Mary

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In the verses of Purgatorio and Paradiso Mary is recalled as the mother of the Savior and as a term of prayer. In Purgatorio III her name is invoked in the extreme moment of repentance: "I heard 'Sweet Mary!'"; similar invocations resound in Purgatorio XIII, where the gluttons cry out "Mary, pray for us," and in Purgatorio XX, with a similar "Sweet Mary!" heard by chance. In Purgatorio X Mary is proposed as an example of humility and of prompt response to grace: the poet looks "back from Mary, from that coast" to measure the readiness of Mary's assent. In Purgatorio VIII, XXII, and XXXIII, and in Paradiso XI, XV, XXIII, and XXXII, her name returns in examples of faith, in the Visitation, in the remembrance of her presence beneath the Cross, and in the choral praise of Paradise, where the blessed sing "Hail, Mary, full of grace."