O MORNING STAR

 

O ORIENS

Latin:

O Oriens,
splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae:
veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

English: O Morning Star, splendor of light eternal and sun of righteousness: Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

KEY OF DAVID

 

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O CLAVIS DAVID

Latin: O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel; qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit: veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris et umbra mortis.

English; O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel; you open and no one can shut; you shut and no one can open: Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house, those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

In the book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 22, it is God who will place the key of David as a sign of authority. Of course, we know this authority is given to Jesus who will save us by opening the gates of “hell”, freeing us from the prison of sin that we might enter into His Kingdom.  

SORROWFUL BACK MADONNA

 

My one regret when I visited Poland in the late 1980s, was that I did not get to see the shrine at Czestochowa. We stayed in Krakow, where I attended Mass in the great Cathedral and we visited Auschwitz, but the back roads through the countryside were so narrow and winding that travel was slow. Hard to believe, but the Velvet Revolution in what is now the Czech Republic (where I was staying) was only ten years prior.  The Berlin Wall had come down, but the peoples of these countries were still poor and none more so than the Poles. But of all the Eastern countries, they had kept their faith alive through the era of Communism- and paid for it dearly.

OUR LADY OF CZESTOCHOWA, also known as the Black Madonna, is a famous painting of the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus.  This image of Our Lady is recognized throughout the entire world, largely due to the devotion shown by the Polish St. (Pope) John Paul II.

 

It is located in the monastery of Jasna Gora in Poland. The painting is a significant part of Polish culture and history, and is said to have been painted by St. Luke on a table built by St. Joseph. 

The painting is called the Black Madonna because of the soot that has built up on it over centuries from candles and votive lights that have been burned in front of it. 

The painting has two gashes on the face of the Virgin Mary, which are said to be the result of a soldier angrily slashing the image when it was thrown on the ground to lighten the load of a wagon.  The scars are said to be an integral part of the image, and even her face has the appearance of a gentle saddness, a reminder that Mary is the Mother of Sorrows.

The origin of this icon is known only in heaven. Its history before it arrived in Poland 600 years ago is shrouded in numerous legends that trace the icon's origin to St. Luke the Evangelist, who painted it on a cedar table top from the Holy Family house. Or that the painting was discovered in Jerusalem in 326 by St. Helena, who brought it back to Constantinople and presented it to her son, Constantine the Great.

The oldest documents from Jasna Góra state that the picture traveled from Constantinople via Belz. Eventually, it came into the possession of Władysław Opolczyk, Duke of Opole, and adviser to Louis of Anjou, King of Poland and Hungary.

Art historians say that the original painting was a Byzantine icon created around the sixth or ninth century. They agree that Prince Władysław brought it to the monastery in the 14th century. 

The Virgin Mary is shown as the "Hodegetria" version (meaning "One Who Shows the Way" or “Οδηγήτρια” in Greek). In it, Mary directs attention away from herself, gesturing with her right hand toward Jesus as the source of salvation. In turn, the Child extends His right hand toward the viewer in blessing while holding a book of gospels in His left hand. 

 Ukrainians have a special devotion to the Madonna of Częstochowa. The icon is often mentioned in Ukrainian folk songs from the 16th and 17th centuries. 

The feast day of Our Lady of Częstochowa is celebrated on August 26.

MADONNAS OF PRAGUE

 

 

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My favorite city in Europe is Prague, but unfortunately so many religious sites are now museums, since Communism took over this great city. One is the Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia (formerly a monastery of the Poor Clares), which now houses the medieval collection (1200-1550) of the National Gallery in Prague. 

Unlike so many Black Madonnas,  the MADONNA OF BREZNICE cannot be attributed to the Byzantine style, candle smoke, or the 'saponification of the white lead' in the paint. For around her halo reads: "Nigra sum sed formosa filia Jerusalem)." ("I am black but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem.”)  from the Song of Songs 1:4-5.

The painting bears a Latin inscription on the back, which reads in English: "This image of the glorious Virgin, commissioned by (…) the most illustrious King of Bohemia, was painted to resemble the image in Roudnice, which Saint Luke painted with his own hand. A.D. 1396".

There are at least half dozen other Black Madonnas in Prague.

The Black Madonna on the House of the Black Madonna.

The17th century wood Madonna stands inside a gilded cage on the corner edge of a Cubist-style house which now houses an art museum dedicated to cubism.  The statue at the House of the Black Madonna today is actually a copy from the late 1990s when the building underwent restoration. The original is in the possession of the Prague City Gallery and is sometimes displayed at the House of the Stone Bell at Old Town Square.The exact origin of the hardwood statue isn’t clear, but it dates to at least the 17th century. (Below)  

Another Black Madonna statue sits in the Santa Casa (Holy House) at the Loreta in the Prague Castle district. The shrine, a free-standing elaborately decorated house in the middle of the monastery complex, has several depictions of Mary including a dark wooden statue behind a golden fence.

The house is a full-scale copy of the Basilica della Santa Casa in the town of Loreto in the hills of the Marche region of Italy. The shrine is supposedly the house where Mary lived and home to Our Lady of Loreto, a highly venerated Black Madonna. The Christian legend holds that angels transported the house from Nazareth to Italy.

Painted and framed Black Madonna icons with gilding and jewels can be seen in the back of the Church of St. Thomas Church in the Malá Strana district. The origin is lost in time. (Right)

There is also one above the doorway to  a residential building on Truhlářská Street, though this one actually may be simply due to pollution darkening the stonework. When the rest of the building was cleaned, the Madonna was left black, though. (Below)

ANOTHER MORENITA

 

OUR LADY OF MONTSERRAT is one of the Black Madonnas of Europe, and given the familiar Catalan name, La Moreneta ("the little dark-skinned one" or "the little dark one"). Believed by some to have been carved in Jerusalem in the early days of the Church, it is more likely a Romanesque sculpture in wood from the late 12th century. Pope Leo XIII granted the image a canonical coronation on 11 September 1881

The mountain of Montserrat has been of religious significance since pre-Christian times, when the Romans built a temple to honor the Roman goddess Venus.

By one account, the image of the Madonna was moved to Montserrat in 718, to avoid the danger posed by invading Saracens.

 Legend says the Benedictine monks could not move the statue to construct their monastery, choosing to instead build around it. The statue's sanctuary is located at the rear of the chapel, where an altar of gold surrounds the icon, and is now a site of pilgrimage.

 In 2001, renovators working for the government observed that the black hands and face of La Moreneta had over the centuries undergone a change in color. They attribute the change—from a lighter tone to black—either to prolonged exposure to candle smoke or a chemical reaction caused by a varnish used as a paint sealant.

 The statue was repainted black by successive generations of restorers. A series of tests, including X-rays, revealed the statue's original color and also showed that the last repainting took place at the turn of the 19th century.

This statue has always been considered one of the most celebrated images in Spain. However, like Our Lady of Einsiedeln in Switzerland, its popularity is limited to a regional rather than a universal scope. The shrine has received innumerable pilgrims over the years, currently at the rate of at least one million per year. This multitude includes secular and ecclesial rulers as well as a number of canonized Saints. The most notable of these was St. Ignatius of Loyola, who laid down his sword and embarked on his religious mission "after spending a night praying before the image."

The hymn to the Virgin of Montserrat, known as "el Virolai" and sung at noon each day by the Escolania de Montserrat boys' choir, begins with the words: "Rosa d’abril, Morena de la serra..." (Rose of April, dark-skinned lady of the mountain...). Therefore, this virgin is sometimes also known as the "Rosa d'abril". Her feast is kept on April 27.

 

LA MORENITA

 

In our first Blog on Black Madonnas, we mentioned that the dark skin color is often due to smoke from candles lit by pilgrims, as well as oil lamps.  It can also be due to the effects of oxidation on the original colors. In Byzantine art, especially in icons, the oxidation of the silver leaf, used for the face of the Madonna, darkens the pigments, making them black.

But in some cases, especially in countries such as Africa or South America, the Virgin has been depicted with features close to those of the local people. For me the best example is OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE, who Hispanics refer to as “La Morenita”- the dark-faced one. Her complexion is mestiza (i.e., mixed races), a combination of Mexican and Spanish. She is not black, like so many of the famous madonnas. Rather her brown skin tone reflects the peoples in the land in which she appeared.

The apparitions  to Juan Diego in 1531 were seen only ten years after the conquest of central Mexico by the Spanish, at a time when the indigenous people of the Americas were devastated.

The idea of a brown-skinned Mother of God, was critical to the eventual conversion of millions of indigenous people to the faith.

Unlike most Black Madonnas, she is not holding the Christ Child, but rather is pregnant with Him. Is this why we keep her feast in the middle of Advent? With us today, she is awaiting the birth of the Savior.

 Her basilica in Mexico City is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world, and the world’s third most-visited sacred site. Hers is one of the most iconic images associated with Catholicism. St. (Pope) John Paul II declared Our Lady of Guadalupe to be the Patroness of all the Americas.

Guadalupe: The Miracle and the Message” (2015): A TV special produced by the Knights of Columbus. 

“The message of Our Lady of Guadalupe helped to build bridges between cultures and worlds and began the transformation of our continent into a Christian continent of hope,” said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, executive producer of the film. “The apparition helped to unite the entire continent in a way that didn’t exist before. Through her intercession, then and now, those throughout this hemisphere have found a deep and shared sense of faith, hope and identity.”

THE TREE OF JESSE

 O RADIX JESSE  (December 19)

Latin: O radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum,] super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem Gentes deprecabuntur veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.

English O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples; before you kings will shut their mouths, to you the nations will make their prayer: Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.

From Isaah  11:1  we read:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;  

 from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and of might,
    the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord
and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,

    or decide by what he hears with his ears;
 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
    with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
    with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

The above illuminated manuscript from the 13 century depicts the genealogy of Jesus, as Jesse reclines at the base of the tree. Some of Jesus’ ancestors appear up the tree, King David is among them. The Virgin Mother is above him and Jesus and the Holy Spirit appear at the top. Often the Virgin is seen holding the Child Jesus as seen below in the lovely wood panel from the lectern at Lourdes.