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 Our Lady of Pity Catholic Church
Harlescott

 

The Feastday of OUR LADY OF PITY (Our Lady of Sorrows)

September 15th
When Bishop Murphy, preached at the opening of the church of Our Lady of Pity in Harlescott, Shrewsbury , he referred to the statue of Our Lady in the nearby Battlefield church.

"They carved in wood an image of the Mother of God and thev placed the dead Christ on her knees: and they called her the Mother of Pity, Mother of Compassion, in the literal sense of the word, of one who has suffered with another".

Mater Dolorosa.

The emblem is a reference to the words of Simeon, "A sword will pierce your own soul ... ". A red heart with gold wings and pierced by a silver sword with gold hilt, on a field of blue.

Our Lady of Pity, was a late medieval title, recalling the thirteenth Station of the Cross; the taking down of the Body of Christ rom the cross. Michaelangelo's Pieta is its most famous representation.

Shrewsbury was a battlefield in 1403, when Hotspur and his many Cheshire men were defeated by Henry IV with great slaughter on both sides; and they represented our Ladv, in that chantry church, as mourning for them as she did for her son.

The church at Greasby has the same title.

     
 

PRAYER AS IN THE MISSAL

  
  "Father, as vour Son was raised on the cross, his mother Mary, stood by him, sharing his sufferings. May vour Church be united with Christ in his sufferings and death and so come to share in his rising to new life, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holv Spirit for ever and ever. Amen."  

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© Our Lady of Pity, Shrewsbury 2001, 2002

revised 25 July 2000