This feast of our Lady’s Sorrows has its origin in Christian devotion which finds it fitting to associate her with the Passion of her Son. In the eleventh century the sorrows of our Lady were the object of private devotion. In the fourteenth century the moving Stabat Mater was written by blessed Jacopone da Todi. In the seventeenth century the Servites celebrated a solemn festival of the Seven Sorrows of our Lady which was inserted in the general calendar of the Roman rite by Pius VII in 1814.  The pope did this as a memorial of the sufferings of the Church in the person of her head upon earth in exile and captivity and of his deliverance through the Blessed Virgin’s intercession. In 1912 St. Pius X fixed it on September 15, the former octave day of the Birthday of our Lady. The Church, commemorating Mary’s sufferings, emphasizes her great and courageous love, which caused her to be so closely associated with the work of our Redemption. She it was in very truth who, like Judith, faced with the distress and tribulation of her people, spared nothing to save us from ruin. By offering her Son for us, she became our Mother and we became her children.