Black Madonna.

Found in hundreds of Catholic churches across Europe and Latin America, the Black Madonna, a depiction of the Virgin Mary with dark skin, remains one of the most mysterious and controversial religious icons. She has a complex history and many possible meanings.

If I ask you to close your eyes and visualise the Virgin Mary, I'm sure many of us would conjure a similar image. Most likely a solemn figure draped in a veil – perhaps seated holding a variably anatomically correct baby Jesus.

Typically, she's represented with dark hair and white skin, but throughout the world, one can find paintings and statues of the Virgin Mary with brown or dark skin. These depictions are often referred to as Black Madonnas (not to be confused with more contemporary black Madonnas).

The Black Madonna is an exceptionally beautiful symbolic painting of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus. Mary and Jesus are dark-skinned, and their crowns, halos, and robes are elaborately decorated. The artist and the age of the painting are unknown. Legend has it that it was painted in the 6th century by St's.

More recently, some feminist writers have suggested the Black Madonna as indicating a perspective on Mary underemphasized in traditional Christian doctrine. In any case, Black Madonnas have proved themselves as devotional aids within ecclesial life over the course of centuries.

The term Black Madonna or Black Virgin tends to refer to statues or paintings in Western Christendom of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus, where both figures are depicted with dark skin. Examples of the Black Madonna can be found both in Catholic and Orthodox countries.

The paintings are usually icons, which are Byzantine in origin or style, some of which were produced in 13th- or 14th-century Italy. Other examples from the Middle East, Caucasus or Africa, mainly Egypt and Ethiopia, are even older.[citation needed] Statues are often made of wood but are occasionally made of stone, painted, and up to 75 cm (30 in) tall. They fall into two main groups: free-standing upright figures or seated figures on a throne. About 400–500 Black Madonnas have been recorded in Europe, with the number related to how they are classified. There are at least 180 Vierges Noires in Southern France alone.

There are hundreds of copies made since the medieval era. Some are displayed in museums, but most are in churches or shrines and are venerated by believers. Some are associated with miracles and attract substantial numbers of pilgrims.

Black Madonnas come in different forms. Speculations behind the basis of the dark hue of each individual icon or statue vary greatly and some have been controversial. Explanations range from Madonnas made from dark wood, or Madonnas that have turned darker over time, due to factors such as aging or candle smoke, to a study by Jungian scholar Ean Begg into the potential pagan origins of the cult of the black Madonna and child.

Another suggestion is that dark-skinned representations of pre-Christian deities were re-envisioned as the Madonna and child.

Research into the Black Madonna phenomenon is limited. Begg links the refrain from the Song of Solomon, ‘I am black, and I am beautiful’ to the Queen of Sheba . Recently, however, interest in this subject has gathered more momentum.

Important early studies of dark-skinned holy images in France were by Camille Flammarion (1888) , Marie Durand-Lefebvre (1937), Emile Saillens (1945), and Jacques Huynen (1972).

The first notable study in English of the origin and meaning of the Black Madonnas appears to have been presented by Leonard Moss at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on December 28, 1952.

Moss divided the images into three categories: (1) dark brown or black Madonnas with physiognomy and skin pigmentation matching that of the indigenous population; (2) various art forms that have turned black as a result of certain physical factors such as deterioration of lead-based pigments, accumulated smoke from the use of votive candles, and accumulation of grime over the ages, and (3) miracle-worker Madonnas, the focus of the study, Black Madonnas found in areas of a Roman legion and, therefore, not a reflection of the current population's skin colour.

In the cathedral at Chartres, there were two Black Madonnas: Notre Dame de Pilar, a 1508 dark walnut copy of a 13th-century silver Madonna, standing atop a high pillar, surrounded by candles; and Notre Dame de Sous-Terre, a replica of an original destroyed during the French Revolution. Restoration work on the cathedral resulted in the painting in 2014 of Notre Dame de Pilar, to reflect an earlier 19th-century painted style. The statue is no longer a "Black Madonna" and the restoration was severely criticized for wiping away the past.

Some scholars have chosen to explore the significance of the dark-skinned complexion to pilgrims and worshippers rather than focusing on whether this depiction was intentional. By virtue of their unusual presence, the Black Madonnas have sometimes acted to make their shrines revered pilgrimage sites. Monique Scheer attributes the importance of the dark-skinned depiction to its connection with authenticity.

Hugh Cipher
Studied at San Francisco State University (SFSU)

The idea of a "Black Jesus" & the “Black Madonna" is old as Christianity. Jewish dna contains an average of 3% sub Saharan ie: Black African dna. Most Middle Easterners do. This dna contribution in Jews dates back to 72 to 300 generations in the past. This is the Biblical era & older.

"We verify using computer simulations that the method produces useful estimates of population mixture dates up to 300 generations in the past. By applying the method to West Eurasians, we show that the dates in Southern Europeans are consistent with events during the Roman Empire and subsequent Arab migrations. The dates in the Jewish groups are older, consistent with events in classical or biblical times that may have occurred in the shared history of Jewish populations"

"We also detect 3%–5% sub-Saharan African ancestry in all eight of the diverse Jewish populations that we analyzed. For the Jewish admixture, we obtain an average estimated date of about 72 generations. This may reflect descent of these groups from a common ancestral population that already had some African ancestry prior to the Jewish Diasporas."

So dna researchers feel the Black African dna in Jews possibly points to a heavily African founder population.

So the idea of a "Black Jesus" isn't as ridiculous as some people think.

As for the icons they were painted dark skinned. They're not a product of aging or some type of candle soot damage. This is a ridiculous excuse because this the rest of the paintings aren't "darkened" with candle soot or age. Also there are literally 100's of these including statues so the theory this was accidental or unintentional also is absurd.

Only since colonial era do we see colonized & conquered non White people worshipping a White God & Jesus.

A more plausible theory for the Black Madonna's stems from the traditional esoteric connection between Mary mother of Jesus & Isis mother Goddess.

Egypt is in Africa & Europeans from the early AD era & middle ages have depicted Egyptian charecters,historical or legend as Black.

An example is St Maurice leader of the Roman Theban legion. Thebes is in Egypt.