serves to remind us of the incredible sort of martyrdom that the August Virgin Mary suffered as co-redemptrix of the human race.

Painters represent her Heart pierced with seven swords, the seven principal sorrows of the Mother of God. Here is the list: 1. The prophecy of the Old Man Simeon (Luke 2: 34-35); 2. The flight of the Holy Family to Egypt (Matthew 2: 13-21); 3. The disappearance of Jesus for three days and his finding at the Temple (Luke 2: 41-51); 4. The meeting of the Virgin Mary and Jesus on the Via Dolorosa (Luke 23: 27-31); 5. Mary seeing the suffering and death of Jesus on the Cross (John 19, 25-27); 6. Mary receiving her dead Son into her arms during the deposition from the Cross; 7. Mary letting go of the body of her Son when he is placed in the Holy Sepulcher.

Source: Notre Dame des Neiges