“When my daughter came into the world, the doctors wondered how she’d been born still alive. It was a miracle!"Lenten Campaign 2025
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I recently read a small but truly emblematic testimony of how much devotion to Mary, Undoer of Knots can literally untie knots. It appeared in an Italian publication, Maria con te (“Mary with you”).
The story of Laura and Gianluca
A married couple, Laura and Gianluca, 40 and 42 years old respectively, are the parents of two daughters, and they recount in the columns of the Marian weekly magazine the surprising experience they had during the birth of their second child.
Their little daughter came into the world alive despite having her umbilical cord knotted and tight around her neck: “When my daughter came into the world, the doctors were incredulous. They wondered how she’d survived, how she’d been born still alive. It was a miracle! The umbilical cord was knotted. A real knot, that’s what they called it.”
A grace received through the intercession of Mary, Undoer of Knots
Gianluca initially didn’t think about how much he and his wife had prayed to the Virgin Mary in the previous months precisely by appealing to her under the title of "Mary, Undoer of Knots," and he simply thanked the Lord for this miracle. But when he returned home, he saw once again that little picture of Our Lady intent on undoing the tangles in the lives of us, her children, and it "enlightened" him to understand the grace they had received through her intercession.
The knot in the umbilical cord, "loosened" by Mary
He recounts it even today with emotion and with a heart full of gratitude for his daughter's life and for the special protection given to her by Our Lady. That knot in the cord could have prevented oxygen and nutrients from reaching the baby, but instead Mary's intercession protected the newborn by loosening and rendering that knot harmless.
“It is a miracle that she wasn’t born lifeless," Gianluca tells the Italian publication. "Initially I just thanked God, but then when I returned home I began to recite the prayer to Mary, Undoer of Knots again. I understood that inside my heart Our Lady had untied that knot making it harmless for the child. Today we continue to repeat the prayer as a family.”
Gianluca and Laura and the prayer to Mary who unties knots
The couple had started reciting the prayer to Mary, Undoer of Knots together some time before they were expecting their second pregnancy. “Before my wife became pregnant for the second time, by chance I found in the shrine of the Holy Face in Capodimonte (...) a prayer to Mary, Undoer of Knots. We liked the text very much and decided to recite it together every day,” he told Maria con te.
The devotion has, in fact, a special connection with families due to its origin, which you can read about in this Aleteia article.
