Prayers to Mary, Undoer of Knots, started in the 17th century

The tradition of sacred statuary in papier-mâché dates back to the 17th century, when artists in the southern Italian town of Lecce (Puglia region) created the first statuettes featuring Mary Undoer of Knots. This Marian devotion is very dear to Pope Francis, who first heard of it in 1986 as a theology student in Germany, when he visited St. Peter's Church in Augsburg and discovered its painting of the Virgin Maria Knotenlöserin ("Undoer of Knots") dating from 1700.

The work was an ex voto of the priest Hyeronimus Langenmental, who commissioned it from the painter Schmidtern to commemorate the grace received by his grandparents Wolfgang and Sophie. As the couple were going through a deep crisis, every time they quarreled, Sophie tied a knot in the nuptial ribbon, so that once it was full of knots and separation was almost imminent, the desperate husband gave it to the Jesuit Father Jakob Rem, who in turn presented it to the Virgin to restore marital harmony by untying all the knots.

At the time, Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio, also a Jesuit, immediately had thousands of postcards of the image printed, which he sent to Buenos Aires, Argentina and the whole of southern Latin America.

The devotion to Mary Undoer of Knots was based on the ancient invocation of Maria Auxilium Christianorum (Mary Help of Christians) already present in the Litany of Loreto since the pontificate of St. Pius V, which recognizes the singular role of the Virgin in the life of the Christian as "Mediatrix of all graces". The Second Vatican Council reiterated this belief  by referring to Mary as "Advocate", "Rescuer" and "Mediatrix".

Even earlier, we find a reference to this Marian devotion in the writings of St. Irenaeus of Lyons: "The knot of Eve's disobedience found its solution in Mary's obedience. What the virgin Eve had tied by her unbelief, the Virgin Mary untied by her faith". This idea is very dear to Pope Francis, who often alludes to it during the Holy Rosary.

Adapted from Zenit.org