I'm Sorrowful Over Our Lost Traditions

Here’s another tradition that we Roman Catholics seem to have lost . . .

From the 3^rd century, Eastern Fathers reflected on the sword that Simeon prophesied would pierce Mary’s soul.

In the early 12^th century, Rupert of Deutz, a German Benedictine, linked Mary’s suffering to labor pains.

In the 13^th century, seven cloth merchants left Florence to live a life of prayer and penance.  The Blessed Mother appeared to them and told them to be her servants and to wear a habit of dark color to recall her suffering at the foot of the Cross.  The order became known as the Order of Servants of Mary or Servites.  Those who follow this order wear a black scapular listing the seven sorrows of Mary and recite the Servite Rosary.  In later centuries, this order also promoted the Via Matris or Way of the Mother as a counterpart to the Stations of the Cross.

Also in the 13^th century, a Franciscan friar composed the hymn “Stabat Mater” which begins “At the Cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last.”   This hymn became popular in the late Middle Ages and during the Renaissance and became part of the Liturgy of the Hours and an optional sequence before the Gospel during Mass.  Major composers have written their own versions of this hymn with the work by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi being the most popular.   Here is an excerpt:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2zc0wTORSI

In 1814, Pope Pius VII added the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (7 Sorrows of Mary) to the Roman calendar on September 15.

In 1930s and 1940s, devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows became very popular.

In 1937, over 70,000 people came weekly to novena services at Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica in Chicago operated by the Servites.   This novena spread to 2,300 other parishes.

There is a Sorrowful Mother Shrine in Bellevue, Ohio operated by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood.

There is the National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother in Portland, Oregon operated by the Servites.