This is not the youthful Mary we are familiar with, but it draws out the pain of an older mother whose 33-year-old son has just been murdered. Tissot imagines her praying as she looks down at the hole ...

O Virgin most pure, wholly unspotted, O Mary, Mother of God, Queen of the universe, you are above all saints, the hope of the elect and the joy of all the blessed. It is you who have reconciled us ...