Feast-days and "remembrances" of Holy Mary

Church of Santa Maria in Foro or dei Servi: liturgical notes

The Liturgy is for the Servants of Mary the privileged place where they can express their worship of the Virgin; the capitular decrees between the 13th and 14th centuries insist on the importance of acts of worship to the Mother of God. The figure of Mary does not however occupy a place all to herself, she forms part of the vision of the Mystery of Easter and the Resurrection which is a guiding thread to the whole liturgical year. This, while keeping to the divisions of the Roman Church, also has from the theological point of view an itinerary of its own: it begins with the birth of the Virgin and ends with her Assumption. This is the framework in which all the feasts and "remembrances" of Mary take their place, with special attention to the celebration of the Sabbath. The Sabbath, the day following the death of Christ and preceding his Resurrection, is considered by the Western Church as the moment in which all hope and faith were placed in Mary. The Birth of the Blessed Virgin (8 September) is on the other hand a very important feast in the East, in that it falls at the beginning of the Byzantine liturgical year; the celebration signals the advent of her who begins the History of salvation. At Vicenza the solemn feast of the "Madonna dei Oto" had its origin in the first procession ordered by the Commune in 1407, and was then continued as a main feast-day of the town in the Sanctuary of Monte Berico. This was followed by the more ancient feast-days, which have become in the course of time dogma of the Church: The Immaculate Conception (8 December), Holy Mary, Mother of God (1 January) and the Assumption (15 August), a feast-day which is also celebrated in the East and which honours her glorification in Paradise, body and soul. It is the feast which concludes the theological itinerary of the Servants who however influenced the Marian liturgy with a specific "remembrance" of their own: Beata Maria Vergine Addolorata (Holy Mary Virgin of Sorrow, 15 September). The feast, born in the Middle Ages, was spread by the Apostolate of the Order, approved by them in 1667, and extended to the whole Church in 1814 by Pope Pius VII. Originally it was celebrated on the Friday before Palm Sunday, today it is fixed on the day after the Exaltation of the Cross (14 September). In both moments the figure of the Grieving Mother is highlighted: the mother who assists at the sacrifice of her Son and participates in his passion and death.
The Church of Santa Maria dei Servi contains an altar dedicated to the Virgin, the second down the left nave. This has the following liturgical development: it was built in the 16th century by the Velo family and was originally dedicated to the Crucifix; in 1834 is underwent a series of changes and was dedicated to the Addolorata, depicted in the polychrome statue in the niche.

By dott. Michela Fantin (Arts Office of the Diocese of Vicenza)