This is an oil painting, c. 1700, by German artist Johann George Melchior Schmidtner, currently, it appears to belong to the church of St. Peter am Perlach, in Augsburg, Germany (and is probably displayed there). According to Wikipedia's article on the topic, it:
Pray Tell Blog is running a series on this topic/devotion at the moment; it seems to be a way to seek for help and release from what seem to be "impossibly complicated problems" - and perhaps also simply from "the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God."
Here's today's entry:
I first read about this devotion in something James Alison wrote years ago:
Here's more of Wikipedia's article on the topic:
It's quite a beautiful image, and I offer it here simply for contemplation; it reminds me very strongly of what's taught in A.A., about "letting go" of those complex and knotty things that are being unwound slowly - but that we might otherwise try to force to immediate resolution (see also "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference.").
James Alison also writes, in the same article (Is it ethical to be Catholic? – Queer perspectives"):
And I do like that thing about Mary "making it impossible for the Church successfully to turn itself either into an ideology or into a moralistic enterprise" - which of course the Church is now doing and has been doing for quite awhile. This, I think, is the main reason so many dislike it so much these days, in fact.
I like his point that Mary "cannot be co-opted"; that to me is a tremendously interesting idea - although I'm not particularly big on Marian devotions, and frankly know little about them, myself. This one, though, appeals very much to me - perhaps because everything at the moment is in truth so knotted and oppositional.
Here's an article on a "Novena to Mary, Undoer of Knots".
shows the Blessed Virgin Mary standing on the crescent moon (the usual way of depicting Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception), surrounded by angels and with the Holy Spirit Dove hovering above her circle of stars as she unties knots into a long strip and at the same time rests her foot on the head of a "knotted" snake.
Pray Tell Blog is running a series on this topic/devotion at the moment; it seems to be a way to seek for help and release from what seem to be "impossibly complicated problems" - and perhaps also simply from "the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God."
Here's today's entry:
Mary, undoer of knots, help us break the knot of fear: it strangles the hearts of children who live daily with gunfire on their streets; of women who endure rape in war-torn cities and countrysides; of starving men and women who watch their children grow hungrier each day; of soldiers, aid workers and first responders whose daily battle with PTSD haunts their waking hours and turns their dreams into nightmares.
Mary, undoer of knots, help us untie the knot of addictions that consume persons and families: addictions to alcohol, drugs, sex, spending, work, food.
Mary, undoer of knots, help us unbind the knot of illiteracy and lack of education, particularly for women and girls.
Mary, undoer of knots, help us untie the knot of hiding. So many of my brothers and sisters are hiding: the divorced and remarried couples who have succumbed to their longing for Eucharist and dare not divulge their status; the gay and lesbian persons who are frightened that someone will out them in a community that doesn’t know what to make of them; the women who fear even to discuss their call to orders.
Mary, undoer of knots, help us untie the knot of distrust that erodes global and intimate relationships, and alienates friends, spouses, parents and children, pastors and people, leaders of communities and their constituencies.
Mary, undoer of knots, help us untie the knots of illness, physical and mental, that afflict so many in our communities.
Mary, undoer of knots, help us untie the knots of homelessness and poverty, of despair, and meaninglessness. Help us re-weave the broken bonds that lead to loneliness and isolation.
Mary, undoer of knots, help us untie the knots of dispossession and loss of identity that are destroying the aboriginal people of my land.
Mary, undoer of knots, help us untie the knots of excommunication: of thoughtful people, young and old, who must hide their questions about the status quo – be it religious or political – lest they be shunned; the women and men who have had abortions and cannot speak their reality lest they be ostracized; of those whose actions make them fear that they are beyond God’s mercy and ours.
Mary, undoer of knots, help us untie the knot of consumerism that distorts our desire for God and for each other.
I first read about this devotion in something James Alison wrote years ago:
I recently came across what was, for me, an entirely new and wonderful avocation of Our Lady. This is Our Lady Undoer of Knots. I stumbled upon a locally carved statue of her in Brazil, which I bought without knowing anything about the devotion. This turns out to come from Augsburg in Germany, from a painting by an unknown artist dating from 1700. What on earth, you may ask, is a devotion from a Baroque part of Germany doing being sculpted in Salvador, the most African part of Brazil? But this is part of the uncanny wonder of the Catholic Church. The image is of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception holding a cord with knots, which she is undoing. This Avocation gives me great peace, since it is clear to me that the knots concerning the relationship between grace and desire, sin and concupiscence, which have been so tied up into a skandalon for gay people in the life of our Church are being gently and carefully undone by hands blessed with far more patience and delicacy than I could hope to muster.
Here's more of Wikipedia's article on the topic:
Mary Untier of Knots or Mary Undoer of Knots is the name of both a Marian devotion and a Baroque painting (German: Wallfahrtsbild or Gnadenbild) which represents that devotion. The painting by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner, of around 1700, is in the Catholic pilgrimage church of St. Peter am Perlach, otherwise known as the Perlach church, in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. Pope Francis saw the image while in Germany as a student and promoted her veneration in Latin America.
Painting
The painting, executed in the Baroque style by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner (1625 – 1707), shows the Blessed Virgin Mary standing on the crescent moon (the usual way of depicting Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception), surrounded by angels and with the Holy Spirit Dove hovering above her circle of stars as she unties knots into a long strip and at the same time rests her foot on the head of a "knotted" snake. The serpent represents the Devil, and her treatment of him fulfills the prophecy in Genesis 3:15: "[thy seed] shall bruise the serpent’s head".
Below are shown a human figure and his dog accompanying a much smaller angel. This scene is often interpreted as Tobias with his dog and the Archangel Raphael traveling to ask Sara to be his wife.[1]
The concept of Mary untying knots is derived from a work by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Adversus haereses (Against Heresies). In Book III, Chapter 22, he presents a parallel between Eve and Mary, describing how "the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith."[2]
The two small figures have also been interpreted as a representation of Wolfgang Langenmantel, the grandfather of the benefactor, guided in his distress by a guardian angel to Father Jakob Rem in Ingolstadt.[1]
History
The painting was donated around 1700 by Hieronymus Ambrosius Langenmantel (1641 – 1718),[3] a canon of the Monastery of Saint Peter in Augsburg. The donation is said to be connected with an event in his family. His grandfather Wolfgang Langenmantel (1586 – 1637) was on the verge of the separation from his wife Sophia Rentz (1590 – 1649) and therefore sought help from Jakob Rem, the Jesuit priest in Ingolstadt. Father Rem prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary and said: “In diesem religiösen Akt erhebe ich das Band der Ehe, löse alle Knoten und glätte es [In this religious act, I raise the bonds of matrimony, to untie all knots and smoothen them]”. Immediately peace was restored between the husband and wife, and the separation did not happen. In the memory of this event, their grandson commissioned the painting of the “Untier of Knots”.
Devotion
The first Chapel to be named "Mary Untier of Knots" was completed in 1989 in Styria, Austria, inspired as a supplication in response to the Chernobyl Nuclear Tragedy.[4] The image of "Mary Undoer of Knots" is especially venerated in Argentina and Brazil,[1] where churches have been named for her and devotion to her has become widespread and which the Guardian called a "religious craze".[5]
This Catholic devotion has grown since Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J. (later Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Pope Francis), brought a postcard of the painting to Argentina in the 1980s after seeing the original while studying in Germany.[6][7][8] The devotion reached Brazil near the end of the 20th century. According to Regina Novaes, of the Institute of Religious Studies in Rio de Janeiro, Mary Untier of Knots "attracts people with small problems".[5] Bergoglio had this image of Mary engraved on a chalice he presented to Pope Benedict XVI and another chalice bearing her image, the work of the same silversmith, is to be presented to Pope Francis on behalf of the Argentine people.[6]
In Buenos Aires, a copy of the icon was made and left by the artist, Dr. Ana de Betta Berti,[9] for the Church of San José del Talar, which has had it since 8 December 1996. Every eight months, thousands of people make the pilgrimage to this church.[10]
It's quite a beautiful image, and I offer it here simply for contemplation; it reminds me very strongly of what's taught in A.A., about "letting go" of those complex and knotty things that are being unwound slowly - but that we might otherwise try to force to immediate resolution (see also "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference.").
James Alison also writes, in the same article (Is it ethical to be Catholic? – Queer perspectives"):
But I have come to rejoice in and love Our Lady and the difference which she constitutes in the Church. For it is she who makes it impossible for the Church successfully to turn itself either into an ideology or into a moralistic enterprise. She can never quite be co-opted into standing for something other than what she is. And what I have come to associate her with being is the link, the non-opposition, between the old creation and the new, between nature and grace, between the Israel of the Prophets and Patriarchs and the new, universal Israel of God. Far too delicate to be clearly delineated, and far too present to be dismissed, she has underlined, seated, and made three-dimensional for me elements of the faith in what her Son is doing which can only be lived-into over time.
And I do like that thing about Mary "making it impossible for the Church successfully to turn itself either into an ideology or into a moralistic enterprise" - which of course the Church is now doing and has been doing for quite awhile. This, I think, is the main reason so many dislike it so much these days, in fact.
I like his point that Mary "cannot be co-opted"; that to me is a tremendously interesting idea - although I'm not particularly big on Marian devotions, and frankly know little about them, myself. This one, though, appeals very much to me - perhaps because everything at the moment is in truth so knotted and oppositional.
Here's an article on a "Novena to Mary, Undoer of Knots".
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