The Ascension

THE ASCENSION, though one of the “Glorious Mysteries,” was also accounted as the seventh and last of the sorrows of the Virgin, for she was then left alone on earth. All the old legends represent her as present on this occasion, and saying as she followed with uplifted eyes the soaring figure of Christ, “My Son, remember me when thou comest to thy kingdom ! leave me not long after thee, my Son ! ” In Giotto’s composition in the chapel of the Arena, at Padua, she is by far the most prominent figure. In almost all the late pictures of the Ascension, she is introduced with the other Maries, kneeling on one side, or placed in the centre among the apostles.