It was “revealed to St. Bridget” by an angel, “that the Blessed Virgin,
even before She became His Mother, knowing how much the Incarnate
Word was to suffer for the salvation of men, and compassionating this
innocent Saviour, Who was to be so cruelly put to death for crimes
not His own, even then began Her great martyrdom.”
“The martyrs endured their torments in their bodies; Mary suffered
Hers in Her soul.” …St. Alphonsus de Liguori.
“Now, as the soul is more noble than the body, so much greater were Mary’s sufferings
than those of all the martyrs, as Jesus Christ Himself said to St.
Catherine of Siena: ‘Between the sufferings of the soul and those of the
body there is no comparison.’”
“The Blessed Virgin Mary, for the love She bore us, was willing to
see Her Son 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.” …St. Alphonsus de
Liguori.
