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.”