Our Lady who Unties the Knots: The invocation venerated by Pope Francis

Our Lady of Knotenlöserin, better known as Mary, the Undoer of Knots, is the Marian invocation especially venerated by Pope Francis.

Although not widespread in the universal Church, the devotion to Our Lady who Unties the Knots has been practiced for a long time in the city of Augsburg. At the beginning of the 18th century, the priest in charge of the church St. Peter am Perlach, located in the center of the city, commissioned the painter Johann Schmittdner to paint a picture of the Blessed Virgin, measuring 1.10 m wide by 1.82 m high.

It is an oil painting, in German baroque style, of remarkable artistic value. The Virgin Mary is depicted standing, surrounded by angels and protected by the light of the Holy Spirit. It was always understood that the painter wanted, with this set of symbols, to represent the Blessed Virgin as seen by St. Irenaeus of Lyon (202), untying the great knot of History which is the Original Sin.