The popularity of devotion to the Virgin Mary in XVI and XVII century Catholic Spain is an unquestionable historical and sociological fact. Therefore, in Don Quixote: “There are many exclamations and invocations to Our Lady…” (Muñoz Iglesias p.200).
In addition, devotion to the Mother of God was considered a necessary quality of a Christian knight. This is the reason the Knight of the Green Cloak states: “I am devoted to Our Lady, and trust always in the infinite mercy of the Lord our God.” (II, 16, 554)
Nevertheless, for Cervantes, devotion to the Mother of God is very personal. During his five years of captivity in Algiers, one of his fellow prisoners, Antonio de Sosa, testifies that Cervantes “would pass his time writing poems praising the Virgin Mary, the Blessed Sacrament, and other holy things.” (Quoted by Muñoz Iglesias p. 328) Therefore, if we go from the writer’s personal life to his work, we observe that Marian devotion also plays a central role in his work. Salvador Muñoz Iglesias concludes that the constant invocations to the Virgin Mary in the tale of liberation of the captive, a highly autobiographical story, (Chapters 39 to 41 of the first part of Don Quixote), are a reflection of the author’s devotion and gratitude to the Virgin Mary for her help in his own journey towards freedom from captivity in Algiers. (p.201)
In conclusion, even though the popularity of Marian devotion is an unquestionable historical and sociological fact in Cervantes’ society, for the writer it has a deeper and personal significance which due to his gratitude to the Virgin Mary, has to be reflected in his work.
Egberto Bermúdez
Miguel de Cervantes. Don Quixote. Edith Grossman translation. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.
Muñoz Iglesias, Salvador. Lo religioso en el Quijote. Toledo: Estudio Teológico de San Ildefonso. (Seminario Conciliar), 1989
