Our Lady of Sorrows: What Does It Mean to Call Mary a "Martyr"?
Mary's suffering, though bloodless, actually exceeded the suffering of every martyr who ever died for the faith.
When you hear the word martyr, you probably picture someone put to death for their faith — a saint who shed their blood rather than deny Christ. So it might come as a surprise that one of the most detailed theological treatises on Our Lady of Sorrows opens by calling Mary a martyr too, even though she lived a long life and died a natural death.
This is exactly the puzzle Frederick William Faber sets out to solve in the opening chapter of his 19th-century classic, The Foot of the Cross; or, The Sorrows of Mary. Faber titles this chapter simply "The Martyrdom of Mary," and in it he makes a bold theological claim: that Mary's suffering, though bloodless, actually exceeded the suffering of every martyr who ever died for the faith. Understanding this idea is one of the best entry points into the theology behind the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, so let's walk through exactly what Faber means — and why it matters.
Why Call It a "Martyrdom" If She Never Died?
Faber's whole argument rests on separating martyrdom from death. For most of Church history, martyrdom has been understood as dying for the faith — but Faber pushes past that narrow definition. He argues that the essence of martyrdom isn't really the death itself, but the union of suffering with love for Christ. Death is simply the outward form that union usually takes.
To build this case, Faber first looks at how suffering followed the apostles everywhere they went — "the cross to Peter, hard stones to James, the flaying-knife to Bartholomew" — and how "the same law has environed the martyrs of all ages." Their sufferings, he writes, were "living shadows of the great Passion" of Christ Himself (Faber, The Foot of the Cross, Ch. I, "The Immensity of Our Lady's Dolours").
Then comes the turn in his argument: if suffering-in-union-with-Christ is what makes a martyr, and if Mary was united to Christ more closely than any apostle or saint, then it follows that she must have suffered more than any of them — with or without shedding blood. As Faber puts it, "What then must we think of His Mother, who came nighest to Him of all? It can plainly be no wonder, if she shall suffer more than any one but Himself" (Faber, Ch. I, "The Immensity of Our Lady's Dolours").
Faber's Case That Mary's Suffering Exceeded All the Martyrs
This is a striking claim, so Faber doesn't just assert it — he builds it out carefully, drawing on the testimony of earlier saints and theologians. Here's how he lays out the argument:
St. Anselm's comparison. Faber quotes St. Anselm's statement that "whatever cruelty was exercised upon the bodies of the martyrs was light, or rather it was as nothing, compared to the cruelty of Mary's passion."
St. Bernardine of Siena's warning. Faber cites Bernardine's claim that Mary's sorrow was so immense that if it were divided among every creature capable of suffering, "they would perish instantly."
St. Bridget's revelation. Faber references a revelation to St. Bridget that without a miracle of divine support, Mary "would not have been possible for her to live through her martyrdom."
A difference of kind, not just degree. Faber argues this isn't simply a matter of Mary suffering "more" the way one martyrdom might be longer or more painful than another. He calls it "a kind of sorrow which has only certain affinities to any other kinds of sorrow," so unique that it's "simply without a name, except the name which the simple children of the Church call it by — the Dolours of Mary" (Faber, Ch. I, "The Immensity of Our Lady's Dolours").
Proportioned to who she was. Faber reasons that Mary's sorrow had to be proportioned to her greatness as the Mother of God — a dignity so immense that, in his words, "omnipotence itself could not contrive a greater greatness."
"Martyrdom Reversed": The Real Difference Between Mary and the Saints
Here's where Faber gets to the heart of the "without dying" question directly. He introduces a phrase worth remembering: Mary's suffering was "martyrdom reversed."
How Ordinary Martyrs Suffered
For the saints and martyrs, Faber explains, the pattern of suffering usually ran from the outside in. Their bodies were tortured, but their souls were often filled with consolation and even joy in the midst of it — "the soul poured sweet balm into the wounded flesh," as he puts it, so that "the heaven within burned more brightly than the lighted fire or the wild beast's eye without" (Faber, Ch. I, "The Characteristics of Our Lady's Dolours").
How Mary Suffered Instead
Mary's suffering, according to Faber, ran the opposite direction. The wound began in her soul and then overflowed outward onto her body — "for the seat of the anguish was in the soul and flowed over, blistering and burning, on the sympathetic flesh." And then comes the line that answers our whole question directly:
"On her body not a wound was made; from her veins not a drop of blood was drawn." (Faber, Ch. I, "The Characteristics of Our Lady's Dolours")
That's the entire concept in a single sentence. Mary's body was untouched. No sword, no nail, no whip ever touched her flesh. And yet Faber insists her interior anguish was so total, so all-consuming, that it deserves the name "martyrdom" more than any bloody death ever could.
Did Her Body Suffer at All?
Faber does add an important nuance here so this doesn't sound too neat. He notes that simply witnessing the Passion with her own eyes had real physical effects on her — the shock of watching "pierced the flesh causing it to tremble with chilly pains, torturing the nerves, freezing and firing the blood by turns." So while no wound was inflicted on her directly, Faber says her martyrdom was "in her body as well as in her soul" in this secondary, sympathetic sense (Faber, Ch. I, "The Characteristics of Our Lady's Dolours").
Where This Fits Within the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady
Faber's "martyrdom without dying" isn't just an abstract idea — it's the theological foundation for everything that follows in his book, including the seven specific sorrowful events traditionally known as the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady:
The Prophecy of St. Simeon
The Flight into Egypt
The Three Days' Loss of Jesus in the Temple
Meeting Jesus Carrying the Cross
The Crucifixion
The Taking Down from the Cross
The Burial of Jesus
Faber's point is that none of these seven moments involved physical harm to Mary herself — and yet together they form what the Church and centuries of saints have called her martyrdom. Once you understand the "martyrdom reversed" idea, each of the Seven Sorrows starts to read differently: not as seven sad stories, but as seven distinct wounds to a soul that loved Christ more completely than any other creature ever has.
Why This Concept Still Resonates
There's something quietly consoling in Faber's argument, even outside a specifically Marian context. It suggests that suffering doesn't have to be visible, dramatic, or bodily to be real and profound — that some of the deepest wounds a person carries are ones no one else can see. Mary's example, as Faber presents it, gives dignity to that kind of hidden, interior suffering, and it's part of why devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows has remained so meaningful to people carrying grief that the world around them can't see.
If this idea has struck a chord, it's worth exploring further — Faber's treatise goes on to unpack each of the Seven Sorrows individually, along with the broader Catholic devotional tradition built around them, including the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows and the feast honoring Our Lady of Sorrows. It's a rich place to keep digging if you want to understand this devotion more fully.
FAQ: Mary's Martyrdom Without Dying
Why does Faber call Mary a martyr if she wasn't killed? Because he defines martyrdom by its essence — suffering united with love for Christ — rather than by its usual outward form of a violent death. Since Mary was united to Christ more closely than anyone else, Faber argues her suffering had to exceed even that of martyrs who died for the faith.
What does "martyrdom reversed" mean? Faber uses this phrase to describe how Mary's suffering worked in the opposite direction from a typical martyr's. Ordinary martyrs suffered in the body while often finding consolation in the soul. Mary's anguish began in the soul and overflowed onto the body, even though her body itself was never physically wounded.
Did Mary suffer physically at all during the Passion? Not from any direct wound — Faber is explicit that "not a wound was made" on her body and "not a drop of blood was drawn" from her veins. However, he notes that simply witnessing the Passion had real physical effects on her, causing bodily pain as a byproduct of her interior anguish.
Which saints does Faber cite to support this idea? He references St. Anselm, St. Bernardine of Siena, and a revelation given to St. Bridget, all of whom described Mary's sorrow as surpassing the suffering of every martyr.
How does this connect to the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady? The "martyrdom without dying" concept is the theological groundwork Faber lays before walking through each of the Seven Sorrows individually — from the Prophecy of Simeon through the Burial of Jesus — framing them all as wounds to Mary's soul rather than her body.
Is this an official Church teaching, or just Faber's opinion? Faber presents his reflections as building on long-standing Catholic devotional and theological tradition, citing recognized saints and doctors of the Church. It reflects a well-established devotional understanding of Mary's role in the Passion, developed through centuries of theological reflection.
Key Sources
Faber, Frederick William. The Foot of the Cross; or, The Sorrows of Mary. London: Thomas Richardson and Son, 1858. Chapter I, "The Martyrdom of Mary" — particularly the sections "The Immensity of Our Lady's Dolours" and "The Characteristics of Our Lady's Dolours," including Faber's citations of St. Anselm (De excell. Virg.), St. Bernardine of Siena (Ap. Novatum), and St. Bridget (In sermone angelico ap. Revelat. S. Birgittae).
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