The Friday of Sorrows or Passion Friday is a solemn pious memorial of the dolorous Blessed Virgin Mary on the Friday before Palm Sunday held in the fifth week of Lent (formerly called "Passion Week"). It takes place exactly one week before Good Friday, and focuses on the shared emotional pain and Passion of Jesus Christ that was supernaturally endured by his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is venerated under the title Our Lady of Sorrows.
In certain Catholic countries, especially Brazil, Guatemala, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, and Spain, it is the official beginning of Holy Week celebrations and often termed Viernes de Dolores ("Friday of Sorrows") or a similar local name.
In certain Spanish-speaking countries, the day is also referred to as "Council Friday", because of 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 priests to discuss the arrest and punishment of Jesus. A similar commemoration in sympathy with the Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Solitude is held on Black Saturday.
Among Catholic converts belonging to the Anglican Ordinariate, it is called Saint Mary in Passiontide and sometimes it is traditionally known as Our Lady in Passiontide.
The first liturgical celebrations for the sorrowful Mary, the Feast of Our Lady of Charity (Our Lady of Compassion), occurred in the 15th century. In 1668, the Order of Servites were granted permission for a votive Mass to the Seven Sorrows of Mary.
This pious traditionalist belief advocates that the Blessed Virgin Mary implored God the Father to mutually feel and experience the pain and Passion of Jesus Christ, which was granted to her mind and heart beginning at the entrance of her Son into the city of Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) up until the death of Christ at Mount Calvary (Good Friday).
Pope Innocent XII in 1692 locally authorized in Rome 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.
Pope Benedict XIII issued a decree in 22 April 1727 which extended the Feast of Our Lady of Charity (also called "Our Lady of Compassion"), commemorating the sorrowful Virgin, to the entire Latin Church and its calendar, retaining celebration on the Friday of the Passion week.
By the Marian year of 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 modernization reforms of 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 dayâÂÂs Collect was as follows:
In 2015, ' 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: <blockquote></blockquote> It also restored the following Gradual:
Pope Benedict XVI's decree Summorum Pontificum Cura authorizes, under certain conditions, continued use of the 1962 Roman Missal, which has this feast on the Friday of the fifth week of Lent.
The Spaniard Abbess Mary of Jesus of Agreda and German stigmatist Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich were notable proponents of this belief purported to be revealed in their Marian apparitions. The latter being referenced through the controversial writings of Clemens Maria Brentano after EmmerichâÂÂs death.
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 della 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 dayâÂÂs highlight is a 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 (âÂÂreadingâÂÂ) of the Pasióng Mahál, a vernacular epic retelling the Passion of Jesus and Biblical events. Penitents, with veiled faces to signify humility, begin self-flagellation and carrying of crosses as their annual sacrifices.
In Spain, the namesake 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, it is celebrated by the Royal and Venerable Confraternity of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Mafra which enshrines a namesake image crowned by the Pontifical decree of Pope Francis in 2020.
In the Duchy of Luxembourg, pious women make expiatory prayers accompanied by religious processions honoring the Virgin under this title. The public also prepare food and pastries for the occasion, which is widely considered a Family Day.
There are a number of titles relates to Our Lady of Sorrows associated to various observances during Passiontide.