Examining the Ribbon of Our Lives: Mary, Undoer of Knots

Examining the Ribbon of Our Lives: Mary, Undoer of Knots

by Rietta Parker, Contributing Writer

A crumbling marriage. A priest who agrees to pray as he contemplates the ribbon that bound the couple as one on their wedding day. Mary’s love for her children.

This is the story of how the devotion to Our Lady as Mary, Undoer of Knots, originated in the 1600s. In Augsburg, Germany, a married couple, Wolfgang Langenmantel and Sophia Rentz, were contemplating divorce when Wolfgang went to Father Jakob Rem for spiritual counsel. Father Rem took the couple’s wedding ribbon and prayed with them to Our Lady to smooth out the knots of their marriage. A month later, the couple was able to fully reconcile and lived a long life together.

That married couple’s grandson, who had become a priest himself, commissioned Johann Melchior Georg Schmidttner to paint an image representing this special devotion to Mary, Undoer of Knots, which hangs in St. Peter’s church in Augsburg to this day. Once, a nun sent Pope Francis—then Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio—a lovely Christmas card with that same image on it. He loved it and broadly nurtured the devotion, even writing his own prayer to Mary, Undoer of Knots. Throughout Pope Francis’ pontificate, the devotion became much more widespread, and we continue to honor it each year on September 28. 

The painting depicts Mary as she is described in Revelation 12:1-2:

“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon 

under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” 

Her foot is shoving down the Serpent’s head while she undoes the knots in the ribbon fed to her by an angel. The most chilling part of the painting to me, however, is how just below the Serpent is what one could interpret as the “valley of the shadow of death,” from Psalm 23: a man is being led through the dust and destruction by an angel as Mary undoes the knots over his head. 

In many ways, our world today feels like the valley, and this man represents each of us navigating our own personal battles with our friends, families, and communities as well as the spiritual warfare our country and world is facing as a whole. In the wake of so much violence, death, and destruction, the knots of anger, bitterness, resentment, and hatred can form and fester within our relationships. Thinking back to the married couple who inspired this devotion, I would assume the knots suffocating their own marriage were steeped in a lack of respectful, honest, open, and loving communication issued with the intent to understand rather than to be understood. Once Mary’s work on their marriage took hold, the Holy Spirit was able to guide them to the truth, beauty, and goodness that always lived freely between them even in the midst of so much hurt and despair.

As the world pines for peace, in honor of the feast day of Mary, Undoer of Knots, we should pray to her, whether it be the novena, Pope Francis’s prayer, or our own original prayers, and consider the knots tied around us, particularly within our relationships (or lack thereof) with loved ones. Some knots are quick: forming and loosening within a day, while others tighten and tie down for years, taking over our lives and wrongly becoming part of our identities. We should tackle each knot deliberately, firmly grasping the belief of Mother Teresa:

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create 

many ripples.”

The work to free ourselves from the knots that bind us will bring truth, beauty, and goodness back to the forefront of our homes and, therefore, out into the communities we serve and beyond. 

Prayer for Personal Troubles

Mother of fair love, I look to you.
Take into your hands the ribbon of my life,
and see the snarl of knots that keeps me bound
to sin, anxiety, and hopelessness.
I beg you, Mother, by your powerful intercession
and long fingers of love and grace,
Undo the knots in my heart and in my life.
Free me to love as Christ loves. 
Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for us.

— from the Introduction of the Mary Undoer of Knots Novena, Steubenville Press

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Rietta Parker holds a BS in secondary English education and an MA in English-Creative Writing from Auburn University. She writes fiction, poetry, reflections, and prayers. Her work has been published in Bridge: Bluffton University’s Literary Journal, Quiet Lightning, and Poet’s Choice. In 2020, her reflection on being at home in the Church was featured in The Catholic Woman’s “Portrait of a Catholic Woman” social media campaign. She’s a member of the Catholic Writers Guild where she serves as an anthology and blog editor. When she isn’t teaching or writing, she loves to sing, dance, and act.