Map of Black Madonnas
Explore this ever-expanding map, filled with over 191 Black Madonnas.
To contribute articles to this index, please contact me. I will give you credit and reserve the right to edit it. I can’t finish this index in one life time by myself. It would really help if you read my introduction, so that we are on the same page as to what qualifies as a Black Madonna in my index.
Our Lady of the Oak was found in a tree in 1263. Although not a Black Madonna, she’s included in this index, because she shares many Black Madonna leitmotifs: a strong connection with the earth, miracle working, and repeatedly returning, by her own will, to the place in nature where she was found. Many Madonnas are associated with sacred trees, but this Dutch lady is the only one who got to keep her tree in the church that was erected for her.
Baroque rendition of the Black Madonna of Loreto in the Greek Catholic cathedral in Presov, Slovakia. The ex-voti and thanksgiving tablets attest to her miracle working power and the faith of her devotees.
There are no original Black Madonnas in Australia, but Polish immigrants honor copies of their Queen, the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, wherever they go, as do Brazilians their Black Aparecida do Norte, and other groups their dearest expressions of the divine Mother.
Our Lady of Mercy shrine in Penrose Park, Australia is dedicated to the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, the Queen of Poland. This copy of the miracle working original icon was crowned by St. Pope John Paul II in 2001. Many smaller international shrines in this sanctuary include one to the Black Madonna Aparecida do Norte, Brazil.
This Black Madonna surrounded by White saints was painted in the 15th century in the most difficult to access sanctuary in the world, a 5th century rock hewn church. Pilgrims have to climb 8,460 feet barefoot up a 90 degree cliff to pray here. Women do it in long skirts with babies on their backs! It seems the artist meant to show either that Mary was a Black woman or that her being the Black divine Mother of her Ethiopian children was more important than the historical reality that she came from the same area as many of the White men in the frescos.
Our Lady Consolation of the Dejected and Oppressed, Our Lady of the Holy Oak, Our Lady Wealth of Joys was found in a river in 1406. She insisted on residing in a sacred oak tree and performed many miracles. Most popular Madonna in Netherlands.
Our Lady of Handel shares many Black Madonna leitmotifs: a sacred tree, healing water, miraculous origins, and Heaven using animals to communicate its will. The abundant waters of the miraculous source merge into a stream one can wade into.
Madame l’Afrique is a copy of a French statue crafted in silver by the artist Edmé Bouchardon (1698-1762), which was destroyed during the Revolution…
When fans of the Black Madonna fall into a reverse kind of racism by appreciating only Black Madonnas while disparaging white ones, they would do well to remember Our Lady of Kibeho…
In 1887, Bishop Mathurin Picarda visited the mission of the Holy Ghost Fathers in Guéréo, Senegal, for the baptism of its first Catholic converts…
This is not one of those traditional, ancient European Black Madonnas with miraculous powers that begs the question…
Black Madonna in the Benedictine monastery Santa Maria de los Toldos, Ruta 65, Los Toldos, province Buenos Aires.
In 1717 three fishermen were sent to catch fish in the Paraoba River for the governor of São Paulo because it was a religious day of abstinence and he wasn't allowed to eat meat…
Though this Madonna is not black she shares important characteristics with Black Madonnas. First, her eyes and hair are so black that she is revered by her devotees as “La Mestiza”…
The Queen of Costa Rica is called Our Lady of the Angels because she was found on the day the Franciscans celebrate the feast of Our Lady of the Angels…
On February 3, 1747 the young peasant Alejandro Colindres and his eight year old nephew Lorenzo Martinez went to farm at some distance from their house…
In 1531 things were looking dismal in Mexico. In the course of ten years millions of native Mexicans had been killed by the brutality of the Spanish Conquerors and their diseases…
There are several versions of the legend of this Dear Dark One. The most common one claims that her first known owner was a Dominican priest called Frey Juan Jordán de Santa Catarina…
The history of this shrine began in 1927, when the archbishop of St. Louis requested a group of Franciscans to come from Poland to set up a nursing home in the countryside…
A copy of Our Lady of Loreto (Italy) located in Our Lady of Loretto Catholic Church in Los Angeles in Historic Filipinotown, at 250 N. Union Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90026.
This Black Madonna is a copy of Our Lady of Regla in Havana, Cuba and in Chipiona, Spain. The original is said to have been carved in the 5th century by St. Augustin following instructions from angels.
It is ironic that the only “real” Black Madonna (not just a copy) in the USA isn’t actually a Black Madonna in the strict sense.
The Cistertian abbey in Vina is a beautiful monastery for Trappist contemplative monks that welcomes lay people for retreats. It was founded in 1955 by Thomas Merton’s monastic community…
The Black Madonna of Austin, Texas was comissioned around 2005 by an African priest of the predominantely black Holy Cross Catholic parish with strong black activist roots in that city. She was sculpted by the white artist Jim Thomas.
The chapel was built from 1697 to 1699 as a pilgrimage church in honor of Our Lady of Einsiedeln. At some point, in order to spread devotion to the Black Madonna of Einsiedeln…
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 son of the earl, who built the copy of the Holy House of Loreto just outside of Klagenfurt on the Maria Loretto Peninsula, had this funeral chapel built for his family in the cathedral in 1660/61…
Klagenfurt is the capital of the state Carinthia, (Kärnten). In 1652 Earl Johann Andreas von Rosenberg had a castle built on what was then an island in Lake Wörther…
Our Dear Lady of Kötschach seems to be the only original Black Madonna in Austria. All the others are copies of the Black Madonnas the Austrians hold most dear…
In the church St Katharina, Langenzersdorf. This copy of the Black Madonna of Einsiedeln, Switzerland, was installed in 1708.
Austria has not just many copies of the Black Madonna of Loreto, but a whole village named after her! It was built in the 17th century to support a monastery, which in turn was built to honor…
The House of Habsburg, which held the throne of the Holy Roman Empire from 1438 – 1740 and ruled Austria till 1918, spread the Loreto cult all over its empire…
45 minutes South of Salzburg. According to a book on local churches, this statue is yet another copy of the Black Madonna of Loreto…
In the heart of Salzburg, just a few blocks from Mozart’s house, lies the convent named Maria Loreto and dedicated to the Black Madonna of Loreto in 1637…
Before this basilica was built in the year 1683, during the second Turkish occupation of Vienna, there was a little Loreto chapel in Sankt Andrä.
Commonly Black Madonnas are associated with sacred springs, but this one outdoes them all: her chapel was erected over 3 sacred springs! It was donated by a local from St. Veit…
The House of Habsburg, which held the throne of the Holy Roman Empire from 1438 – 1740 and ruled Austria till 1918, spread the Loreto cult all over its empire…
A 17th century “copy” of Our Lady of Loreto in the Paulaner Church, in the Paulanergasse 6, 1040 Vienna, brought from Loreto, Italy.
It’s a beautiful copy of the Black Madonna of Loreto in a beautiful church, but nobody has anything to say about her.
A copy of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the “Queen of Poland”
n 1664 the Augustinian monk Jacob Willemart (1626-1697) traveled from Brugge to Spain. Nobody knows why, but the good relations between Spanish and Belgian Augustinian communities must have played a role…
In 1744 sailors threw this statue into the river Senne, but instead of sinking to the bottom it was later found floating on a piece of turf…
According to tradition, Ludwig IV of Thuringia sent this and three other Black Madonnas home to his wife St. Elisabeth of Hungary…
According to the Belgian TV program (see footnote), this is one of eight Black Madonnas in Belgium. Legend says that she was brought here by a crusader…
The area calls itself the “free republic of Outremeuse” and possesses its own festival, folklore, fun rituals, cartoon characters, special “fire water”, and of course, its own Black Madonna…
This shrine was erected in 1879 by the aristocrat who lived in the estate across the street from it: the Baron de Woelmont, whose coat of arms we find under the Madonna…
This Mother of Mercy is called Virgin of the Recollects because her church used to be a monastery chapel of the Recollects, an extinct reformed branch of the Franciscan order…
The roots of this Black Madonna go back to the 4th century, when the bishop of Cologne and Tongeren (both cities with Black Madonnas to this day)…
How happy is a devotee’s heart when a Black Madonna has a whole town named after her and her own flag…
Most representations of the Queen of Cubans portray her as rather light skinned, but some depict her as black. The actual statue is generally regarded as a ‘mulata’, a woman of mixed race…
Like the Holy of Holies in the Jewish temple, she is veiled. Only copies of her are allowed to be viewed by human eyes. Of those “copies” (variations on a theme) there are countless around the world…
The Pearl of Moravia is yet another icon said to have been painted by Luke and brought to Constantinople by Empress Helen in the 4th century A.D
This is one of those Black Madonnas whose skin color might have been attributed to the Byzantine style, candle smoke, or the 'saponification of the white lead' in the paint, were it not for her halo…
The church Our Lady Under the Chain belongs to the Maltese Order, which published a brochure describing the church and its works of art…
She is a copy of the Black Madonna of Loreto. All a local tour guide had to say about her was: "She is like an address sign…”
According to Raylene Abbott this statue of Our Lady of Consolation in the Brigittine Monastery of Amity Oregon is a Black Madonna. The distaff in her hand represents feminine wisdom and power. She exudes peace and strength in the beautiful garden of teh Brigittine monks at the Priory of Our Lady of Consolation. The oldest image of Our Lady of Consolation is a 5th century icon in Turin, attributed, like many other Black Madonnas, to St. Luke the Evangelist.
Our Lady of the Taper received the special “honor” of being burnt at the stake in 1538, in Chelsea, London, along with all the other ancient, famous Madonnas of Great Britain…
The 15th century Mayfield Madonna is listed in Ean Begg’s index of Black Madonnas. Unfortunately, she is not accessible to the public because she lives in a boarding school that once was the palace of an archbishop. Her big right hand points to the earth: our Heavenly Mother pointing the way back to our Mother Earth.
Since nothing is related of her origin and she shares the geometric pattern of the robes of the much more famous Black Madonna of Le-Puy, she may well have been created as a copy of the latter…
The origins of devotion to Our Lady of Willesden are lost in depths of history; but there is evidence…
In 2019, Sarah Bisby, a member of an internet chat group called “Reflecting the Black Madonna”, discovered this fascinating Black Madonna in the heart of London and brought it to my attention…
I don’t know if the original statue of Our Lady of Penrhys was a Black Madonna, but it is likely since she shares many Black Madonna characteristics…
Although Our Lady of Walsingham is not generally referred to as a Black Madonna and her modern reincarnations look rather pale, I am listing her in this index…
Since nothing is related of her origin and she shares the geometric pattern of the robes of the much more famous Black Madonna of Le-Puy…
According to the website of the diocese of Clermont Ferrand, the village Arconsat began as a monastery founded by St Martin around the year 350 A.D.
The first Black Madonna in Aurillac was a Romanesque statue in the little chapel of Aurinques. She was said to have been brought back from the Crusades by one of the local feudal lords…
Although Our Lady of the Oak is not actually called a Black Madonna, I include her in this index for two reasons…
The Black Madonna of Boulogne-sur-mer miraculously appeared alone in a boat in 633 A.D. in France’s most important fishing harbor since Roman times. She has been stolen, mutilated, dragged through the mud, and burnt at the stake by the enemies of France and Catholicism, but she was always brought back to life by the devotion of her children.
Evidence suggests that the Duchesse Matilda of Burgundy (died in 1162), a friend and patron of St. Bernard of Clairveaux, brought this wonder working statue from the Auvergne and gave it to the church in Beaune…
For millennia Chartres was the main pilgrimage site in France. With its ancient Pre-Christian roots, its Druidic Black Madonna, its relic of the Veil of the Virgin…
She was painted black in 1892 when the parish priest decided that a black Madonna would attract more pilgrims to his church. Some of his parishioners complained that their Virgin had been made into a…
Although neither town, nor church, nor statue are beautiful, this plain, formerly Black Madonna became one of the most influential ones in Europe…
Our Lady of the Good Death received her pitch-black coat of paint around 1830, but since she is an ancient Madonna she must have been quite dark already before that…
Many pilgrims came to the church in the Middle Ages to view the statue. Ean Begg mentions an ancient sacred well in the crypt and writes: "The present Virgin, an Oriental Vierge de Tendresse…
The original Black Madonna of Cusset was found in the 10th century next to a spring of the local Benedictine nunnery that had been founded in 882…
The brown Lady of Good Hope was painted black in the 1500’s likely in order to gain power and prestige and draw more visitors to the city. It worked! She promptly responded with the sort of miracles Black Madonnas are famous for: chasing off foreign armies and such. Sadly in 1963 she was stripped of her dark paint and Black Madonna title. No more miracles have been recorded since then. Serves them right!
Here is another whitened Madonna that must have been black once, since according to Ean Begg and many websites that seem to rely largely on his book she was once called Maureneta…
This Black Madonna is difficult to visit because her church is locked unless mass is being celebrated…
Douvres-la-Délivrande is a small town of little more than 5000 inhabitants named for its Black Madonna…
This Black Madonna's sacred water reputedly heals depression, languor, and apathy. It certainly lifted the spirits of our little group immediately…
Black Madonna near Evrecy, Normandy on the pilgrimage route from Caen to Mont Saint Michel, erected in 1871 by Madame de Bonnefons, lady of the nearby castle Champs Goubert, in thanksgiving that the village and castle were spared in the Prussian (German) invasion the year before.
This ‘Black Madonna’, as the locals still insist on calling her, was restored to her original colors in 2001. At that time, it turned out that she had been painted over five times…
This Madonna may be worth a visit if you are on the way to the famous 10th century Abbey of Saint Michel de Cuxa, which sports its own “Black Madonna”…
Modern Font-Romeu is a rather unattractive ski resort, but with an ancient history. For more than a thousand years its fountain at the hermitage (l’Ermitage) above the town was a stop for pilgrims…
With its Black Madonna, labyrinth, and its legend of an ancient Black Madonna under the earth Guingamp, Brittany competed for centuries with Chartres, 400 km to the East. To this day it honors its Lady of Good Help with festivities known as ‘the Pardon of Our Lady’. Unlike in Chartres, there is no whitening the Black Madonna or covering the labyrinth with chairs or slacking off of devotion here!
Our Lady's monastery goes back to a hermit by the name of Gombaud who lived in a cave on the site around the year 1000. This Black Madonna was originally known as…
Miracle working Our Lady of Laghet near Nice and Monte-Carlo in a retreat center run by Catholic nuns. The dark copy in the crypt reminiscent of the original Black Madonna
This Black Madonna sits enthroned above a globe (the earth), which is supported by the symbols of the four evangelists: an angel, a lion, an ox, and an eagle…
In 1844, this 17th century approximate copy of Our Lady of Le Puy was taken from another church to assume the empty throne and title of her burnt sister…
The story of this shrine in the Auvergne begins with stones, a dolmen, i.e. a Druidic stone altar. Since time immemorial stones had been associated with Goddess…
Here is her legend as told on this Black Madonna’s parish website: It is the year 1110 A.D. three brothers from the diocese of Laon (17 km from Liesse-Notre-Dame) leave for the Holy Land…
This modern Black Madonna is inspired by Romanesque ones of the Auvergne such as Our Lady of Le Puy…
Our Lady of Marsat has been associated with the theme of light and darkness ever since the above mentioned St. Gregory of Tours recounted the following experience…
Since the end of the 13th century, this Black Virgin has been the object of fervent popular devotion during Candlemas week. Like any real Black Madonna she works miracles…
Notre Dame de la Roche in Mayres near Clermont Ferrand, whom Dr. Cleveland calls Our Lady of the Side-Eye. 14th century statue commemorating the vision of a 12 C monk. Is she rolling her eyes at White patriarchs or what? Anybody have a better picture please?
One evening around the year 507 A.D., Théodechilde, daughter of the Merovingian King Clovis saw a great light in a nearby forest…
This is one of the strangest Black Madonnas. She wears a kind of turban, except that it is open on the top, revealing the Virgin's black hair….
I believe the “Black Virgin of Menton” is a copy of the Black Madonna of Montserrat, her famous sister venerated 700 km to the South. For the centuries, the faithful wouldn’t hesitate to walk that far in search for a miraculous healing. Once they were granted their wish, they would give public thanks with an ex-voto, a painting commemorating the miracle. That’s what we are looking at here.
While this Black Madonna is robed in the traditional garb that hides most of the statue, her picture on the votive candles sold in the church shows her round belly…
Here is another whitened Black Madonna. She was restored in 1954. (For more on the issue of restoring Black Madonnas to their original colors see Ronziere and Saint Guiraud)…
Many Black Madonnas were associated with the realm of the dead. Since this realm was imagined to lie deep in the earth I like translating “Notre-Dame (de) Sous Terre” as “Our Lady of the Underworld”…
Legend states that the original Black Madonna was brought to France from the Holy Land by a Lord of Bourbon. Somehow she came into the possession of King Louis IX…
The Romanesque Black Madonna of Myans became famous when she stopped a giant avalanche of rocks at the door step of her church, where a group of Franciscan monks had taken refuge after getting kicked out of their abbey.
Legend claims that this is one of several statues, which King Saint Louis brought back to France from the Crusades. While Ean Begg mentions that the king did indeed have “many connections with Murat”…
Orcival is one of the oldest and most famous Marian shrines in the Auvergne. People have been going there on pilgrimage since before the 10th century…
The original Black Madonna of Orleans came from Syria in the 5th century. She accompanied a group of her countrymen who settled outside the city gates of Orleans in a village called Avenum…
This Queen of Peace is quite an aristocratic lady. It is believed that she was a wedding gift by Jean de Joyeuse to his wife in 1518. The house of Joyeuse intermarried with French royalty…
She used to stand in the church Saint-Etienne-des-Grès in the Latin Quarter, but that church was destroyed during the Revolution and all its content sold…
Prats-de-Mollo is a beautiful, ancient town of 1,000+ inhabitants with very good energy. No wonder, the inhabitants honor their Lady of the Heart of the Oak…
Tradition says that Our Black Lady washed ashore somewhere in France where a sailor from Pézenas found her and brought her to his home town…
There are two important statues of the Mother of God venerated in this church and they often get mixed up: the Black Madonna Our Lady of Marthuret and the White Madonna Our Lady of the Bird (Vierge a l’oiseau)…
As a Christian holy site, Rocamadour dates back to the 10th century, but as a young priest giving a tour pointed out in 2008: "People have been praying here for 20,000 years”…
This is one of those poor Black Virgins who had her color stolen. She was restored to her original pigmentation of 800 years ago…
Here you see what happens when you don't renovate wooden statues once in a while. This Black Madonna is so worm eaten that you can barely make out the face and of baby Jesus only a little stump is left…
No miracles or other "special effects" are reported about this Virgin. During the Middle Ages she was obtained by the Saint-Gervazy family and brought to their little castle by the same name…
Although Sara la Kali is not Mary, the mother of Christ, she is often discussed in the context of Black Madonnas because she is a Dark Mother. The Gypsies venerate her as their queen…
The little old church lady, who led me to the church of Our Lady of Victory knew nothing of a Black Madonna at her church. The little statue is hardly visible…
In the 13th century the seventh Crusade (1248-1254) was preached in the sanctuary of the famous Black Madonna of Le-Puy-en-Velay, in the presence of King Louis IX…
'Daurade' is a kind of fish and must be one of the strangest nick-names for a statue of the Blessed Mother. Yet it was skilfully chosen, because everybody will ask…
The original church in the mountain hamlet of Vassivière stood until the 13th century and housed the predecessor of this Black Virgin.
As so many Black Madonnas, so this one too resides in a place that was already sacred during pre-Christian times. Excavations have revealed cults of Isis, Cybele…
Tradition recounts that the site of Our Dear Lady's 'chapel of grace' was already holy ground before the area was Christianized…
In 1554 the rulers of Beilstein became Protestants and imposed their faith on their subjects. No wonder perhaps that the locals didn’t mind being occupied by Catholic Spaniards in 1620, during the bloody 30 Years War of Religion…
This "Gnadenbild" (image of grace) originally stood in the Neustädter Marienkirche (Mary Church), which was run by a 'chapter of 12 canons', i.e. a community of priests…
Not long before the year 1675 the mayor of Cologne made a vow to go on pilgrimage to the Holy House and the Black Madonna of Loreto (see Italy)…
The story of the Black Mother of God of Benrath begins with Count Philip Wilhelm (1653 - 1690) and his second wife Elisabeth Amalia Magdalene…
This statue illustrates two points. One, it shows that Northern Europeans saw something African and exotic in their Black Madonnas, for this Lady's crown is not a European crown…
'Heiligenbrunn' means 'sacred well' and so the center of this sanctuary is a sacred well that predates its connection with the Black Madonna…
The miracle working Black Madonna im Kirchwald, Bavaria, is a copy of an icon attributed to St. Luke, brought from Rome by Michael Schöpfl in 1644. He was a Lutheran convert turned Catholic hermit, who, with the help of the Mother of God, turned a harmful spring on this mountain into a healing well.
This copy of the Black Madonna of Loreto was first installed in a copy of the Holy House of Mary, but it drew so many pilgrims that soon a bigger church had to be built for her.
Although this is a very young Black Madonna she stands on old holy ground, along the Jodokusweg (Jodok path)…
The cathedral of Magdeburg is a very important building in Church history. It was founded originally as a Benedictine abbey in 937 by Otto the Great…
Some time around the 17th century there was a nobleman by name of Kuno von Falkenstein, who was in love with the beautiful maiden of the castle Neuerburg…
The story of Neukirchen-at-the-Holy-Blood begins with a sacred host (the consecrated bread become body of Christ) found around the year 1400…
It is rare that a copy of a famous Black Madonna makes it into my index. This one did for two reasons. One, she is from my homeland. Two, her story illustrates in great detail how a famous Black Madonna “begets her daughters”, if you will…
Soon is the name of the forest and the area around Spabrücken, where Our Lady’s church was erected as part of a monastery in 1359…
Going back to prehistoric times, black was the symbol for the earth and the Great Mother, the source of heaven and earth. The darker earth is, the more fertile, hence black was the color of fertility and creative power…
Tradition says that around the year 1775 a local tenant farmer by name of Peter Becker sought relief from a debilitating illness at the feet of the Black Madonna in the Carthusian monastery near Koblenz…
The first church built on this site was the Church of Our Lady (Nagyboldogasszony templom), founded in 1038 by St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary…
This statue has had a rough life, but now the Black Madonna enjoys good health, so to speak, and an enthusiastic following. So, all's well that ends well…
I don't often include copies of famous Black Madonnas in my index, but this one has such a distinct character and Emilio Giovannone's photos are so good that I couldn't resist…
This is probably one of the oldest depictions of the Mother of Christ in the world. Legend recounts that in the third century A.D…
According to tradition, the Black Madonna of St. Luke in Bologna was painted by St. Luke the evangelist and brought to Italy from Constantinople in the 5th century, then painted over in the 12th century. Her sanctuary was founded by a woman.
A Papal Bull of Pius XII from 3/24/1957 confirms that all three statues, which St. Eusebius (a native son of Cagliari) brought to Italy were Black Madonnas…
This is a story about Jesus and Mary and about an attempt at equality. It started with the crucified black Jesus in the photo above. He used to hang in the beautiful 11th century Chiesa Madre…
Tradition says that Luke's icon of the nursing Madonna was brought to Italy by Dionysius the Areopagite, a Greek disciple of Paul, who became the first bishop and the patron saint of Crotone…
Here we have yet another whitened Madonna, before and after renovations. Some locals still call her black while others don’t…
There are at least two versions of the legend of the Crowned Virgin of the Poor. Both are made available in print at the sanctuary…
Part of what made the Madonna of Loreto world famous is the house she arrived with. It is a dark, little brick house called the Holy House of Mary…
The Patroness of Lucera is a very powerful and unique presence. Though she clearly looks like a Black Madonna and once was called such, this is no longer the case. Here is why…
In the cathedral of Manfredonia there are two important images of Mary. It seems that together they were brought to Siponto from Constantinopel in the 5th century by the first bishop of Siponto, Lorenzo Maiorano…
This Mother of God is also called the Madonna of Loreto. I suppose she is meant to be a copy or variation of that other, much more famous Black Madonna…
For two or three hundred years starting during the 9th or 10th centuries, many pilgrims visited the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Moiano, and there were miracles and cures…
A lovely story is told of how this icon miraculously escaped the iconoclastic destructions of the 8th century in the Byzantine empire…
Here we have yet another formerly Black Madonna who has been restored to her original pigmentation…
This is one of quite a few Black Madonnas that are attributed to Luke the Evangelist…
This lovely and very old Madonna is the original ‘Virgin of Tenderness’, a type of icon called Eleusa (Greek: tenderness). She is one of the numerous Black Madonnas believed to have been painted by Saint Luke the evangelist…
There are two Black Madonnas in the sanctuary of St. Anthony of Padua. One was whitened in spite of more than 800 years of tradition venerating a Black Madonna with a strong connection to St. Anthony and proof existing that both Madonnas were conceived as Black from the start. Our Mother’s black skin was stolen, because too many people found her more beautiful with white skin: a racist mutilation!
According to tradition Luke the Evangelist carved this statue and St. Eusebius brought it to Italy…
Stories as to where Our Lady came from vary greatly. Some say she was brought by a monk, others by a shepherd…
Local tradition, as recounted by the historian Armerino Charanda, attributes this icon to the hand of St. Luke the Evangelist.
Many Black Madonnas reside in places formerly dedicated to a pre-Christian goddess, but this one is different…
Although this Madonna is listed as a Black Madonna in several indexes the local Sicilian parishioners don’t see her as black, if they see her at all…
In 1564 the order of Augustinian monks brought this Black Madonna to San Severo from Sicily. Nobody knows how old she was at that point…
According to Ean Begg and others, this is a Black Madonna. She was recently whitened, but she was never real dark, only “olive-brown” in Ean Begg’s description…
Our Lady of Consolation in Turin, Italy, reputedly painted by St. Luke the Evangelist, likely a formerly Black Madonna like so many others attributed to him and associated with the Augustinian order. She had to be hidden from her enemies in the earth twice but always made sure she was found again. Very miraculous.
In her sanctuary in the small city of Tindari, municipality of Patti, province of Messina, on the North-Eastern shore of Sicily, painted cedar wood.
Between 575 and 580 Saint Gregory the Great set out to build a monastery on a terrain around Vena which belonged to his mother, Saint Silvia…
This Black Madonna is one of the dozens attributed by medieval legends to St. Luke the Evangelist, in my opinion in order to protect them from inconoclasm…
This “African” Madonna is an important reminder of the racial issues connected with Black Madonnas…
The Black Madonna was a gift from 19th century French missionaries.
She owes her title to the tradition that she appeared miraculously in these mountains. Her reputation for granting miracles is so great that people of all religions and even atheists come to her with their needs…
The city walls of Vilna were built around 1514 and include the two story tower of the Gate of Dawn, whose upper floor holds the chapel of this miraculous image…
As most Black Madonnas so this one too is deemed to be a miracle working ‘image of grace’. Most people agree that she must have been sculpted around 1360 by a member of the Cologne school of sculpting
This Madonna received her beautiful Aztec looks from a native artist who carved her in Mexico…
For the full history and more photos of this officially Black Madonna go to the beautiful Pintakasi website of James Ben Malabanan.
According to local tradition, a Spanish colonial official from Peña de Francia, Spain settled with his family in Cavite, Philippines in 1712. One day, his son, Miguel Robles de Covarrubias, a seminarian, fell seriously ill…
This Black Mother of Us All was brought from Macau to Manila in 1604. From there she was taken to Nueva Segovia (now Lal-lo) to aid in the evangelization of the homeland of the Itawes and then to Piat for five years…
This is what happens when you google translate and search Polish websites for Black Madonnas: you find a miraculous dark Mother of God, who fits almost all the criteria for being a Black Madonna…
Tradition says the Black Madonna of Czestochowa was painted by Luke right onto the kitchen table of the Holy family, which Jesus had made, with Mary sitting as the model…
The House of Habsburg, which held the throne of the Holy Roman Empire from 1438 – 1740 and ruled Austria till 1918, spread the Loreto cult all over its empire…
Though she does not bear the title ‘Black Madonna’ I included Our Lady of the Holy Linden Tree in this index because she shares so many characteristics of Black Madonnas…
Ever since Ean Begg listed this Lady as a Black Madonna in his ground breaking index, she is known as such internationally and she does have a fine patina
The title ‘Black Madonna’ is not normally given to any Orthodox icons. As Ean Begg says, if it ever is “it is late and probably due to the influence of Catholicism.” Well, maybe due to Catholicism this…
During the Russian Revolution this icon left its home and began a long journey with its Russian Orthodox children into their Diaspora…
This Madonna’s story is told in oral traditions and antique manuscripts. Legend has it that this is yet another one of those ancient images attributed to St. Luke the Evangelist…
The bare historical facts available to us are that the monastery of Our Lady of Regla (the name of the bay where Chipiona lies) was founded in 1399.
The Black Madonna of the Light holds in her right hand a scepter, a world ball, and a lamp to rule and enlighten the world. In her left arm she carries Baby Jesus…
The legend recounts that one evening in the 15th century, two shepherds were gathering their sheep on the slopes of Mount Jaizkibel…
Legend has it that this image belonged to St. Luke the Evangelist and was buried with him when he died. In the fourth century St. Luke's remains, with his statue, were brought to Constantinople…
There are two opinions concerning the origins of the devotion of the people of Jerez to their patroness, each with its legend…
The legend of Lloseta echoes that of nearby Lluc, which echoes many elements of Black Madonna legends around the world…
Inland and up in the Tramuntana mountains, the sanctuary of Lluc not only lays in the physical center of Majorca, but also is the spiritual center of the island…
Ean Begg dates her to the 12th century, but the Spaniards say the earliest written record of her is from the 7th century and that she is the oldest statue in Madrid…
Around the year 1292 a green marble cross was found in the hills outside the town of Montblanc. It soon became known as the miraculous Green Cross…
The story begins in the 7th century with St. Gil (c.650 - c.710), a hermit who came from Athens, Greece to the Pyrenees to live in solitude…
According to one legend, St. Luke the Evangelsit carved this statue with Mary sitting as his model and him using the carpentry tools of St. Joseph…
Legend recounts that the Black Madonna del Tura was discovered in the Cueva de Mas Caritat outside the city, in 872.
This is a story about pilgrimage - the journey of uncovering the divine…
As a nursing Madonna her title used to be Virgin of the Milk, but since 1585 she is known as Mother of God of the Sacristy…
According to legend, the Black Madonna of Lord appeared on her mountain in the 10th century…
In the Monastery of Sant Llorenç de Morunys, in the center of the village, about 40 minutes North-East of Solsona, Catalunya, about 70 cm
This is one of those interesting Black Madonnas with white Baby Jesus, the Yin and Yang of popular Catholicism, if you will.
This Madonna is considered the masterpiece of early Gothic sculpture. Gilabert, a great artist born in1163 in Toulouse, France, fashioned her for the monastery Santa Maria de Solsona…
This statue washed up in Tenerife at the end of the fourteenth century, shortly before the Canary Islands were occupied by Spain (1402 – 1496) and when the native…
The story of Our Lady of the Pillar begins in the year 40 A.D. with one of the twelve apostles. James the Greater, reputably…
After a fire in 1465 this gothic standing mother and child replaced a 9th-10th century Romanesque Seat of Wisdom Madonna lost in the flames. Baby Jesus holds a bird in his left hand…
Black Madonna of Sonogno (most beautiful village of Switzerland) a miracle working copy of Our Lady of Loreto. The previous statue was burnt as a remnant of Pagan Goddess worship by a priest in the 1920’s. Apparently a common sentiment among Swiss clergy around that time. The furious villagers got rid of the priest and replace their Dark Mother. Fresco is what remains of her older incarnation.
This “Lourdes of Switzerland” was a gift of the Black Madonna of Einsiedeln. In 1581, she appeared to a handicapped, destitute peasant in a dream and told him where to dig for a sacred well to be healed. The price: his six daughters all went home to their heavenly mother in one week. That put the fear of the Black Madonna into the villagers and they installed White Madonnas instead. Only in the 1950’s with a modern church being built, did they commission a copy of the Black Madonna of Einsiedeln.
While one may say that this is just another one of hundreds of copies of the Black Madonna of Loreto in Europe, several things make it special…
Siparia is a town in Southern Trinidad, which was originally inhabited by the Caribs and Arawaks, indigenous peoples of the Caribbean…
- Venture through the map by clicking and dragging.
- Magnify it with the +/- on the map, or just double click it to zoom in.
- Demystify by clicking the BLACK MARKERS, to see what you're looking at. Click on the name of the Madonna to navigate to its page.
First uploaded on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, 12/8/2017
For a list of Black Madonnas in each area, click on the links below:
Europe | France | Germany | Spain | Italy | Africa | Americas | Asia
Here a map of 50 Black Madonnas in Switzerland, from Jörg Roth’s amazing website https://schweiz.leylines.net/ Click on the “view fullscreen” icon in the top right corner to see the whole map and then on the numbers to zoom in on clusters of Black Madonna locations. Many are copies of the Suisse favorites: Our Ladies of Einsiedeln and Loreto, but even copies are sometimes powerful miracle workers in their own right.