Meaning: The Carrying of the Cross to Mount Calvary

Explanation: The pictura of this emblem depicts the evening star accompanying the sun at dusk, hence the motto Sequitur deserta cadentem (She alone follows the one who dies).

This feature turns this star into a suitable metaphor of Mary, who, as the abstract expounds, “like a loyal companion follows his Son Christ, loaded with the weight of the cross, until his death”.

Explaining this idea in the commentary, Ginther states: “The Blessed Virgin and Mother of Love and Sorrow came to be like the evening star, when the other Disciples ran away for fear and she alone followed her mystical sun, her beloved Jesus, to Golgotha”.

For a detailed explanation, click HERE (in Spanish)

This very same emblem can be found in:

• Picinelli, 1653: 30 (Stelle, Planeti, lib. 1, cap. 10, n. 266. Meaning: the Virgin Mary on Mount Calvary); • Picinelli, 1670: 34 ( Planeti, lib. 1, cap. 11, n. 318. Meaning: idem); • Picinelli & Erath, 1687: 51 (Planetae, lib. 1, cap. 11, n. 360. Meaning: idem); • Boschius, 1701: 40 (Classis I, n. DLXXI. Meaning: Mary lamenting her Son´s tortures, next to the Cross); • Menestrier, 1695: 274 (Meaning: Mary next to her Son, when facing death).