Queen of Martyrs . . .
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Mary
Introduction
Mary's Litany
In
dangers, in doubts, in difficulties, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let not her
name depart from your lips, never suffer it to leave your heart. And that you
may obtain the assistance of her prayer, neglect not to walk in her footsteps.
With her for guide, you shall never go astray; while invoking her, you shall
never lose heart; so long as she is in your mind, you are safe from deception;
while she holds your hand, you cannot fall; under her protection you have
nothing so fear; if she walks before you, you shall not grow weary; if she shows
you favor, you shall reach the goal. (1) St. Bernard-abbot of Clairvaux
It was in the
presence and under the very gaze of Mary that the divine sacrifice of our
redemption was consummated; she took part in it by giving to the world and
nourishing the divine Victim, she the Queen of martyrs. (2) St. Pius X, pope
She, finally,
true Queen of Martyrs, by bearing with courageous and confident heart her
immense weight of sorrows, more than all Christians, 'filled up those things
that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ for his Body which is the Church.'"
(3) Pius XII, pope
What Mary endured
when present at the death of Jesus on Calvary is alone sufficient to show us how
constant and sublime was her patience. (4) St. Alphonsus de Liguori
It was precisely
by the merit of her patience, that Mary brought us forth to the life of grace.
(5) St. Albert the Great
If we wish to be
the children of Mary, we must try to imitate her in her patience: For what can
enrich us with greater merit in this life, and greater glory in the next, than
the patient enduring of sufferings? (6) St. Cyprian
Those
who embrace the cross do not feel it. For if we resolve to suffer, the pain
ceases. (7) St. Teresa
When our crosses
weigh heavily upon us, let us turn to Mary, who is called by the Church, "The
Comfortress of the afflicted, the remedy for all sorrows of the heart."
(8) St. John Damascene.
Mary's martyrdom
in the death of her Son on the cross exceeded the sufferings of all the martyrs.
(9) St. Alphonsus de Liguori
While Jesus was
in his agony Mary offered the life of her Son to the Eternal Father for our
salvation; but in doing so she also was in an agony, and experienced a torment
greater than any death. (10) St. Alphonsus de Liguori
Mary, obtain for
me true sorrow for my sins, and love for Jesus my Redeemer; and by the sword
which transpierced your heart when you saw him bow down his head and expire, I
beg you to help me at the hour of my death, and then obtain for me eternal
salvation, that I may love you with your Jesus forever. (11) St. Alphonsus de Liguori
Mary became the
Queen of Martyrs; for the sufferings of her great martyrdom exceeded those of
all the martyrs; being, in the first place, the longest in point of duration;
and in the second place, the greatest in point of intensity. (12) St. Alphonsus de Liguori
Mary is Queen of
Martyrs because, having merited this title by suffering the most cruel martyrdom
possible after that of her son.
(13) St. Alphonsus de Liguori
Mary was a martyr
not by the sword of the executioner, but by bitter sorrow of heart. (14)
St. Bernard
Mary's martyrdom
surpassed all others; for it was longer than that of all others, and her whole
life may be said to have been a prolonged death. (15)
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
The Passion of
Jesus began with his birth. So also did Mary, in all things like her Son,
endured her martyrdom throughout her life.
(16)
St. Bernard
Mary, enlightened
by the Holy Spirit, in a far higher degree than all the prophets, understood the
predictions recorded by them in the sacred Scriptures concerning the Messiah.
(17)
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
When Mary became
the Mother of the Savior, at the sad sight of the many torments that were to be
endured by her poor Son, she indeed suffered a long martyrdom, a martyrdom which
lasted her whole life. (18)
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
Even after the
death and ascension of her son, whether Mary ate, or worked, the remembrance of
his Passion was ever deeply impressed on her mind, and fresh in her tender
heart. (19)
St. Bridget
As thorns
increase with the growth of the rose, so also did the thorns of her sorrows
increase in Mary, the chosen rose of the Lord, as she advanced in age; and so
much the more deeply did they pierce her heart. (20)
St. Bridget
O Blessed Virgin,
as the sea in bitterness exceeds all other bitterness, so does your grief exceed
all other grief. (21)
Cardinal Hugo
Had not God by a
special miracle preserved the life of Mary in each moment of her life, her grief
was such that it would have caused her death. (22)
St. Anselm
As if
the holy Simeon had said "O most sacred Virgin, the bodies of other martyrs will
be torn with iron, but you will be transfixed and martyred in you soul by the
Passion of your own Son." (23)
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
Whoever had been
present on Mount Calvary, to witness the great sacrifice of the Immaculate Lamb,
would there have beheld two great altars, the one in the body of Jesus, the
other in the heart of Mary; for, on that mount, at the same time that the Son
sacrificed his body by death, Mary sacrificed her soul by compassion. (24)
Abbot Arnold of Chartres
While other
martyrs suffered by sacrificing their own lives, the Blessed Virgin suffered by
sacrificing her Son's life - a life that she loved far more than her own; so
that she not only suffered in her soul all that her Son endured in his body, but
moreover the sight of her Son's torments brought more grief to her heart than if
she had endured them all in her own person. (25)
St. Antoninus
The heart of Mary
became, as it were, a mirror of the Passion of the Son, in which might be seen,
faithfully reflected, the spitting, the blows and wounds, and all that Jesus
suffered. (26)
St. Laurence Justinian
Those wounds
which were scattered over the body of our Lord were all united in the single
heart of Mary. (27)
St. Bonaventure
It
is true, O Lord, that in the work of human redemption you did suffer alone, and
that there was not a man who sufficiently pitied you; but there was a woman with
you, and she was your own Mother; she suffered in her heart all that you endured
in your body.
(28) St. Laurence
If Mary, by love,
lived more in her Son than in herself, she must have endured far greater
torments in the sufferings and death of her Son than she would have done, had
the most cruel death in the world been inflicted upon her. (29)
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
Mary's whole
martyrdom consisted in beholding and pitying her innocent and beloved Son, who
suffered so much. Hence the greater was her love for him, the more bitter
and inconsolable was her grief. (30)
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
Martyrs are
represented with the instruments of their sufferings - St. Paul with a sword, St
Andrew with a cross, St. Laurence with a gridiron - Mary is represented with her
dead Son in her arms; for Jesus himself, and he alone, was the instrument of her
martyrdom, by reason of the love she bore him, (31)
Diez
In other martyrs,
the greatness of their love soothed the pains of their martyrdom; but in the
Blessed Virgin, the greater was her love, the greater were her sufferings, the
more cruel was her martyrdom. (32)
Richard of St. Victor
As there was no
love like her love, so there was no sorrow like her sorrow. (33)
Richard of St. Victor
O
you who spend your lives upon earth, and pity me not, stop a while to look at
me, now that I behold this beloved Son dying before my eyes; and then see if,
among all those who are afflicted and tormented, a sorrow is to be found like
unto my sorrow.
(34) St. Alphonsus de Liguori
No more bitter
grief than yours, Mary, can be found; for no son more dear than yours can be
found. (35)
St. Bonaventure
There has never
been a mother who more tenderly loved her son than Mary. But since there
never has been in the world a love like Mary's love, how can any sorrow be found
like Mary's sorrow. (36)
Richard of St. Laurence
To say that
Mary's sorrows were greater than all the torments of the martyrs united, was to
say too little. (37)
St. Ildephonsus
The most cruel
tortures inflicted on the holy martyrs were trifling, or as nothing in
comparison with the martyrdom of Mary. (38)
St. Anselm
As the sun
exceeds all the other planets in splendor, so did Mary's sufferings exceed those
of all the other martyrs.
(39)
St. Basil of Seleucia
Indeed, the death
of Jesus was more than enough to save the world, and an infinity of worlds; but
this good Mother, for the love she bore us, wished also help the cause of our
salvation with the merits of her sufferings, which she offered for us on
Calvary.
(40)
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
As we are under
great obligations to Jesus for his Passion endured for our love, so also are we
under great obligations to Mary for the martyrdom which she voluntarily suffered
for our salvation in the death of her Son. (41)
St. Albert the Great
Our compassionate
and benign Mother was satisfied rather to endure any torment than that our souls
should not be redeemed, and be left in their former state of perdition. (42)
St. Bridget
We may say that
Mary's only relief in the midst of her great sorrow in the Passion of her Son,
was to see the lost world redeemed by his death, and men who were his enemies
reconciled with God. (43)
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
The graces
promised by Jesus to those who are devoted to the sorrows of Mary are very
great. (44) St. Alphonsus de Liguori
Do not stop
assisting my afflicted soul in the midst of the combat in which it will have to
engage on its great passage from time to eternity. And as it is probable
that I may then have lost my speech and strength to call your name and that of
Jesus, who are all my hope, I do so now; I call upon your Son and you to assist
me in that last moment; and I say, Jesus and Mary, to you I commend my soul.
(45)
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
The Blessed
Virgin consummated her martyrdom by sacrificing the life of her son, a life
which she loved far more than her own, and which caused her to endure a torment
which exceeded all other torments ever endured by an mortal on earth. (46)
St. Antoninus
In their flight
into Egypt, the sight of Jesus and Mary wandering as fugitives through the
world, teaches us that we also must live a pilgrims here below; detached from
the goods which the world offers us, and which we must soon leave to enter
eternity.
(47)
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
Our Lord having,
given us the Blessed Virgin Mary as a model of perfection, it was necessary that
she should be laden with sorrows, that in her we might admire heroic patience,
and endeavor to imitate it. (48)
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
When Mary wept
when her Son was lost for three days, how should sinners weep, who have lost
divine grace.
(49)
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
If all the
sorrows of the world were united, they would not equal that of the glorious
Virgin Mary. (50)
St. Bernardine
All these
sufferings of Jesus were also those of Mary; every torture inflicted on the body
of Jesus, was a wound in the heart of the Mother. (51)
St. Jerome
The cross and
nails of the Son were also those of his Mother; with Christ crucified the Mother
was also crucified. (52)
St. Augustine
The grief which
filled Mary's heart, as a torrent flowed into and embittered the heart of Jesus.
So much so, that Jesus on the cross suffered more from compassion for his Mother
than from his own torments. (53)
St. Bernard
Christ was
pleased that Mary, the cooperatress in our redemption, and whom he had
determined to give us for our Mother, should be there present; for it was at the
foot of the cross that she was to bring us, her children, forth. (54)
Lanspergius
By the prayers of
Mary, who stood between the cross of the good thief and that of her Son, the
thief was converted and saved, and thereby she repaid a former service.
(55) St. Peter Damian
Oh, how many
swords pierced the Mother's soul when she received the body of her Son from the
cross. (56)
St. Bonaventure
The heart of
Jesus was wounded by the soldier's lance, that, through the visible wound, the
invisible wound of love might be seen.
(57) St. Bernard
I can truly say
that at the burial of Mary's Son, one tomb contained as it were two hearts. (58)
St. Bridget
My poor Mother, I
will not leave you alone to weep; no, I will accompany you with my tears.
This grace I now ask of you: obtain that I may always bear in mind and always
have a tender devotion toward the Passion of Jesus and your sorrows, that the
remainder of my days may be spent in weeping over your sufferings, my own sweet
Mother, and those of my Redeemer. (59) St. Alphonsus de Liguori
The Seven Swords
of Mary's Sorrows: (60)
St. Simeon's Prophecy
Flight of the Holy Family with Jesus into Egypt
The loss of Jesus in the Temple
The meeting of Mary with Jesus, when He was going to Death
The Death of Jesus
The Piercing of the Side of Jesus, and His Descent from the
Cross
The Burial of Jesus
Mary, who held
the Redeemer in her arms at Bethlehem, also suffers an interior martyrdom
herself. She shared his passion and had to take him yet again in her arms
when he was taken down from the Cross. (61) Benedict XVI, pope
To this Mother,
who knew the joy of his birth and the torment of the death of her divine Son, we
entrust all those who are persecuted and suffering in various ways for their
witness and service to the Gospel. (62) Benedict XVI, pope
"Behold, I am the
handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your Word." Mary's
reply to the Angel is extended in the Church, which is called to make Christ
present in history, offering her own availability so that God may continue to
visit humanity with his mercy. The "yes" of Jesus and Mary is thus renewed
in the "yes" of the saints, especially martyrs who are killed because of the
Gospel.
(63) Benedict XVI, pope
At the supreme
moment of the fulfillment of his messianic mission, Jesus bequeaths as a
precious inheritance to each one of his disciples his own Mother, the Virgin
Mary. (64) Benedict XVI, pope
As much as the
sun surpasses in splendor all the planets does Mary surpass in sufferings all
the other martyrs. (65) St. Basil
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Mary
Introduction
Mary's Litany