BLACK MADONNAS AND PILGRIMAGE
IMAGES OF BLACK MADONNAS, ISIS AND HORUS AS PRECURSORS, PILGRIMAGE SITES*
Saint- Michel d'Aiguilhe, le Puy
Madonnas (Notre Dame de Confession, Saint Victor de Marseille, Notre Dame aux Nieges, Aurillac, Saint Sara, Saintes Maries de la Mer all in France)
Madonnas (La Moreneta, Our Lady of Montserrat, Spain, Notre Dame du Pilier, Chartres, France, Nuestra Senora de los Angeles, Cartago, Costa Rica)
*Images of madonnas are from postcards or prayer cards available at these sites. Images of cathedral, Saint Michel chapel and Black Madonna at Le Puy are from the book on Le Puy by Cécile Gall. All other images are from English, French or Spanish wikipedia sites.
ARTICLES AND BOOKS ABOUT BLACK MADONNAS AND PILGRIMAGE
Barham, Penny. "Black Madonnas." Feminist Theology 11:3 (2003) 325-332.
Begg, Ean. The cult of the Black Virgin. New York : Arkana, 1996.
Benko, Stephen. The Virgin goddess: studies in the pagan and Christian roots of mariology. Boston: Brill, 2004.
Birnbaum, Lucia Chiavola. Dark mother: African origins and godmothers. New York: Authors Choice Press, 2001.
Gall, Cécile. Le Puy-en-Velay. Vic-en-Bigorre, France: MSM, 2000.
Galland, China. Longing for darkness: Tara and the Black Madonna. New York: Viking, 1990.
Moss, Leonard and Cappannari, Stephen. "In quest of the Black Virgin." Mother Worship: theme and variations. Ed. James Preston. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1982.
Rudolph, Conrad. Pilgrimage to the end of the world: the road to Santiago de Compostela. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2004.
Scheer, Monique. "From majesty to mystery: change in the meanings of black madonnas from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries" The American historical review 107:5 (2007):1412-1440.
FICTION ABOUT BLACK MADONNAS AND PILGRIMAGE
Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. New York: Penguin, 2003.
Set in 1964 South Carolina, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been affected by her mother’s death and her father’s abuse. She runs away and is taken in by three black beekeeping sisters, who teach her about the Black Madonna and help her to heal her past. Interview with the author Secret Life of Bees
Newman, Sharan. Strong as Death. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1996.
A mystery story set in 12th Century France and Spain. Catherine Le Vendeur and her husband Edgar go on the pilgrimage to from Le Puy to Compostela to pray that they will be able to have a child. Catherine solves the mysterious murders and recovers a stolen Black Madonna.
