Our Lady Of The Angelcynn

 

Introduction

 

Honouring Our Lady is a central part of the Christian tradition.  She is the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, the God bearer and Queen of Heaven.  Much Christian theology looks to the human Mary as a role model of female purity, acceptance of the will of God and maternal love.  But Christian devotion is also to Mary the Queen of Heaven, the first amongst the Saints.  Christians have traditionally looked to her for protection, for wisdom, for healing and as an intermediary with her Son Our Lord. 

 

Mary is traditionally painted by the Church as pure and without original sin (the Immaculate Conception).  She is the pure mother and represents the maternal, nurturing side of femininity.  She is often looked to as a patroness, or a symbolism of some important part of our devotion.  She is said to have appeared to countless devoted Christians down the ages, many of these events creating powerful centres of Marian cults such as Walsingham or Lourdes.  

Historically, Christian England was very devoted to her, so much so that medieval England was known as Mary’s dowry.  This devotion waned somewhat under the influence of Protestantism, but has resurfaced over the last hundred years or so with the advent of the Anglo-Catholic movement and the growth of Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.  No where more is this witnessed in the re-opening of the Shrine of ‘Our Lady of Walsingham’ in Norfolk.  

 

The Cult of the Black Madonna

Black Madonnas, or Black Virgins, are statues or paintings of Our Lady, usually dating from the 11th to 15th centuries.  They are called black because of their dark faces and hands and are often associated with cults of healing.  According to Ean Begg (The Cult of the Black Virgin) they have their roots in the old pre-Christian religion and are powerful symbols of sexuality, the underworld and of earth wisdom.  They are the other aspect of the traditional Madonna’s purity and tender maternity. 

Some statues of Black Madonnas get their colour from the type of wood used, usually ebony.  Others, it is said, were originally pale but became dark over the years through candle and incense smoke.  Nobody really knows why they are depicted as being dark, but there is a growing consensus that this is significant and it is intended to represent something that the Church does not officially condone. 

 

It does seem as though Black Madonnas are a powerful part of European folk Christianity.  Many of them are associated with stories of being found near trees or springs – areas that are likely to have been holy places in ancient times.  Some scholars argue that they have black skin colour out of recognition that the Holy Family would have been dark skinned people.  Others take this further to argue that the cult began as a cult of Mary Magdalene in southern France and is associated with the Templars and the Cathars.  Some argue that the dark skin colour represents the Egyptian goddess Isis (see picture), whose statues bear an uncanny resemblance to the traditional Madonna. 

 

 

There is, however, a compelling view that the colour is significant in terms of the nature of the Madonna rather than because of any outward appearance.  This view holds that the dark colour signifies an attribute of Our Lady that deals with death and the underworld.  Many of the cults associated with Black Madonnas involve the healing of infants and young children, bringing people back from the brink of death.  The two Madonnas, one pale and earth centred the other dark and centred on the underworld present different sides of a single persona.  There is here a similarity with several ancient goddesses, such as the Hindu goddess Kali, whose name means ‘black’.  Kali is associated with death, destruction, time and change.  But she also has another side, one of beauty and life – she symbolises life after death. 

Our ancient Germanic mythology has a very similar goddess.  Known by a number of names, such as Frau Holle in Germany, our Anglo Saxon ancestors called her Hel.  She is goddess of the underworld and of the dead, hence her name.  However, in the old religion, Hel was not the fiery pit it is depicted as today but rather an underworld into which the dead passed whilst they were healed for a further journey towards heaven.  It is closest to what we would now call Paradise.  The word hel is cognate with hal, meaning health, healing and wholeness as well as with the word hole signifying the underworld.  The goddess herself is sometimes portrayed as black, signifying her association with death and the dead, but other times as shining white signifying the regenerative healing and rebirth that she brings about. 

 

Begg identifies a number of Black Madonnas in England, including:

 

 

Our Lady of Walsingham, Norfolk.  This is England’s national shrine to Our Lady and Walsingham itself is referred to as England’s Nazareth.  In 1061, just a few years before the Norman invasion, Dame Richeldis de Faverches, Lady of the Manor, had a vision whilst her husband was on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  She was taken three times in the spirit to the house of the Annunciation in Nazareth by the Virgin and told to carefully note down its dimensions and make an exact reproduction of it in England.  This she did and the shrine became one of the holiest places in all Christendom.  Boarded up and damaged during the Reformation, the shrine has been repaired and reopened and is today the main place of pilgrimage in England.  Although the modern statue is not black, Our Lady of Walsingham is the first and foremost  Madonna of England and the Anglo Saxon English and as such is a powerful connection back to our ancient Mothers.

 

Our Lady of Glastonbury, Somerset.  The original statue, believed to have been carved by St Joseph of Arimathea himself, was one of the few objects to survive the fire that destroyed most of the abbey in 1184.  Unfortunately it no longer survives, probably destroyed during the Reformation.  Glastonbury, with its powerful legend of being the site of the first Christian Church in Britain and resting place of the Holy Grael, is also the mythical Avalon – the island of the dead.

 

Convent of the Holy Child, Mayfield in Sussex.  This contains two Black Madonnas and is recognised as one of the most famous sites for Black Madonnas in the world.

 

Downside Abbey, Stratton-on-the-Fosse in Somerset.  Called simply the ‘Black Madonna, this was acquired by the Abbey at the turn of the 20th century and carved around 1470 in Strasburg.

 

Church of Our Lady of Hal, London.  Originally from Belgium, this appropriately named statue of Our Lady resonates with our ancient goddess Hel and of healing.

 

Roman Catholic Church of St Aldhelm’s in Malmesbury, Wiltshire – the only statue in England of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, strongly associated with earth goddesses in the Americas.

 

Buckler’s Hard in Hampshire.  This statue, dating from 1886, is located in the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  It is of French origin. 

 

Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs, Cambridge.  This is a dark oak statue from the former Dominican Priory of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

 

Aylesbury Priory, Kent.  This is a modern Black Madonna, carved in the 1950’s.

 

 

Our Lady as Folk Mothers

 

We know from the Roman historian Tacitus and from the Venerable Bede that the English and related Germanic tribes honoured their tribal 'Mothers' or goddesses.  Bede tells us that the early English celebrated a festival called Mothers' Night (Modranecht).  The Anglo Saxon English celebrated two ‘mothers’ in particular; Hretha (probably Eartha or Nerthus) in March and Eostre (Ostara) in April. 

A recurring aspect of our ancient mythology is that of the Earth Mother, who is symbolically impregnated each year by Sky Father (or sometimes Sea Father) to produce the New Life.  This mythology reflects the nativity of Our Lord through whom we are offered new life.  This pre-Christian view of ‘Our Lady’ as Earth Mother has never really gone away.  It was a central part of our ancestor’s religion and has remained stuck in our collective subconscious. 

 

 

The Mothers were more than just a representation of Mother Earth.  They were the spiritual manifestation of a tribe's homeland, indeed of the tribe itself.  They helped to guard and guide it.  They were also seen as important in bestowing fertility on the land and on the people themselves.  Children were blessed on Mothers' Night, marriages drawn up.  There was a clear link between the mystical and spiritual energies that ran through a people's tribal territory and through the people of the tribe itself.

These attributes of the Folk Mothers strongly resemble the folk religious cults that have grown up around Our Lady – both pale and black.  Indeed, many of the attributes that people originally looked to the old goddesses for are now embodied in the various Marian cults.  Our Lady of popular or folk culture has in many ways taken over or subsumed the role of the old goddesses. 

 

 

 

      Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham                                                Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham                                    Icon of Our Lady of Glastonbury

 

 

We can honour and petition Our Lady at any time and in any place we like, especially on the traditional Marian feasts throughout the Church’s calendar.  But for Anglo Saxon English people, we especially observe the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham on its traditional date of 25 March.  This is also the Feast of the Assumption or Lady Day, and one of the Quarter Days.  As the celebration of Mary becoming pregnant by the Spirit of God, has strong associations with our ancient myth of Sky Father uniting with Earth Mother to create the new life. 

 

 

 

 

Grant unto us Holy Mother

That we may Prosper

And Grow in Strength and Wisdom

A People of Eternal Spring  

To the Glory of Almighty God

Who Liveth and Reigneth Forever

One God World Without End

                      Amen

 

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