We call the pope the “Holy Father,” highlighting his paternal role of guiding us toward Christ through the riches of the Catholic Faith. A beautiful, compelling way that the pope accomplishes his work as a father and teacher is by imparting what is closest to his heart. Recent popes have highlighted various aspects of the Faith and Catholic devotional life that are important to them each in turn. This has a beautiful effect on the Catholic Church, leading us deeper into some of the greatest realities and greatly enriching Catholic spiritual life as a whole. Several devotions are special to Pope Francis. Keep reading to learn more about three of them!

1. Pope Francis’s Devotion To Mary, Undoer of Knots

Thanks to Pope Francis, much of the Church is now familiar with the title of Mary, Undoer of Knots. This designation of Our Lady illuminates her powerful maternal solicitude for us in our difficulties.

History of Mary, Undoer of Knots Devotion

This devotion is not based on an apparition but on a powerful true story of the Blessed Mother’s intercession. In the early 1600s, Wolfgang and Sophia Langenmantel, a German couple of noble rank, suffered extreme disunity in their marriage. They were close to divorce when Wolfgang sought counsel from a Jesuit priest, Father Jakob Rem, meeting with him over several weeks. During their final conversation, Wolfgang brought Father Rem the ribbon with which they tied each other at their wedding liturgy to symbolize their spousal unity. When Wolfgang showed the ribbon to Father Rem, it was faded and tied in knots. Father Rem called on Our Lady’s intercession, placing the wedding ribbon before an image of her. While there are different versions of this part of the story––some say that Father Rem proceeded to untie the ribbon, others that the ribbon miraculously loosened and untied–– regardless, in the end, the faded ribbon miraculously became bright white again. 

Wolfgang and Sophia’s grandson––a priest, Fr. Hieronymus Langenmantel––commissioned an image of Our Lady based on the story of Our Lady’s miracle for his grandparents. In attributing the grace of this occasion to “Mary Untier of Knots,” Fr. Langenmantel was likely inspired by the words of St. Irenaeus: “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith” (quoted in Catechism of the Catholic Church, #494).

In the image of Mary, Undoer of Knots, angels present the Blessed Mother with the white wedding ribbon, and she lovingly attends to undoing its many knots. A full-length view of the original painting shows St. Raphael guiding Wolfgang (the husband and nobleman from the story) to a monastery at the bottom. The original painting can be found at the Church of St. Peter am Perlach in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. 

In 2021, Pope Francis prayed the following before an image of Mary, Undoer of Knots in the Vatican Gardens:

"We pray to you, Holy Mother, untie the knots that oppress us materially and spiritually, so that we may joyfully bear witness to your Son and our Lord, Jesus Christ."

The feast of Our Lady, Undoer of Knots is September 28th. Here is a beautiful Novena to Our Lady Undoer of Knots!

2. Pope Francis’s Devotion To Sleeping St. Joseph

During the time of Pope Francis’s papacy, devotion to St. Joseph has observably renewed and broadened in the Catholic Church. This is fitting in light of the fact that Pope Francis’s papal inauguration in 2013 was on the feast of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on March 19th. Moreover, Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter on St. Joseph, Patris Corde, 150 years after Blessed Pius IX instituted the St. as Patron of the Universal Church. Alongside this apostolic letter, Pope Francis proclaimed a Year of St. Joseph from December 8, 2020, until December 8, 2021. But perhaps we most commonly associate Pope Francis with the sleeping St. Joseph devotion.

When speaking to families in Manila, Philippines, Pope Francis shared personally about his love for this title of St. Joseph:

"I have great love for Saint Joseph, because he is a man of silence and strength. On my table I have an image of Saint Joseph sleeping. Even when he is asleep, he is taking care of the Church! Yes! We know that he can do that. So when I have a problem, a difficulty, I write a little note and I put it underneath Saint Joseph, so that he can dream about it! In other words I tell him: pray for this problem!"

Enthusiasm for this devotion caught fire among Catholics, and figurines of sleeping St. Joseph have since become popular.

History of Sleeping St. Joseph Devotion 

The image of Sleeping St. Joseph is actually Scriptural. God communicated with him while he slept, sending an angel to St. Joseph in dreams on three occasions mentioned in the Gospels:

• In Matthew 1:20-24: Assuring him that the child Mary bore was conceived of the Holy Spirit, thus he was meant to take Mary as his spouse, and furthermore that Joseph should name the child Jesus 
• In Matthew 2:13-15: Warning him that Herod sought to kill the child Jesus, so he must take Mary and the child to Egypt 
• In Matthew 2:19-22: Informing him that Herod and those who sought Jesus’s life were dead and so so it was safe for the Holy Family to return to Egypt

What does Sleeping St. Joseph teach us? There is immense significance to recognizing the rest of such a powerful saint. In sleeping, we step away from the bustle and frenzied activity of our lives and instead take a position of surrender. We relinquish control for a time, trusting that everything rests on God rather than on our human activity. On top of that, even in his resting moments, St. Joseph models surrender and peace while discerning God’s will, showing us that we must be quiet and receptive to hear the voice of the Lord. Thus, sleeping St. Joseph teaches us true conformity and openness to God’s plan.

In light of all this, Father Donald Calloway asserts in his Consecration to St. Joseph handbook that the devil is afraid of the mere sleep of St. Joseph. If St. Joseph can defend the Church this decisively even in his moments of peace, silence, repose, and inactivity––if he is this mighty in his sleep––how powerful is he at all other times?!

While not a prayer to Sleeping St. Joseph specifically, here is another prayer that requests his protection upon the Holy Father and the Church!

3. Pope Francis’s Devotion to the Five Holy Wounds of Christ 

Although this may be the least known of the three on this list, Pope Francis has a devotion to the five principal wounds that Christ received during his Passion and death––two in his hands, two in his feet, and the wound where his side was pierced by a lance.

Pope Francis spoke of this devotion in an audience from 2016:

"The supplication of the leper demonstrates that when we present ourselves to Jesus it is not necessary to make long speeches. A few words are enough, provided that they are accompanied by complete trust in his omnipotence and in his goodness. Entrusting ourselves to God’s will in fact means remitting ourselves to his infinite mercy. I will even share with you a personal confidence. In the evening, before going to bed, I say this short prayer: “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean!”. And I pray five “Our Fathers”, one for each of Jesus’ wounds, because Jesus has cleansed us with his wounds. If I do this, you can do it too, in your home, and say: “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean!”, and think about Jesus’ wounds and say an “Our Father” for each of them. Jesus always hears us."

And in a homily on Ash Wednesday 2021, Pope Francis furthermore encouraged: 

"Lest we go astray on our journey, let us stand before the cross of Jesus: the silent throne of God. Let us daily contemplate his wounds, the wounds that he brought to heaven and shows daily to the Father in his prayer of intercession. Let us daily contemplate those wounds. In them, we recognize our emptiness, our shortcomings, the wounds of our sin and all the hurt we have experienced. Yet there too, we see clearly that God points his finger at no one, but rather opens his arms to embrace us. His wounds were inflicted for our sake, and by those wounds we have been healed (cf. 1 Pet 2:25; Is 53:5). By kissing those wounds, we will come to realize that there, in life’s most painful wounds, God awaits us with his infinite mercy. Because there, where we are most vulnerable, where we feel the most shame, he came to meet us."

History of the Five Holy Wounds of Christ Devotion 

This devotion traces back many centuries, likely to the Middle Ages, around the time of an upsurge in pilgrimages to the Holy Land and renewed interest in devotion to Christ’s Passion. Religious orders like the Passionists and saints like St. Francis, St. Clare, and St. Gertrude the Great also promoted devotion to the Five Holy Wounds of Christ. Now, through his regard for this devotion, Pope Francis invites us to take solace in the sufferings of Christ amid the sorrows and woundedness of our own lives and our modern time, bringing the needs of the Church and the world to the Crucified and Risen Lord.

Pray for and with our Holy Father, Pope Francis, through one or all of these devotions!

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Leila Joy Castillo

Leila Joy Castillo is a freelancer in communications who writes for Ascension, Blessed is She, the St. Austin Review magazine, and more. She is a graduate of Ave Maria University, where she majored in Communications and Humanities and minored in Theology and Marriage & Family Studies. Leila loves her squad of patron saints, Catholic pilgrimage (particularly in the United States), and devotion to the Blessed Mother. In her spare time, she is likely cantoring at her parish church, joyfully conversing with her three wonderful younger siblings, or lost in good literature. Find out more about Leila and her work via findjoyinthejourneyblog.com or on Instagram @leila_joyinthejourney.