Friday of Sorrows

Friday of Sorrows Viernes de Dolores
Regarded as the most famous in Spain during Holy Week processions, the Virgin of Hope of Macarena, shown in her sorrowful theme while wearing imperial regalia each Friday before Palm Sunday.
Also called	Council Friday
Observed by	Roman Catholic Church (Mexico, Guatemala, Italy, Peru, Brazil, Spain, Malta, Luxembourg and the Philippines)
Date	Friday before Palm Sunday
2024 date	March 22
2025 date	April 11
2026 date	March 27
2027 date	March 19
Frequency	Annual

The Friday of Sorrows is a solemn pious remembrance of the sorrowful Blessed Virgin Mary on the Friday before Palm Sunday held in the fifth week of Lent (formerly called "Passion Week"). In the Anglican Ordinariate's Divine Worship: The Missal it is called Saint Mary in Passiontide and sometimes it is traditionally known as Our Lady in Passiontide.

The Virgin of Charity, a Marian title of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrated in Cartagena, Spain during the Friday of Sorrows.

In certain Catholic countries, especially Brazil, Guatemala, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, and Spain, it is the beginning of Holy Week celebrations and often termed Viernes de Dolores (Friday of Sorrows) or a similar local name. It takes place exactly one week before Good Friday, and focuses on the emotional pain the Passion of Jesus Christ caused his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is venerated under the title Our Lady of Sorrows.

In certain Spanish-speaking countries, the day is also referred to as Council Friday, because of John 11:47–54 as the Gospel of the day in the Tridentine Mass (now read in slightly expanded form the next day, i.e., Saturday of the fifth week of Lent), which recounts the meeting of the Sanhedrin to discuss what to do with Jesus.

Like all Fridays in Lent, this Friday is a day of abstinence from meat, unless the national episcopal conference has indicated alternative forms of penance.

A similar commemoration in sympathy with the Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Solitude is held on Black Saturday.

History

The first liturgical celebrations for the sorrowful Mary, the Feast of Our Lady of Compassion, occurred in the 15th century. In 1668 the Servites were granted permission for a votive Mass to the Seven Sorrows of Mary. In 1692, Pope Innocent XII authorized the celebration of a feast in honor of Our Lady on the third Sunday of September; which was later transferred to the present date of the Friday before Palm Sunday. In 1727, Pope Benedict XIII extended the Feast of Our Lady of Compassion, commemorating the sorrowful Virgin Mary, to the whole of the Latin Church, retaining its celebration on the Friday in Passion Week a week before Good Friday.

In 1954, the feast still held the rank of major double (slightly lower in rank than the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 15 September) in the General Roman Calendar. Pope John XXIII's 1960 Code of Rubrics reduced it to the level of a commemoration.

Following the Second Vatican Council, the Friday of Sorrows was deleted in 1969 from the General Roman Calendar as a duplicate of the 15 September feast. Each of the two celebrations had been called a feast of "The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (Latin: Septem Dolorum Beatae Mariae Virginis) and included the Stabat Mater as a sequence of the Mass. Since then, the 15 September feast combines and continues both is known as the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (Latin: Beatae Mariae Virginis Perdolentis), and recitation of the Stabat Mater is optional.

Observance of the feast according to the 1960 calendar is still the case in Traditionalist Catholicism, and even where the 1969 calendar is used, some countries have kept the commemoration in their national calendars. The 2002 edition of the Roman Missal also provides an alternative collect for this Friday.

In the 1962 Roman Missal, the last edition of the Tridentine Missal and published under John XXIII, the day’s Collect was as follows:

O God, in whose Passion, according to the prophecy of Simeon, the sword of sorrow didst pierce the most sweet soul of the glorious Mary, Virgin and Mother; mercifully grant that we who call to mind with veneration her anguish and suffering, by the glorious merits and prayers of all the Saints who faithfully stood beneath the Cross interceding for us, may obtain the blessed fruit of Thy Passion, Thou Who livest and reigneth with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

In 2015, Divine Worship: The Missal for Anglican Use Catholics restored the observance on the Friday in Passion Week, and provided propers including the Introit Stabant iuxta crucem (Jn 19:25; Ps 56:1), and a modified form of the 1962 Collect:

O LORD in whose Passion, according to the prophecy of Simeon, the sword of sorrow did pierce the most loving soul of thy glorious Virgin Mother Mary: mercifully grant that we, who devoutly call to mind the suffering whereby she was pierced, may, by the glorious merits and prayers of all the Saints who have stood beneath the Cross, obtain with gladness the benefits of thy Passion; who livest and reignest with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

It also restored the Gradual Dolorosa et lacrimabilis, the Tract Stabat sancta Maria (Cf. Lam 1:12), the Sequence Stabat Mater dolorosa, the Offertory Recordare, Virgo Mater (Cf. Jer 18:20), the Communion Felices sensus beatae Mariae and other requisite proper prayers.

Pope Benedict XVI's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum authorizes, under certain conditions, continued use of the 1962 Roman Missal, which has this feast on the Friday of the fifth week of Lent.

Customs

L'Addolorata in procession.

Celebrations of Friday of Sorrows in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Malta, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Portugal, and Venezuela include processions, public penance, mournful singing, and mortification of the flesh. Other activities include singing the Stabat Mater and candlelight vigils.

In Italy, the day is called La Festa dell'Addolorata and processions use famous Baroque images made in the area of Naples.

In Malta, Holy Week activities commence on this day, with the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows carried in procession through the streets of the capital, Valletta. Many other towns and villages hold similar processions.

In Mexico, people make small shrines of the Virgen de Dolores in their homes and decorate these with candles, wheatgrass and oranges.

In the Philippines, the day’s highlight is the torchlit procession featuring statues of Christ, Our Lady of Sorrows, and other saints. Some families and communities also start the days-long, uninterrupted chanting or Pabasa (“reading”) of the Pasióng Mahál, a vernacular epic retelling the Passion of Christ and other religious events. Penitents, with covered faces to signify humility, begin self-flagellation and carrying of crosses as their annual sacrifice.

In Spain, the Nuestra Señora de los Dolores procession with a statue of Our Lady is held on Viernes de los Dolores preceding Palm Sunday, with a fair featuring local cuisine.

In Portugal, one of the best-known celebrations is the procession of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, in Mafra.

Related titles

There are a number of titles relates to Our Lady of Sorrows associated to various observances during Passiontide.

• Nuestra Señora de la Soledad

See also

• Holy Week
• Stabat Mater
• Virgin of Hope of Macarena

Bibliography

• Brugada Martirià. La Virgen de los Dolores: Always at his side , Ed Centre for Pastoral Liturgy, Barcelona 2002, collection Saints and Santas n. 71 (version in Catalan and Spanish)