Feast day : 28 September
The Feast of Mary, Undoer of Knots is celebrated on 28 September every year. The devotion to Our Lady under this title began in 1612 in Augsburg, Bavaria in Germany. Wolfgang Langenmantel and Sophia Rentz, husband and wife, belonged to the nobility and were on the verge of a divorce. Over a period of twenty-eight days, Wolfgang sought help from Jakob Rem, a Jesuit priest who prayed with him to Our Lady to untie the knots of their marital problems. They prayed that she untie the marriage ribbon that had bound them together at their wedding ceremony. The divorce did not take place, and together the couple lived a peaceful married life. Years later, to commemorate this turn of events, their grandson, Fr. Hieronymus Langenmantel of St. Peter’s Monastery in Augsburg, commissioned the painting, “Untier of Knots.”
The earliest reference to this depiction of Our Lady is found in the second-century document, Adversus haereses, “Against Heresies,” written by St. Irenaeus of Lyons. In Book III, Chapter 22, he draws a parallel between Eve and Mary. “The knot of Eve’s disobedience,” he writes, “was loosed by the obedience of Mary” (Gen 3:15). In its basic theological meaning, the image symbolizes Mary untying the knot of the first sin and first act of disobedience in the Garden.
The painting, oil on poplar, was executed in 1700 by Johann Georg Schmidtner. Flanked by two angels, she is untying knots from a long marriage ribbon which, in the seventeenth century, represented the marital union. It has also come to symbolize the knots that are part of any marriage or knots that become part of any walk of life. At the same time, she presses her foot to crush the head of a coiled (or knotted) serpent. The painting is located in St. Peter’s Church in Augsburg.
Pope Francis and Our Lady, Undoer of Knots:
While studying in Germany in the 1980s, Pope Francis was inspired by a Bavarian painting entitled, “Holy Mother, Our Lady, Untier of Knots.” A nun whom he had met while in Germany sent him a card at Christmas with the image on it. When he returned to Argentina with a copy of that image on the postcard, he had an icon struck with this same title and began sending postcards of it. After he became Pope in 2013, the world’s attention was drawn to the icon when Vatican Radio revealed that Pope Francis had championed the devotion decades before in Argentina.
Today, devotion to Our Lady Undoer of Knots is growing across the world and devotees seek refuge in Mary to resolve their troubled marriages, financial troubles or any blockages or knots that are a cause of concern in their lives.
The novena to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots can be prayed at the below link:
Novena to Our Lady Undoer of Knots
The Novena can be prayed at anytime for nine consecutive days but it is popularly prayed during the nine days preceding the feast of Our Lady on 28 September.