Saint Bernard: Key promoter and devotee of Mary Co-Redemptrix

'One can well say, indeed, that a sword pierced your heart, o blessed Mother, for it was only through your heart that it could penetrate the flesh of your Son.'

(PerMariam) — August 20 marks the feast of the great Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, abbot, a saint noted for his marked devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

Styled as the Doctor Mellifluus, St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s (†1153) great devotion to Mary, especially as Co-Redemptrix, is quite evident from his vast collection of Marian works. His Marian works are a key part of the wealth of the Church’s theology tracing the blossoming of the devotion to Mary as Co-Redemptrix.

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In his second sermon on the Missus Est, St. Bernard draws so heavily from the Fathers of the Church on the subject of Mary as the New Eve – the traditional style for denoting Mary as Co-Redemptrix – that one would imagine himself to be reading them: “God gave a woman in exchange for a woman…one who instead of the fruit of death, shall give you [humanity] to eat of the tree of life, and who, in place of the poisoned food of bitterness, will bring forth the fruit of everlasting sweetness.” {Sermons of St. Bernard on Advent and Christmas, (London, R & T Washbourne, Ltd, 1909), 35-6.}

In these words he continues in the vein of the Fathers, yet in his next lines he begins to elaborate their deeper meaning: “O woman singularly venerable! admirable among all women! thou who hast satisfied for thy parents, and restored life to their posterity.” Here, the key words, ‘satisfied’ and ‘restored’ are employed, denoting that Mary is critically involved in the salvific action.

The saint is preaching that Mary, by her involvement with Christ at Calvary, has thus satisfied for sin. He refers back to the prophecy in Genesis by stating that it is fitting that “the enemy who had been victorious over the human race by means of a woman should by another woman himself be overcome.”

Clearly, Mary is being described as being active in the redemption, satisfying for sin and overcoming the devil. All this is written however, in full knowledge of her complete dependence upon God. Later in the homily, St. Bernard states that “the power of Christ broke the strength of the Evil One, and the might and wisdom of God confounded the devil’s malice and craft.”

He is not attempting to proclaim Mary as any sort of equal to God, or even able to redeem man by her power, but is observing her role, with and under Christ, in redemption. 

St. Bernard also gave great weight to the teaching of Mary as Co-Redemptrix by explicitly using the term of co-suffering, or compassion. In his sermon for the Sunday during the octave of the Assumption, St. Bernard states: 

One can well say, indeed, that a sword pierced your heart, o blessed Mother, for it was only through your heart that it could penetrate the flesh of your Son.

And even when your Jesus, yours par excellence, at the same time as ours, had given up the ghost, it was no longer his soul that was struck by the spear which, not sparing even in the arms of death the victim to whom it could do no more harm, pierced his side with its cruel iron, but it was your soul itself that it struck...

His pain, like a violent sword, has thus passed through your heart, and we can call you, with reason, more than a martyr, since in you the sense of compassion has prevailed so strongly over that passion endured by the body.

Holy Mother Church expresses its agreement with the text by using this section in the Office of Readings for the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Continuing with his sermon of the Sunday, St. Bernard writes of the sufferings endured by Mary during the few words spoken to her by Christ on the cross:

Was it not a word more penetrating than a sword, which pierced your soul and reached into the very recesses of your soul and spirit (Heb. IV, 12), than this one: “Woman, behold your son (John. XIX, 26)?”

What an exchange! John substituted for Jesus; the servant for the Lord, the disciple for the master; the son of Zebedee for the Son of God, a pure man for the true God! How could this language not pierce your loving soul like a sword, when the very memory of it tears at our hearts of stone and bronze? Don't be surprised, my brothers, if I say that Mary was a martyr at heart. To be surprised, you'd have to have forgotten that the greatest crime of which Saint Paul reproached the Gentiles was to have been without affection (Rom. I, 31)…

And yet, if you want to know if she suffered to see him tied to the cross, my answer is that she suffered greatly. After all, who are you, my brother, and from what source do you draw your wisdom to be more astonished to have to sympathize with Mary than to see Mary's son suffer? He could have suffered the death of the body, and she could not have felt the death of the heart? It was a charity, in comparison with which no one could have a greater one, that made the son endure the one; it was a charity also in comparison with which no one could have a greater one, that made the mother suffer the other.

And now, O mother of mercy, in the name of the affection of your most pure soul, the moon who stands at your feet, invokes you with the accents of the greatest devotion as a mediatrix between herself and the Sun of justice; that in your light she may see her light, and that, through your intercession, she may merit the grace of the Sun whom she truly loved above all things, and whom she adorned, clothing him with a robe of glory, and placing on his head a crown of beauty.

You are full of grace, full of the dew of heaven, leaning on your beloved and filled with delight. Feed your poor today, O our Lady; let the little dogs themselves eat crumbs from the Master's table, and from your overflowing urn give drink not only to Abraham's servant, but also to his camels, for you are indeed the chosen bride prepared for the Son of the Most High, who is God and blessed above all for ever and ever. So be it.

A friend of St. Bernard, Arnold of Chartres, composed a line in which he described the scene on Calvary in the most beautiful language: “Whoever then was present on the Mount of Calvary might see two altars, on which two great sacrifices were consummated; the one in the body of Jesus, the other in the heart of Mary”. His words served to inspire and were used by both St. Alphonsus and Pope John Paul II.

St. Bernard thus beautifully and clearly expresses the teaching on Mary as Co-Redemptrix, and together with saints such as Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas, forms a key stage in the development and flourishing of the understanding and teaching of Co-Redemption.

Editor’s note: Sections of the above are drawn from my work Mary: The Motherly Co-Redemptrix, published in 2020 with a foreword by Bishop Athanasius Schneider and imprimatur from the Diocese of Shrewsbury, UK.