Kaltenleutgeben
The Black Madonna of Altötting in Kaltenleutgeben, Mother of Grace of Kaltenleutgeben
Kaltenleutgeben is a small town just outside of Vienna, about ½ hour drive from downtown. The image of grace resides in the parish church at Pfarrgasse 5, 2391 Kaltenleutgeben, an about 1707 copy of the orginal.
In 1766, the parish chronicle relates that the “Black Madonna of Kaltenleutgeben” was sculpted by a holy hermit in Altötting. He touched his faithful copy to the original in order to absorb the grace/energy/blessings of the mother statue. When a relative of his in Vienna fell ill, the hermit came with the statue and asked the heavenly Mother to heal his relative, which she did. Before returning to his hermitage in Bavaria, the holy man gave his statue to his mother, who also lived in Vienna, with the request that she donate it to a church in the countryside that is dedicated to St. Jakob. The parish church of Kaltenleutgeben fit the bill and its records show that the statue was obtained in 1707.
Soon, the existing pilgrimage church of St. Jakob experienced a new spring as it became a Black Madonna pilgrimage site. Since 1712 many private and large group pilgrimages to this site were undertaken by individual faithful and parishes from Vienna. At least one of the large pilgrimages continues to this day, even though Emperor Joseph II forbid all pilgrimages in the second half of the 18th century, when he “reformed” Austria with a heavy hand.
As is common for Black Madonnas, this one too has a connection with a sacred well, albeit one that already dried up in 1624. It was a healing well dedicated to St. Jakob.
Source:
Article: Schwarze Madonna von Kaltenleutgeben