“Because of Her love for us, She was willing to see Her Son sacrificed to Divine Justice by the barbarity of men. This great torment which Mary endured for us was more dreadful than a thousand deaths and deserves our sympathy and our gratitude. If we cannot return this love in any other way, let us at least for a few moments consider how great were the sufferings by which Mary became the Queen of Martyrs. The sufferings of Mary's martyrdom surpassed those of all other martyrs. First of all, they lasted longer [her whole life]; and secondly, they were more intense.” (St. Alphonsus Liguori)
"The grief of Mary was so great that, were it divided among all men, it would suffice to cause their immediate death.” (St. Bernardine of Sienna)
"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. Thus 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.” (St. Antoninus)
"As Christ has begotten us, to a spiritual life, in the word of truth, by suffering on the cross, so, likewise, Mary has begotten us, and brought us forth in the midst of most acute pains, by sharing in the sufferings of the crucifixion of her Son." (St. Antoninus)
After She became the Mother of this Savior, Her grief was beyond measure. Her martyrdom was lifelong.
The Blessed Virgin also revealed to St. Bridget that when the time of the Passion of Our Lord was approaching, Her eyes were always filled with tears as She thought of Her beloved Son, whom She was about to lose on earth; and that the prospect of that approaching suffering caused Her to be seized with fear, and a cold sweat to cover Her whole body.
Our Lady’s sufferings were in Her soul, those of the martyrs were in their bodies. Since the soul is more noble than the body, so much greater then were Mary’s sufferings than those of all the martyrs.
Our Lord Jesus Christ revealed to Blessed Veronica of Binasco, that He is more pleased in seeing His Mother compassionated than Himself. He said to her: “My daughter, tears shed for My Passion are dear to Me; but as I loved My Mother Mary with an immense love, the meditation on the torments which She endured at My death is even more agreeable to Me.”
(The following is an excerpt from St. Alphonsus Liguori’s “Glories of Mary”
- Part III, Discourse)
The passion of Jesus commenced with his birth, as St. Bernard says and Mary also, in all things like unto her Son, suffered her martyrdom through her whole life.
The name of Mary, among its other meanings, as the blessed [St.] Albert the Great affirms, signifies a bitter sea: "Mare amarum." Wherefore to her is applied the passage of Jeremiah: Great as the sea is your grief. For as the sea is all salt and bitter, thus the life of Mary was always full of bitterness, at the sight of the passion of the Redeemer, which was ever present to her. It cannot be doubted that, being more enlightened by the Holy Spirit than all the prophets, she better comprehended than they the predictions concerning the Messiah, which they recorded in their holy Scriptures.
It was revealed to St. Bridget that the Virgin, knowing how much the incarnate Word was to suffer for the salvation of men, even before she became his mother, compassionately shared in the suffering of this innocent Savior, Who was to be so cruelly put to death for crimes not his own. She commenced, from that time, her great martyrdom.
It was also revealed to St. Bridget that this our so merciful and kind mother was willing to suffer any pain, rather than to see souls unredeemed or left in their former perdition. It may be said that this was the only consolation of Mary in the midst of her great sorrow at the passion of her Son, to see the lost world redeemed by his death, and men, who were his enemies, reconciled with God.
Such love as that of Mary merits our gratitude, and let us show our gratitude by meditating upon and compassionating her sorrows. But of this she complained to St. Bridget, that very few pitied her, and most lived forgetful of her sorrows. "I look around upon all who are in the world, if perchance there may be any to pity me, and meditate upon my sorrows, and truly I find very few. Therefore, my daughter, though I am forgotten by many, at least do not you forget me; behold my anguish, and imitate, as far as you can, my grief."
