On this page, the Congregation's monasteries share their most beloved image of Mary
and what Mary means to their community

Benedictine Sisters  of Dinklage

The Greek icon of Mary pictured here has its place at the entrance to the Sacrament Chapel in our Barn Church. This entrance is designed like a tent. Mary's role and task in this place and thus in our community was expressed by a sister in the following words:

Mary invites you to go in to her Son.

She does not want people to stay with her.

She wants to offer a passage, to be a passage.

Mary is the porta coeli, the gate to heaven, already here and now.

Say: "Hail Mary" and then go on to HIM.

go on,  to HIM who is her life.

Mary - Mother of the Lord, prophetess, patron saint whose feasts run through the church year.

Every day at 12.00 noon we pray the "Angelus", the prayer that expresses the encounter between Mary and the angel; every afternoon at Vespers we sing the "Magnificat", the joyful and strong song that brings to mind the self-awareness of the young woman Mary as the Sent one and the Blessed one; and every evening we sing the Marian antiphon.

We also celebrate the liturgical Marian feasts of the church year in our community - one with more, another with less enthusiasm.

And a special feature of Dinklage should be mentioned: at the beginning of the Marian month of May, we hang a large Marian icon in the garden, which we welcome with a statio. It remains in the garden until the end of the month of the Rosary in October.

We would like to add two details: In a sit-in in 1997, praying the rosary, we prevented the deportation of a Belarusian family who had been housed on the monastery grounds.

And our Belgian sister, who has already passed away in 2019, was happy to comply with our request to sing a Flemish Mother of God song at any time.

Benedictine Sisters of Borghamn-Vadstena, Sweden 

This image, Sedes sapientiae, the Seat of Wisdom, has accompanied us since the beginning of our sisterhood. At that time, Mary was not a present reality in our country, and in encountering this picture, the realization deepened that we may follow Mary, who carried Jesus into the world and give witness to his presence today. Sedes sapientiae reminds us to listen to the Holy Spirit. To believe, obey and make ourselves available to God's love as Mary did.

Benedictine Sisters  of Oosterhout

The statue of Mary stood on top of the church portal for about 120 years, but could not stay there. The statue ended up in the hall of our new church via a detour - during the renovation it was in the garden, where it was cleaned with a toothbrush by one of our sisters - and it now links the history of the building with the new piece from the 21st century.

Benedictine Sisters  of Kaunas

Picture name: Unknown Lithuanian Artist. Our Lady of the Rosary. 1st half of the 17th century

The painting of Our Lady of the Rosary is the oldest in our monastery. In the 17th-19th century it was owned by the Brotherhood of the Rosary. During the Soviet occupation one student found it in an abandoned attic of our closed church. In 2014 this former student now professor restored the painting and returned it to us. The painting is currently hanging in the church. We sing Mary's antiphon after Compline, turning to this painting and remembering Our Lady's goodness and care.

We mainly pay particular devotion to the Virgin Mary in May and September. In May, we chant the Litany of Loreto daily with the faithful who come to our church.
We pray the Rosary in church every day throughout the year, but in September we pay more attention in different ways.
In addition to the solemnities of the Mother of God celebrated by the Universal Church, we, like the whole of Lithuania, celebrate two other solemnities that are important to us: the Nativity of Mary on 8 September, and the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy at Dawn Gate on 16 November.  

"go on, to HIM who is her life." 

one of the sisters from Dinklage

Benedictine Sisters of Montserrat

Mare de Déu de l'església del Monestir de Sant Benet de Montserrat

The image of Our Lady, to which we sing every day, arrived at the monastery on November 26, 1992, now exactly 30 years ago. It is the work of the Catalan sculptor Francesc Fajula and was a gift given by the family and friends of  Mother Abbess Cecília Boqué to the community for her Golden Wedding of monastic life.

The image emerges from a block of stone in the Catalan Pyrenees and inspires peace, strength and serenity. The Virgin Mary is presented in full body, with undefined clothes, bare feet and floating on the ground; with both hands, he holds the baby Jesus on his chest in a gesture of presenting him to the world.

Our relationship with Mary

Our relationship with Mary is very close because we live at her feet, on the mountain that houses the sanctuary of Our Lady of Montserrat, patron saint of Catalonia. The image of La Moreneta (12th century) is guarded by the monks and receives thousands of visits. We feel in full communion, called to join our prayer to of all those who make the pilgrimage to visit the Holy Virgin.

Sisters and Brothers Benedictines of Simiane

This statue of the Virgin, which stands in the garden in front of the church, is at the heart of a crossroads in our monastery: either on the way to the church, or to the refectory, or to the chapter house, or to the scriptorium, she meets us and we meet her... she, 'the Virgin of the fiat and of the magnificat', the Virgin of waiting.

 The Virgin will always be linked to the memory of our sister Bernadette, healed twice in Lourdes and whose faith and trust were so authentic that they touched us deeply. Her prayer moved mountains, but one Good Friday she told us: "Today I am not disturbing the Virgin, she is with her Son".

When she left us, we found this little note in her room: "I saw the Virgin, she is so beautiful. She stretched out her hands towards me. I was so amazed. May Our Lady also become for us, 'She who stretches out her hands to us!

Benedictine Sisters  of Alexanderdorf

If there is a special prayer request in our monastery, we light a candle in front of this precious, old icon. (The icon is located in our atrium.)

We don't know the origin of the icon. One of our sisters told us many years ago that the icon had been saved from being destroyed by fire.

This type of icon is called Hodegetria - “She Who Points the Way”. The painting style likely dates from the 17th century.

Mary has her place with us especially in liturgical prayer. During Advent we sing many antiphons with texts from the first chapters of the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. We love the Marian feasts in the annual cycle. Two of them have a particularly special meaning for our community: the Feast of the Visitation of Mary on July 2, which is the patronal feast of the hospital where our foundresses worked and sought their way to monastic life. The feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven on August 15 has also inspired the community from the beginning. In front of a large painting of the "Assumption of Mary" by the painter Tizian, the first sisters gathered to share their faith and to pray the Compline.

Benedictines Sisters  of Hurtebise

This Mary-icon is in our chapel on a special place, when we are in the chapel, there is light shining on it. 

The Virgin represented is the Hodegetria, the one who "shows the way".

She points to Him as the source of salvation for humankind.

Concerning Hurtebise's relationship with the Virgin Mary, we have exchanged in Community. 

Here is a summary in 5 sentences:

Our Monastery is under the patronage of Our Lady of the Assumption. A small statue welcomes the visitor, just in front of the entrance of the monastery.

Our site of Hurtebise has several statues of the Virgin, which attest to its importance. However, we have no particular Marian devotions, our veneration for Mary is essentially liturgical: the memory of Saturday in Ordinary Time, the angelus three times a day, the hymn at the end of Compline...

Sisters and Brothers Benedictines of Egmond

The statue of Mary in our church is the Sede Sapientia - the seat of Wisdom. 
The statue is handmade out of wood by a befriended sculpturar and in our monastery almost from the beginning. 

In our monastery, the Angelus is prayed 3 times each day - in the morning, afternoon and compline. Also, a Marian hymn is sung after the blessing at the end of the Compline, which vary according to the liturgical period.
For us, Mary does not stand alone, she is a reference to her son Jesus. 

Benedictines Sisters of Liège

The Virgin and Child (Regina Pacis), sculpted by an artist from Liège, Jean DEL COUR (1627-1707), had disappeared during the French Revolution (1797) and was probably sold.  Fortunately, the last owner of the statue informed his heirs that it had been stolen from the Benedictines and that it should be returned to them.

In 1896, after 99 years, on the occasion of the centenary of the Abbey's boarding school, the statue was handed over to Canon WAGEMONS who returned it to its rightful owners. 

The abbey is under the patronage of Our Lady of Peace. Every year, on 15 August, we place ourselves under her protection and invoke her for our loved ones and for the whole world.

The Angelus prayer

Accompanied by the ringing of the bell, most of our communities pray the Angelus each day.
It reminds us of the word to Mary by the Angel and of her willingness to have faith in God's word,
so she could conceive through the Holy Spirit and how thus the Word became flesh.
The Angelus pays tribute to an important aspect of Mary’s role in the Incarnation, when it quotes from Luke’s Gospel “be it done to me according to thy word” (Lk 1:38). This could not have happened without her consent. By saying “yes” to God in becoming His mother, she showed us the ultimate example of trust in our Creator!