The Gaudete Madonna COLLECTION

The Third Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is a Latin word meaning "Rejoice.” It is the first word of the Introit of this day's Mass. Gaudete Sunday is a significant celebration because it marks the halfway point in the Advent season and signals a shift in mood from the solemnity of the season’s first two weeks that focused on repentance and watchfulness to the season’s last two weeks that focus on the joyful anticipation of the Savior’s birth at Christmas. Pink (or light rose) is its liturgical color, appearing in priestly vestments and in the third of the four candles of Advent wreaths. + This collection features the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM). Perhaps no one has ever more joyfully awaited Jesus's birth than His mother Mary. Here, Mary, obviously pregnant and in her third trimester, is depicted wearing a deep pink robe cinched above her belly with a gold ribbon and a royal blue hooded mantle lined in emerald green. The original painting from which this image is derived is entitled Our Lady of Graces by Pietro Perugino (1448-1523), an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school. The painting is located in the Cathedral of San Lorenzo [St. Lawrence], in Perugia, Italy, encased in a 1855 protective wooden tabernacle in the NeoGothic style.