Feast Day: 20th October

Under the pressure of over-activity
which at times consumes us,
disturbs us, or scatters our energies
in doing what is visible and accidental,
let us come to our “Mater”.
She is the mother of the invisible
and the mother of the Essential.
Let us ask her to detach us,
to free us from all that is not important,
to lead us on, and to fix our gaze upon the invisible
which our eyes look upon;
the Invisible Presence, the Invisible life,
the Invisible Action, the Invisible Love,
all those things which are eternal values in us
and the great realities of faith.
May she keep us throughout our busy day and overworked days
in the radiance of things that are not seen
and firm as if we beheld the Invisible.
In the midst of non-essentials
which invite and often distract us,
we run the risk of encumbering our beings
and confusing our values.
May she give us
the right understanding of the Essential
and a hunger for it.
One thing alone is necessary –
the will of God and the work of God’s love.
May Mater give us this singleness of vision
so that we, too, may see
the Invisible and the Essential in all. 

Marie-Therese de Lescure, RSCJ

Those who have been to Rome have no doubt visited the Spanish Steps. Just above those steps towers the Trinita Dei Monti, a Convent and School which, until recently was run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. It is in a niche in a corridor of this school that one may find the original fresco of Mater Admirabilis.

In 1844, a young postulant by the name of Pauline Perdrau, asked permission of the Superior to paint a fresco of Our Lady in the shallow archway in the wall of a corridor. The Superior, knowing Pauline’s lack of experience, was unenthusiastic but finally gave in.

An Italian craftsman prepared for her each day the space she was to paint, which meant she had to paint for seven or eight consecutive hours as the paint had to be applied on moist stucco.

By July 1st, the painting was finished, but according to one account “the tones were so glaring that it was pronounced hideous.“ Mother de Cariolis, the Superior “condemned it utterly and ordered its erasure.”

Pauline was naturally very disappointed, but the craftsman who had helped her prevailed on the Superior to cover it with a sheet. Some weeks later, during a spring-cleaning exercise, the sheet was removed and the colours of the painting had miraculously softened.

The picture became known as the Madonna of the Lily, but subsequently a nun who was staying at the Trinita after her escape from a Russian prison, was praying the Litany of Loreto in front of the painting. When she came to the invocation,
               ‘Mater Admirabilis’
             (Mother Most Admirable),

she heard a voice repeat it three times, so the Madonna was henceforth known under that name.

This was confirmed later that year by Pope Pius IX on his first visit to the Trinita, for on seeing the painting he exclaimed, “She is admirable!” He blessed the picture, confirmed the Liturgical name of Mater Admirabilis and granted a Feast Day in her honour to be kept on October 20th.

Pauline painted the Madonna in pink, praying in the temple with the dawn breaking behind her and with a work basket and open book beside her because she envisaged her as a model of prayer and study for young girls on the threshold of life.