Chartres and the great mystery of the Black Madonna, by China Galland:

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When you step into the 12th century Chartres Cathedral, directly in front of you is the main altar with a white marble sculpture of Mary being assumed into heaven by Bernini. Off to the side of the main altar there is a little side space with pews and people kneeling and praying. Banks of red votive candles are burning and people come and go in and out of this little prayer space most of the hours of the day.

There, on a pillar about six feet high stands one of the Black or Dark Madonnas at Chartres enveloped in garments encrusted with gold embroidery. Directly below sits the Madonna “Sous Terre,” Under the Earth, in the crypt. This wooden statue of the Madonna and Child is also spoken of as a Dark or Black Madonna. How accurate this is remains a matter of debate. Precision and dogma aside, this is the Madonna that accomplishes miracles and healing, hence the many devotees who come to her site from all over the world. The draw to Chartres is not only the extraordinary library of biblical stories in stained glass and the Rose Window, the eleven circuit labyrinth that’s being copied and used world wide, but also these Black or Dark Madonnas.

To clear up some confusion generated by books such as the DaVinci Code, and many others, the Black Madonna and Child or the Black Virgin (Mary without Child) is NOT Mary Magdalene. Magdalene has her own historical existence as does Mary, Christ’s mother.

Here’s a short definition of the Black or Dark Madonna that I recently wrote for the Cambridge Dictionary of Religion (2008). I was limited to 200 words, so the constraints on what I could cover were ferocious. For the moment, know that the term “Black Madonna” refers to a more than one thousand-year old Catholic tradition of venerating non-white images of Mary, the mother of Christ.

Any correlation between the color of the Madonna and the ethnicity of people devoted to her breaks down in the face of the numerous major white European shrines honoring coal black and dark Madonnas (Einsiedeln, Switzerland; Chartres, France; Montserrat, Catalonian Spain; and Loreto, Italy among them). The biblical phrase “I am black and I am beautiful” (Old Testament) is incised above the entry to Montserrat to remind people that black is associated with beauty. There is no single accepted explanation of why these Madonnas are dark or black. The reasons are site specific and require careful study of the religious, historic, cultural and geological context for each shrine. Many are found at the sites of earlier polytheistic shrines to dark female divinities from pre-Christian traditions, especially those associated with the earth. The “Mother Moist Earth” of pre-Christian Slavic traditions is but one example of this. The Black Madonna is also a transcultural phenomenon, an inculturated devotion that grew out of earlier forms subsumed into Christianity. Known as a powerful healer and miracle worker, the Black Madonnas are also associated with a fierce form of Mary as the mother and protectress of the poor and excluded. She weaves national identities (for example Mexico’s protective patron Guadalupe, Poland’s Queen Black Madonna, Brazil’s Mother of the Excluded, Aparecida), and fosters solidarity and non-violent resistance. She stands for the spirit of liberation, restorative justice, equality, the preservation of the earth and of all her creatures.

Below are some photos of the Chartres Cathedral:

(Photo credit: Ann McCoy)

My journey here to Chartres has already plunged me deep into the great mystery over which the Black Madonna presides. To be continued.

View more information about China Galland's Longing for Darkness

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Longing for Darkness

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