Mary, Untier of Knots or Mary, Undoer of Knots is the name of both a Marian devotion and a Baroque painting (German: Wallfahrtsbild or Gnadenbild) which represents that devotion;
observed on 28 September,
this Saturday
While I understand that it is meant metaphorically, that Mary is helping you with obstacles and troubles, my brain wants to take it literally. Which makes Mary the … what’s the opposite of patron saint? Patron devil? Nemesis? Beleaguerer? … of knot tyers? 8)
yeh i know!, in my mind i object, ‘no don’t do that!’,
then, there are a few knots lying around here that could be untied for the cord to be reused.
and maybe a more specific title ‘disentangler of knots’ would be most welcome …
for when we’ve all had a go at the half-hitches-to-overhand-knots trick, told in the preface of Ashley’s book
(and illustrated in Geoffrey Budworth’s the Knot book)
Hmmmm, I’m thinking of anglers :: though I have often read about the untying of some of the (old) knots
used by them, of the majority of those in use in the now
“modern” nylon & beyond fibres, I don’t believe that many are untied!