“This is Our Lady: She points to Jesus, always. Never herself,” Pope Francis said to a group of religious men and women on September 19, 2021. “She is merely a disciple and Mother. And thus, it is as Mother we need to think of her, seek her, and pray to her. […] In the maternity of Our Lady we see the maternity of the Church who welcomes everyone, the good and the evil ones: everyone,” he said in April 2020.
Pope Francis has always been vocal about his devotion to Our Lady, mother of Jesus, as a path to help Catholics discover the maternity of the Church and to ultimately bring the faithful to Christ. Throughout his pontificate he has visited Marian shrines, offered “golden roses” to several Marian icons or sanctuaries, and continuously prayed to the Virgin and expressed his devotion.
Aleteia presents some of Pope Francis’ most beloved Marian icons that have marked his pontificate.
1
Salus populi romani
The Salus populi romani (meaning “salvation of the Roman people”) is an icon featuring the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus located in the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. According to tradition it was painted by the evangelist Luke and at the end of the 6th century, it was carried in procession through the city to ward off the plague, earning it its title.
Since Pope Francis’ election in 2013 this icon and basilica have become staple images of his pontificate, as they are both very dear to him. He in fact visited it for the first time to pray as Pontiff on March 14, 2013, the day after his election. He has also said that he will be buried in this papal basilica. Since becoming Pope he has visited this icon 117 times, always passing by before and after embarking on international trips or during important moments of his pontificate.
“Mary’s whole life is a hymn to life, a hymn of love to life: She generated Jesus in the flesh and accompanied the birth of the Church on Calvary and in the Upper Room. The Salus populi romani is the mother that gives us health in growth, she gives us health in facing and overcoming problems, she gives us the health to make us free to make definitive choices,” Pope Francis said in May 2013. “The mother teaches us how to be fruitful, to be open to life and to always bear good fruit, joyful fruit, hopeful fruit, and never to lose hope, to give life to others, physical and spiritual life.”
2
Mary Undoer of Knots
Several journalists that have gotten the chance to interview Pope Francis have done so in the Casa Santa Marta residence where he lives, with an interesting icon of Our Lady hanging in the background, depicting her in red and blue and holding a knotted ribbon. This image is Mary Undoer of Knots, which the Pope has helped greatly popularize since his election in 2013.
The original icon dates back to the early 1700s and is located in Augsburg, Germany, in the Church of St. Peter am Perlach. The painting was commissioned by the grandson of a married couple who avoided getting divorced after entrusting a crisis in their marriage to the Virgin Mary. The white ribbon from their wedding ceremony that had been filled with knots was apparently then untied. The painter was inspired by a quote by St. Irenaeus, that says “the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary.”
Pope Francis received an image of this icon in the 1990s from a nun he had met in Germany during his studies there and liked it so much he shared it around. In 2021 he concluded a prayer marathon for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic by entrusting five intentions to Mary Undoer of Knots.
“Nothing is impossible for God’s mercy! Even the most tangled knots are loosened by his grace. And Mary, whose ‘yes’ opened the door for God to undo the knot of the ancient disobedience, is the Mother who patiently and lovingly brings us to God, so that he can untangle the knots of our soul by his fatherly mercy,” the Pope said in October 2013.
3
Our Lady of Bonaria & Our Lady of Loreto
Whenever Pope Francis travels by plane he always sits in the first row where, whatever airline has rented out their plane to the Holy See, always attaches an image of Mary in front of him. The two most common icons that accompany him on his trips are Our Lady of Bonaria and Our Lady of Loreto.
Our Lady of Bonaria (also known as Our Lady of Fair Winds: bon-aria), is a Marian title associated with a shrine in the city of Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy. In fact she is the patroness of Sardinia and of sailors and travelers.
It was her title that apparently inspired Spanish sailors to name a new city in South America, “Buenos Aires” (fair winds in Spanish), today the capital of Argentina and Pope Francis’ hometown. The Pontiff visited the Marian shrine in Cagliari in September 2013.
Our Lady of Loreto is a Marian title associated with a shrine in Loreto, Italy, that, according to tradition, hosts the walls of Mary’s house that miraculously found its way from the Holy Land to Europe in the 1200s. In 1920, Our Lady of Loreto was declared patroness of aviators. Pope Francis visited this Marian shrine in March 2019. He made the feast of Our Lady of Loreto a feast for the universal Church.
“The Holy House of Loreto reminds us that wherever we are, we have a home that guards our Christian roots; and we have a Mother who watches over us. The house is the Church and the Mother is Mary. From her we learn above all humility, which is the way that leads to Heaven,” the Pope said in December 2021.
4
Our Lady of Lujan
Our Lady of Lujan is the patroness of Argentina and her title comes from a 16th century statue located in a shrine in the city of Lujan. According to tradition the statue was from Brazil and was being brought to Argentina, but when the convoy carrying it reached Lujan it was unable to keep moving. Thus the statue stayed there and shortly after a devotion around it grew.
Before becoming Pope, when he was still Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis often visited the shrine and listened to confessions there, especially around May 8, Our Lady of Lujan’s feast day. He apparently has a statue of this Mary in his residence at Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican. When he visited Papua New Guinea in September 2024, he presented to the diocese of Vanimo a golden rose, which he placed before a representation of Our Lady of Lujan.
“May 8th is approaching … and my heart ‘travels’ to Lujan,” Pope Francis said in a letter to the local bishop in 2020. “I will ask her to take care of us and – because I am a sinner – I will ask her to give us the grace to always ask for forgiveness, to never tire of asking for forgiveness … because we know that Her Son never tires of forgiving.”
5
Our Lady of Fatima
In 2017, Pope Francis visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal on the 100th anniversary of the apparitions and presented the Virgin Mary with a golden rose. On this occasion he also canonized the two shepherd children who Mary appeared to, Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto.
However, his devotion to Fatima is seen from earlier in his pontificate, as in October 2013, not even a year after his election, he consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary before a statue of Our Lady of Fatima. He did this again in March 2022, a month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when he consecrated the two countries to the heart of Mary. He also visited the shrine a second time in 2023, when he went to Portugal for the Lisbon World Youth Day.
“According to the belief and experience of many pilgrims, if not of all, Fatima is more than anything this mantle of Light that protects us, here as in almost no other place on earth. We need but take refuge under the protection of the Virgin Mary and to ask her, as the Salve Regina teaches: ‘show unto us … Jesus,’” he said during the canonization of the young seers in 2017. “Dear pilgrims, we have a Mother, we have a Mother! Clinging to her like children, we live in the hope that rests on Jesus.”
This isn’t an exhaustive list as there are other Marian titles that Pope Francis is attached to such as the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Nonetheless, the Pontiff’s attachment to Mary in all her facets underlines his devotion for Christ’s mother, who wants to bring the faithful closer to her son.
And today we celebrate...