Stories & Legends

How the Birds & Beasts Mourned
the Coming Death of Our Lady

Ven. Mary of Agreda

Three years before her death, Our Lady, who had 67 years, was visited again by the Archangel Gabriel with a message: She would leave this earth in exactly three years. Ven. Mary of Agreda describes Our Lady’s joy at this news and how she redoubled her efforts, if that were possible, to use her remaining time for the benefit of souls and the Church.

She also describes how the natural created world reacted with sadness to the knowledge of the departure of their great Queen.

During the course of these three last years of the life of our Queen and Lady, the Divine Power permitted a certain hidden and sweet force to throw all nature into mourning and sorrow at the prospective death of that Woman, who by her life beautified and perfected all Creation.

The birds sang sorrowful notes, mourning their coming loss

The holy Apostles, although they were scattered over the earth, began to feel new anxiety and misgivings regarding the time when they should be deprived of their Mistress and her help; for already the Divine Light intimated to them that this event could not be far off. The others of the faithful living in Jerusalem and in the country around, began secretly to feel that their treasure and joy should not be theirs much longer.

The heavens, the stars and planets lost much of their brightness and beauty, like the day at the approach of night. The birds of the air fell into singular demonstrations of sorrow during these last years. A great multitude of them ordinarily gathered where the MMost Blessed Mary happened to be. Surrounding her oratory in unusual flight and motions, they uttered, instead of their natural songs, sorrowful notes, as if they were lamenting and groaning in their grief, until the Lady herself ordered them again to praise their Creator in their natural and musical tones.

Wild beasts approached & bowed with sorrow before Our Lady when she visited Mount Calvary

Of this miracle St. John was often a witness, joining them in their lamentations. A few days before the Transition of the heavenly Mother innumerable hosts of the little birds gathered, laying their heads and beaks upon the ground, picking at their breasts in groans, like someone taking farewell forever and asking the last benediction.

Not only the birds of the air indulged in this sorrow, but also the brute beasts of the earth. For when one day, according to her custom, the Queen of Heaven went to visit the Holy Places of the Redemption and arrived on Mount Calvary, many wild beasts came from the surrounding mountains to wait for her.

The sun was fully eclipsed on the day of Our Lady;'s death

Some of them prostrated themselves upon the ground, others bowed their necks, and all of them uttered sorrowful sounds and thus for some hours manifested their grief at her impending departure, whom they recognized as the Lady and the honor of all Creation.

The most wonderful sign of this general mourning among the creatures was that the light of the sun, the moon and the stars was diminished, and on the day of her Transition they were eclipsed as at the death of the Redeemer of the world.

Although many of the wise and thoughtful men noticed these unwonted changes in the celestial orbs, all were ignorant of the cause, and could only express their astonishment. But the Apostles and Disciples, who, as I shall relate further on, were present at her most sweet and happy death, knew then that all these signs were tokens of sorrow in the insensible nature.

The prophecy of Zacharias fulfilled:
The earth shall weep

The unintelligent things of Creation justly anticipated their mourning for the loss of their Queen, while intelligent human nature failed to weep over the departure of its Sovereign, its legitimate Mistress, its true Beauty and adorning Glory.

In the former alone seemed to be fulfilled the prophecy of Zacharias: that in that day the earth shall weep, and the families of the house of God, each one for itself, and that this mourning shall be as for the death of the firstborn, over which all are accustomed to weep. This mourning, which the Prophet predicts for the Only-begotten of the Eternal Father, was in due proportion also to the death of the Most Pure Lady, as the first-born Daughter of grace and of life.

And just as the faithful vassals and servants clothe themselves in mourning not only at the death of their Prince or their Queen, but also at the prospect of their danger or of their loss; so the irrational creatures anticipated the feeling and the tokens of their sorrow at the approach of the Transition of the Most Holy Mary.

The Dormition or Transition of Our Lady

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Excerpt from The Mystical City of God,
vol. IV, The Coronation, c. XVII, nn. 705-706

Posted August 17, 2024

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How the Birds & Beasts Mourned the Coming Death of Our Lady

How the Birds & Beasts Mourned
the Coming Death of Our Lady