Martyrernas Drottning

"WHO can ever have a heart so hard that it will not melt on hearing the most lamentable event that once occurred in the world? There was a noble and holy mother who had an only Son. This Son was the most amiable that can be imagined-----innocent, virtuous. beautiful, Who loved His mother most tenderly; so much so that He had never caused her the least displeasure, but had ever shown her all respect, obedience, and affection; hence this mother had placed all her affections on earth in this Son. Hear, then, what happened. This Son, through envy, was falsely accused by His enemies; and though the judge knew, and himself confessed, that He was innocent, yet, that he might not offend his enemies, he condemned Him to the ignominious death that they demanded. This poor mother had to suffer the grief of seeing that amiable and beloved Son unjustly snatched from her in the flower of His age by a barbarous death; for, by dint of torments and drained of all His Blood, He was made to die on all infamous gibbet in a public place of execution, and this before her own eyes. Devout souls, what say you? Is not this event, and is not this unhappy mother, worthy of compassion?

You already understand of Whom I speak. This Son, so cruelly executed, was our loving Redeemer Jesus; and this mother was the Blessed Virgin Mary; who, for the love she bore us, was willing to see Him sacrificed to Divine justice by the barbarity of men. This great torment, then, which Mary endured for us-----a torment that was more than a thousand deaths-----deserves both our compassion and our gratitude. If we can make no other return for so much love, at least let us give a few moments this day to consider the greatness of the sufferings by which 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.

As Jesus is called the King of Sorrows and the King of Martyrs, because He suffered during His life more than all other Martyrs; so also is Mary with reason called the Queen of Martyrs, having merited this title by suffering the most cruel Martyrdom possible after that of her Son. Hence with reason was she called by Richard of St. Laurence, "the Martyr of Martyrs;" and of her can the words of Isaias with all truth be said, He will crown thee with a crown of tribulation; [xxii. 18] that is to say, that that suffering itself, which exceeded the suffering of all the other Martyrs united, was the crown by which she was shown to be the Queen of Martyrs."

St Alfons de Liguori, biskop och kyrkolärare