Mary, Untier of Knots or Mary, Undoer of Knots or Our Lady, Undoer of Knots is the name of both a

Marian devotion Marian devotions are external pious practices directed to the person of Mary, mother of Jesus, by members of certain Christian traditions. They are performed in Catholicism, High Church Lutheranism, Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Orie ...

and a

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

painting (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

: ''Wallfahrtsbild'' or ''Gnadenbild'') which represents that devotion. The painting by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner, of around 1700, is in the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

pilgrimage church of St. Peter am Perlach, otherwise known as the Perlach Church, in

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, Germany. Devotion to the image had been limited to certain countries in

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

(e.g.,

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

) but became known worldwide since the 2013

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

Painting

The painting, executed in the Baroque style by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner (1625-1707), shows the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

as the Woman of the Apocalypse. She stands on the crescent moon (the usual way of depicting her under her

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...

of the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Mariology, Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Debated by medieval theologians, it was not def ...

), her head crowned by a

circle of stars A circle of stars often represents wiktionary:unity, unity, wikt:solidarity, solidarity and harmony in flags, Seal (emblem), seals and Signage, signs, and is also seen in iconography, iconographic Motif (visual arts), motifs related to the Woman ...

. The

Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the Holy Ghost, is a concept within the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is understood as the divine quality or force of God manifesting in the world, particularly in acts of prophecy, creati ...

in the form of a

dove Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. ...

hovers above, as angels surround her. She is focused on untying knots from a long ribbon, while her foot tramples the head of a "knotted" snake, representing the

Devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

. Her treatment of him fulfills God’s prophecy in

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Religion * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...

3:15: "I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel." Below is a human figure being led by an angel, usually interpreted as

Tobias and the Angel Tobias and the Angel is the traditional title of depictions in art of a passage from the Book of Tobit in which Tobias, son of Tobit, travels with the Archangel Raphael without realising he is an angel (5.5–6) and is then instructed by Raphael ...

(the Archangel Raphael) traveling. The two small figures have also been interpreted as a representation of Wolfgang Langenmantel, the grandfather of the benefactor, guided in his distress by a

guardian angel A guardian angel is a type of angel that is assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group or nation. Belief in tutelary deity, tutelary beings can be traced throughout all antiquity. The idea of angels that guard over people played ...

to Father

Jakob Rem Jakob Rem (June 1546 - 12 October 1618) was an Austrian member of the Society of Jesus, a Catholic evangelical organization, and an early member of the Congregation of Marian Fathers. Career Jakob Rem was born in June 1546 in Bregenz, Austria. ...

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (; Austro-Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an Independent city#Germany, independent city on the Danube, in Upper Bavaria, with 142,308 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2023). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan ...

. Although certain copies and reproductions show a dog accompanying the two figures (standard in ''Tobias and the Angel''), there is no dog in the original painting. The concept of Mary untying knots is derived from a work by Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, ''

Adversus haereses ''Adversus Haereses'' is the commonly used Latin title for a book by the Church Father Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon in Gaul (now France). It is also often cited as ''Against Heresies'' or ''On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis''. I ...

'' (''Against Heresies''). In Book III, Chapter 22, he presents a parallel between

Eve Eve is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop through oral traditions and there ...

and Mary, describing how "the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith."

History

The painting was donated around 1700 by Hieronymus Ambrosius Langenmantel (1641-1718), a doctor in

canon law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

and a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

of the

Monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

Saint Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the Jewish Christian#Jerusalem ekklēsia, e ...

in Augsburg. Langenmantel was a friend of the

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end ...

, alchemist, and esotericist

Athanasius Kircher Athanasius Kircher (2 May 1602 – 27 November 1680) was a German Society of Jesus, Jesuit scholar and polymath who published around 40 major works of comparative religion, geology, and medicine. Kircher has been compared to fellow Jes ...

, as well as a member of the ''Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft'' (Society of the Carpophores), which exerted a considerable influence on the nascent German

Freemasonry Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

. The donation is said to be connected with an event in his family. His grandfather, Wolfgang Langenmantel (1586-1637) was on the verge of separation from his wife Sophia Rentz (1590-1649), and therefore sought help from Jakob Rem, a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest in Ingolstadt. Father Rem prayed before the

Mater ter admirabilis , literally "Mother thrice admirable", is a Marian title in Latin given to a miraculous copy of the '' Salus Populi Romani'' icon, enshrined at the Münster Zur Schönen Unsere Lieben Frau in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. The title is a variant ...

image of the Blessed Virgin Mary and said: "''In diesem religiösen Akt erhebe ich das Band der Ehe, löse alle Knoten und glätte es'' n this religious act, I raise the bonds of matrimony, to untie all knots and smoothen them. Immediately, peace was restored between the husband and wife, and the separation did not happen. In memory of this event, their grandson commissioned the painting of Mary as "Untier of Knots". Although the tradition is that the image was painted in thanksgiving from H.A. Langenmantel for his grandparents' marriage being saved through Jakob Rem's intercession, research has been unable to prove a connection between the two events. According to Dr. Leo Hintermayr, the story associated with the image and its title, Untier of Knots, emerged in the second half of the 20th century.

Devotion

The first chapel dedicated to "Mary, Untier of Knots" was completed in 1989 in

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, as a supplication following the

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

.International Fraternity of the Virgin Mary Untier of Knots,
List of Churches, Chapels and Places
where the Virgin Mary, Untier of Knots is venerated sMaria Knotenlöserin". Retrieved 16 June 2013. The image of "Mary, Undoer of Knots" is especially venerated in

and

, where churches have been named for her and devotion to her has become widespread and which ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' called a "religious craze". This devotion was popularised worldwide by

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Jorge Mario Bergoglio,

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, after he was elected as the 266th

Pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in 2013. It was thought that while still a younger priest, Bergoglio had seen the actual painting in Augsburg and brought a copy of it to Argentina. In a 2017 interview for the German newsweekly ''

Die Zeit (, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The first edition of was ...

'', Pope Francis stated that he had never been to Augsburg, and that a German nun once sent him a

Christmas card A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to Christmastide and the holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during ...

with the image, arousing his interest. Bergoglio then sent seminarians with copies of the image to the slums of Buenos Aires, where the faithful were overwhelmed by the depiction of Mary as a problem-solver. He then commissioned Barbara Klimmeck, an exchange student from

Eichstätt Eichstätt () is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Dioce ...

, to document the Augsburg original with all its details so that a copy could be made. This was done in Buenos Aires by the artist Ana de Betta Berti, for the Church of San José del Talar, where it has been enshrined since 8 December 1996. On the eighth day of each month, thousands make the pilgrimage to that church to venerate the image. The devotion reached Brazil by the end of the 20th century. According to Regina Novaes, of the Institute of Religious Studies in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, Mary, Untier of Knots "attracts people with small problems". Cardinal Bergoglio had this image of Mary engraved on a

chalice A chalice (from Latin 'cup', taken from the Ancient Greek () 'cup') is a drinking cup raised on a stem with a foot or base. Although it is a technical archaeological term, in modern parlance the word is now used almost exclusively for the ...

he presented to then-

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

. Another chalice with the image, by the same silversmith, is to be presented to Pope Francis by the Argentine people. Knowing about Pope Francis' special devotion to the image,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

n ambassador to the Vatican Baek Man Lee in 2018 presented him with a Korean rendition of the painting. On 31 May 2021, Pope Francis crowned a copy of Mary, Untier of Knots, in the Vatican Gardens. The devotion to Mary, the Untier of Knots, can be found at numerous religious sites worldwide. The

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

of Mary, Untier of Knots, is on 28 September. However, this is not officially listed in the present

General Roman Calendar The General Roman Calendar (GRC) is the liturgy, liturgical calendar that indicates the dates of celebrations of saints and Sacred mysteries, mysteries of the Lord (Jesus Christ) in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, wherever this liturgic ...

Title in other languages

Mary, Untier of Knots, has different names in other languages: * English: Mary, Untier of Knots; Mary, Undoer of Knots; Mary who Unties the Knots *

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: ''العذراء التي تحل العقد'' (''ʿAḏrāʾ allatī taḥullu l-ʿuqad'') * Chinese: 解結聖母瑪利亞 (

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

: ''Jiějié Shèngmǔ Mǎlìyà'') * Croatian: ''Marija koja razvezuje čvorove'' * Dutch: ''Maria die de knopen ontwart'' * French: ''Marie qui défait les Nœuds'' *

: ''Maria Knotenlöserin'' * Hungarian: ''A csomókat feloldó Mária'' *

Ido Ido () is a constructed language derived from a reformed version of Esperanto, and designed similarly with the goal of being a universal second language for people of diverse languages. To function as an effective ''international auxiliary ...

: ''Maria Desliganta la Nodi'' *

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

: ''Maria che Scioglie i Nodi'' *

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

: കുരുക്കുകളഴിക്കുന്ന മാതാവ് (''Kurukkukal azhikunna madhavu'') * Maltese: ''Il-Madonna tal-Għoqiedi'' * Polish: ''Maria Rozwiązująca Węzły'' * Portuguese: ''Maria Desatadora dos Nós; Nossa Senhora Desatadora dos Nós'' *

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

: ''María Desatanudos; María, Desatadora de Nudos; María, la que Desata los Nudos'' *

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: ''Мария, развязывающая узлы'' (''Mariya, razvyazyvajushchaya uzly'') * Sinhala: ශු. මරිය තුමිය, ගැටලිහීමේ දේවමාතාවෝ * Tagalog: ''Maria, Tagakalág ng mga Buhól ng Buhay; Ináng Desay'' *

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

: ''துன்ப முடிச்சுக்களை அவிழ்க்கும் அன்னை''

References

External links

Virgin Mary, Untier of Knots
(International Fraternity)
Mary, Undoer of Knots
(US and Canada)
The Holy Grail of Pope Francis: Our Lady of Lujan and Undoer of Knots
(Blog: ''Mary Victrix'')
If life has become a bit knotted, turn to Mary - Maria Knotenlöserin is a favorite of Pope Francis
- (TheCompass, 19 November 2013)

- (Thinking Faith, 21 May 2013)

(Douay-Rheims Bible) * Official Website of the Church o
St. Peter am Perlach

* ttp://www.mariadesatadoradosnos.com.br Maria Desatadora dos Nós (Brazil)
Prayer to Nossa Senhora Desatadora dos Nós
(Brazil)
Maria Desatanudos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mary Untier of Knots Titles of Mary, mother of Jesus Marian devotions Paintings of the Virgin Mary Augsburg Doves in art Dogs in art Angels in art Paintings of Tobias

Painting

History

Devotion

Title in other languages

See also

References

External links