"Our Lady of the Compassion"
Based on a vintage Bouasse-Lebel Holy Card

Our Lady of the Compassion holds the Crown of Thorns and the spikes as were driven into Jesus to nail him to the Cross. She is holding her own version of them, because "a sword will pierce your own heart too," (Luke 2:35) and Mary suffered deeply as her son was tortured to death. The pillow represents her tenderness and gentleness, and she is peering up at her son with love and pity. Her compassion is how she shares our little sufferings with us, too, and she looks upon us with love and pity.

Mary suffered. She is sometimes called Our Lady of Sorrows, which refers to her Seven Sorrows, of which Jesus's Crucifixion was one. Our Lady of the Compassion is like an aspect of Our Lady of Sorrows. In the Church, September is the month of Our Lady of Sorrows.

The Compassion is like co-Passion, which is where some Catholics get Co-Redemptrix. If they mean her suffering was with Jesus, that is true. She shared Jesus's suffering, as we all share the sufferings of those we love. Mary agreed to Gabriel's annunciation, wherein he said of Jesus, "He will save his people from their sins." (Math 1:21) He didn't say she would save them, and she never claims it, and the Church does not teach it. With Mary, it is always about her son, who suffered the Passion, and she shared in it.

We hope to have a holy card version of this soon.

Bouasse-Lebel is our favorite old holy card company, a Parisian firm at a time when the greatest artists in the world were in Paris and the culture was saturated with great art. We think this gorgeous old lithograph was done about 1890. The style of art is called St. Sulpice, after the Rue de St. Sulpice, the street where Saint Sulpice Church was and where the great religious printers were at that time.

** IMPORTANT ** The image is smaller than the paper! There is a white border of about 0.5" inch for 5x7", 1.3" for 8.5x11, or 1.6" for 11x14" pictures. The border gives the prints a finished look, and lets them look good in frames without using a matt.

- Acid-free paper
- Archival pigments, rated to last for generations.
- Cardboard backer
- Above story of the art
- Enclosed in a tight-fitting, crystal clear bag.

Thanks for your interest!

Thanks!
Sue & John

"In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art." ~ St. Pope John Paul II

Original image is out-of-copyright. Descriptive text and image alterations (hence the whole new image) © by Sue Kouma Johnson - Classic Catholic Art.