The birth of the devotion to Mary Undoer of Knots

In 1986, the Jesuit priest Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis, returned to Argentina from his stay in Frankfurt, Germany, where he had spent a few months gathering material for his doctoral thesis on the great theologian and philosopher of religion Romano Guardini (1).

At that time, "Padre Jorge" was living in Buenos Aires and was going through many difficulties. After twelve years as provincial of the Society of Jesus, he had been dismissed and was now simply a professor of pastoral theology at the Colegio Máximo San José de San Miguel University. He lived in a modest room at the College and was far removed from the decisions of the Society of Jesus.

It was in this difficult context that he received a Christmas card from a German nun with a painting by J. G. M. Schmidtner of Mary Undoer of Knots. He was captivated by this work of art, and was enthusiastic about it:

"The knots of life must be placed in the hands of the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of all who entrust themselves to her. She will take care of undoing them. All we need is to have faith."

Pope Francis had always shown a great love for the Virgin Mary. This devotion was passed on by his family and accompanied by various other devotions, both personal and local: to Our Lady of Grace, to Our Lady Help of Christians, but also to the Virgin of Miracles of Santa Fe, patroness of the Society of Jesus in the Uruguayan province, to Our Lady of Luján, patroness of Argentina, etc.

It was in the crucible of this long Marian history, both personal and collective, that the devotion was born, strongly promoted by the man who, 27 years later, would become Pope under the name of Francis.

Isabelle Rolland. Marie qui défait les nœuds. D’un “miracle conjugal” à une dévotion universelle (Mary Undoer of Knots: From a "marital miracle" to a universal devotion). MDN 2022

(1) This thesis was unfortunately never finished