"But this blessed woman, who was deemed worthy of gifts that are supernatural, suffered those pains, which she escaped at the birth, in the hour of the passion, enduring from motherly sympathy the rending of the bowels, and when she beheld Him, Whom she knew to be God by the manner of His generation, killed as a malefactor, her thoughts pierced her as a sword, and this is the meaning of this verse: "Yea, a sword shall pierce through your own soul also" (Lk. 2:35)."
~St. John Damascene: An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Bk. IV, Chap. 14.
Crucifixion with the Virgin, John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdelene.
By Fra Angelico. Tempera and gold on panel, 1419-20; Private collection.
