Looking through my handy guidebook to Spain, I see a number of cities have churches with the provocative name of Nuestra Señora de la O (the most prominent seems to be in Seville).
Any ideas on where this unusual title for Mary originated?
Well, here’s one explanation:
Essentially, it comes from the fact that many hymns to Mary start with the exclamation O.
Well, acoording to this website it has something to do with the O-antiphons (vespers) sung during the latter part of advent. In other words, “Nuestra Señora de la O” refers to Mary just before giving birth. In fact, in Brazil, in the small village of Sabará, Minas Gerais, there is a chapel “Our Lady of O”, which is called “Nossa Senhora da Expectação do Parto” in Portuguese. this translates as “Our Lady waiting to give birth”.
It seems the “O” comes from the fact that the feast to celebrate “Nossa Senhora da Expectação do Parto” is the last week before Christmas, and this feast is celebrated by singing the seven antiphons or vespers, always preceded by an “O”, every day. kind of weird, but there you go.