Black Madonnas
While some of these madonnas are no longer black in colour, all of these sites are traditionally known as black madonna shrines. Negra sum, sed hermosa The Black Madonnas / Vierges Noires are an enigma. Many are no longer black, many have been lost... yet they continue to draw pilgrims. Black Madonnas are believed to have developed from the pre-Christian child-nurturing Great Mother, with the iconography of Isis and her son Horus being adopted by the early Christians to portray Mary and Jesus. As successors of earlier Earth Mother Goddess figures, or of Black Anis, these figures are frequently found at sites where the She would have been venerated, often with a holy well closeby. Black Madonnas proliferated between the10th and 11th centuries, and especially throughout France. Many appear to have mysterious linkswith the Orient - Many are said to have been brought back from the Holy Land by Knights Templar returning from the Crusades. Others were sculpted locally, and many such as the magnificent throned madonnas of Orcival and Clermont Ferrand suggest a derivation from the Great Mother in majesty, her divine son seated on her knee recalling Osiris, Attis and Adonis. Whoever the Black Madonna may be, she continues to hold a powerful attraction for devotees worldwide who are drawn to her sacred sites which always stand at centres of highly charged telluric earth energy. Since ancient times people have made pilgrimages to her shrines - not only to explore her mysteries, but also to ask for her healing, transformation and inspiration. In France alone there are 300+ sites of La Vierge Noire, with Black Madonnas still revered at 150+ shrines. Some images are carved in ebony, others are stained black. Some have had their blackness removed or painted over in more recent times... Their blackness is said by some to be explained thus in the Song of Songs: "I am black, but comely, o ye daughters of Jerusalem". (the Song of Salomon, 1:5 ) Most often the madonna - generally considered to be the Virgin Mary - is depicted seated, with the infant (Jesus) on her knee. Her black
colour is an embarrasment to the Church. Many people, shown photographs of the Black Virgin for the first time, comment on how
masculine some of them look." The Cult of the Black Virgin, Ean Begg Some believe that the madonna is Mary Magdalen, a black woman, consort of Christ and mother of his child - thus representing the "Sang Real" (the royal bloodline of Christ). This theory is explored in depth in The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and Bloodline of the Holy Grail Ean Begg's book The Cult of the Black Virgin offers theories of the origins of the cult and is an essential gazeteer of Black Madonna sites past and present, worldwide. Vierges Noires (in french) complements this with colour illustrations of many examples. Resources:
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as well as in