WHO IS THE BLACK MADONNA?

She is the God who definitively declares that Black women—who exist below Black men and white women at the bottom of the white male God’s social pecking order— not only matter but are sacred.

And, in doing so, She declares that all living beings are sacred.

She is the God who smashes the white patriarchy and empowers us all to join in Her liberating work.

She is the God who has a special love for the most marginalized because She too has known marginalization.

She is the God who cherishes our humanity and welcomes our fears, vulnerabilities, and imperfections.

Like a loving parent responding to a child’s cry, She is the God who promises to come to our aid when we call out to Her, no questions asked.

She is the God in whom we can find hope.

There are over 450 sacred Black Madonna icons around the world, most of whom are over a thousand years old, with names as illustrious as Our Lady of the Good Death (pictured below), Slave Mama, Our Lady of Joy, Emergency-Mother-of-God, and Dear Dark One.

Like Marvel superheroes, each Black Madonna icon has a different origin story, legacy of miracles, and unique power(s) that She offers us today.

 

The Black Madonna awakens us to a Black female divine Being that cannot be claimed, contained, or tamed by any religion, country, or people.

She is wise, wild, powerful, uncontrollable, definitively on the side of the oppressed, and subversive -- characteristics that have scared the white bejeezus out of patriarchy and empowered marginalized people throughout time.

For example, though Her statues are often housed in Catholic churches and She is often seen as a symbol of Catholicism, She cannot be contained by Christianity. Her roots extend way beyond Christianity to the early forms of the Divine, the dark female Goddess who was worshipped thousands of years before the male Christian God appeared to humankind. Indeed, many of the churches in which She lives, are built on top of ancient sites that were devoted to Goddess worship.  Such is the case at the cathedral in Le Puy-en-Velay, France. In the 4th century, as an act of Christian dominance, the bishop ordered that the existing druidic dolmen be destroyed, and that a cathedral be built atop its ruins. Such a hostile, petty, insecure act reveals a religious system deeply afraid of feminine power. Yet, the 4th century people of Le Puy refused to relinquish their dark Goddess. They simply adopted the Black Madonna of the cathedral and transferred their devotion to her. Like their Black Madonna, they could not be claimed, contained or tamed.

The Black Madonna is still speaking, guiding, protecting, and liberating today.

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