Our Lady of Sorrows is sometimes compared by spiritual writers with the mother of the seven Machabean brothers – she stood by during their martyrdom, and rather than merely suffering, she exhorted them to stand firm and suffer for God's sake.

Holy Scripture says of her:

“Now the mother was to be admired above measure, and worthy to be remembered by good men, who beheld her seven sons slain in the space of one day, and bore it with a good courage, for the hope that she had in God: and she bravely exhorted every one of them in her own language, being filled with wisdom; and joining a man’s heart to a woman’s thought.” (2 Mach. 7.20-1)

Do we believe that Our Lady was a lesser woman than this? 

This is one reason why Catholic tradition has called her "Co-Redemptrix."

You can read more about this here.