03/09/2025
📿Think like a pilgrim
👑I prayed for you all over Venice, including before Titian’s monumental painting “Assumption of the Virgin” located in the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. Legend has it that Mother Mary was assumed, whole body and spirit, into Heaven, where she was crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth. Needless to say, little iPhone photos don’t capture the luminosity of Titian’s work, which was installed here in 1518.
✨It has been shining for over 500 years! The Blessed Mother is said to really “live” in certain statues and works of art. That certainly could be the case here. Either way, Titian was a true master. And I read that when the painting was unveiled, the Franciscans were reportedly shocked—it was “too dynamic and too monumental.” Haha! Love it.
🎨What a time that was! The Italian Renaissance was blooming. Martin Luther had kicked off the Protestant Reformation. Venice was a major trade route and there were political beefs with the Ottoman Empire.
👣But I like to think about the pilgrims. The average Joe’s (Giuseppes?!) who were living and working and praying in Venice at the time.
Consider:
- The life expectancy was your 50’s IF you lived to adulthood…but infant mortality was very high, with only 1 in 3 children making it past the age of 5! (Putting average life expectancy in 30-40 range).
- People worked as maritimers, craftsmen like glassblowers, carpenters and other trades. Women worked making textiles.
-Sanitation was limited. Epidemics were frequent. Soap and science would have helped.
📿As I prayed all over that huge Basilica, I thought about the 1,000s of people who would have come here to pray. How humbled and amazed they would have been by this painting. How earnest their supplications to Our Lady. I sent them blessings and peace. I thanked them for their prayers. I asked them to pray with me.
❤️We aren’t all that different across time. And I for one am not too cool or sophisticated to fall to my knees in gratitude and praise, and to ask for help. I’m not too proud to walk through the world like the pilgrim I am. Join me!
