Mary, Undoer of Knots
For the problem that has no straight line out of it — the knot that only tightens every time you pull.
Around the year 1700, in Augsburg, Germany, the painter Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner painted Mary calmly untying a long white ribbon full of knots — one angel handing her the tangled end, another holding the part already smoothed. The painting still hangs in the church of St. Peter am Perlach. Centuries later, a priest named Jorge Mario Bergoglio saw it and carried the devotion home to Argentina; years afterward, as Pope Francis, he made her known to the whole world.
The knots are everything in a life that will not come loose: a marriage in conflict, a child in trouble, an addiction, debts wound around each other, a family quarrel years old, a decision where every way forward seems blocked. Devotees do not come to Mary, Undoer of Knots because they know how the knot can be undone. They come because they don’t. You hand her the ribbon.
Why She Belongs at This Shrine
Some needs are urgent and simple — that is Saint Expedite’s ground, and he answers with speed. But some needs are urgent and tangled, and the harder you pull, the tighter they bind. For those, devotees pray to both: to Mary, to work the knot loose strand by strand, and to Saint Expedite, to hurry the answer. Pray her prayer first. Then pray his classic prayer below, just as you would for any urgent cause.
The Prayer
Name your knot where the prayer leaves room for it:
Prayer to Mary, Undoer of Knots
Virgin Mary, Mother of fair love, Mother who never refuses to come to the aid of a child in need, Mother whose hands never cease to serve your beloved children because they are moved by the divine love and immense mercy that exists in your heart, cast your compassionate eyes upon me and see the snarl of knots that exist in my life. You know very well how desperate I am, my pain, and how I am bound by these knots.
Mary, Mother to whom God entrusted the undoing of the knots in the lives of his children, I entrust into your hands the ribbon of my life. No one, not even the evil one himself, can take it away from your precious care. In your hands there is no knot that cannot be undone.
Powerful Mother, by your grace and intercessory power with your Son and my Liberator, Jesus, take into your hands today this knot. (Here, mention your request.) I beg you to undo it for the glory of God, once for all.
You are my hope. O my Lady, you are the only consolation God gives me, the fortification of my feeble strength, the enrichment of my destitution, and, with Christ, the freedom from my chains. Hear my plea. Keep me, guide me, protect me, O safe refuge!
Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for me. Amen.
Many devotees pray this prayer nine days in a row — a novena — returning each day to the same knot until they see it loosen. Her feast day is September 28.
Then Pray the Classic Prayer
Prayer to Saint Expedite for Urgent Help
Saint Expedite, you lay in rest.
I come to you and ask that this wish be granted.
(Here, clearly express what you want, and ask him to find a way to get it to you.)
Expedite now what I ask of you.
Expedite now what I want of you, this very second.
Don’t waste another day.
Grant me what I ask for.
I know your power, I know you because of your work.
I know you can help me.
Do this for me and I will spread your name with love and honor
so that it will be invoked again and again.
Expedite this wish with speed, love, honor, and goodness.
Glory to you, Saint Expedite!
Light a Candle for the Knot You Carry
Light a free virtual candle in the shrine’s chapel and name, silently, the knot you are handing over — a small light that says you have stopped pulling on it alone, and placed it in patient hands.
Light a free candle for your most urgent need. And think of someone in your family, or in your circle, who could use a candle too — and light one for them as well.
More prayers are on the prayers page, including a prayer for urgent needs and a prayer for the grieving for the knots that loss ties in us.