I read about this Marian icon of Kazan earlier this evening in Katherine Neville's "The Fire." This image is from Wikipedia - see entry below.
She is one of the "black" Madonnas - so-called both because of the often dusky color of their skin (in some cases, after cleaning, attributed to the accumulation of generations of soot from candles burnt under the images) and because in many cases they were either excavated from underground ruins or were originally worshipped in underground caverns, perhaps due to Marian persecutions.
A famous Black Madonna around these parts is "Our Lady of 'Chestakowa' (spelled phonetically), revered by generations of Polish Catholic immigrants - Milwaukee's south side was originally settled by Polish immigrants and the grand basilica of St. Josephat's on South 6th Street and West Lincoln Avenue stands as a testimony to their dedication to the Roman Catholic Church. There is a Roman Catholic Church on the corner of South 6th Street and West Mitchell Street (don't know the name), with a large mosaic representation of Our Lady of 'Chestakowa' on its south side, just around the corner from the main entranceway stairs.
Here is information from Wikipedia on the Black Madonna of Kazan:
Our Lady of Kazan, also called Theotokos of Kazan (Russian: Казанская Богоматерь), is a holy icon of the highest stature within the Russian Orthodox Church. It has been considered a palladium of Russia for centuries. Two major Kazan Cathedrals, in Moscow and in St Petersburg, are consecrated in her name, as are numerous churches throughout the land. Her feast days are July 21 and November 4, (which is also the Day of National Unity).
The icon was credited by the Russian commanders - Dmitry Pozharsky and Mikhail Kutuzov - with helping the country to repel the Polish invasion of 1612, the Swedish invasion of 1709, and Napoleon's invasion of 1812.
The icon was discovered on July 8, 1579, underground in the city of Kazan, after the Theotokos, the Blessed Virgin Mary, in a Marian apparition revealed its location to a little girl, Matrona. The original icon was kept in one of the monasteries in Kazan, whereas its ancient and venerated copies [my emphasis added] have been displayed at the Kazan Cathedral of Moscow, at Yaroslavl, and at St. Petersburg.
In the night on June 29, 1904 the icon was stolen from a cathedral in Kazan where it had been kept for centuries. Thieves apparently coveted the icon's golden setting, which featured many jewels of highest value. When several years later Russian police finally apprehended the thieves and recovered the precious setting, they declared that the icon itself had been cut to pieces and burnt. The Orthodox church interpreted the disappearance of the icon as a sign of tragedies that would plague Russia after the Holy Protectress of Russia had been lost.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, there were plenty of theories speculating that the original icon was in fact preserved in St. Petersburg and later sold by the Bolsheviks abroad. Although such theories were not credited by the Russian Orthodox church, one of several reputed originals [this should be - copy] (dated by experts to ca. 1730) was acquired by the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima and enshrined in Fátima, Portugal in the 1970s.
In 1993, the icon was given to Pope John Paul II, who took it to the Vatican and had it installed in his study, where it was venerated by him for eleven years. In his own words, "...it has found a home with me and has accompanied my daily service to the Church with its motherly gaze."[1] John Paul II wished to visit Moscow or Kazan in order to return the icon to the Russian Orthodox Church. When these efforts were blocked by the Moscow Patriarchate, the icon was presented to the Russian Church unconditionally in August 2004. On August 26, 2004 it was exhibited for veneration on the altar of St. Peter's Basilica and then delivered to Moscow.
On the next feast day of the holy icon, July 21, 2005, Patriarch Alexius II and Mintimer Shaymiev, the President of Tatarstan, placed it in the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kazan Kremlin.
The icon is enshrined in the Church of the Elevation of the Holy Cross, the site where the original icon of Our Lady of Kazan was found. Plans are underway to make the monastery where the icon was found into an international pilgrimage center.
References
"Liturgy of the Word in honour of the Icon of the Mother of God of Kazan - August 25, 2004". Retrieved on 2008-10-13.
External links
John Paul delivers Our Lady of Kazan to the russian church, july 18 2005
(English) Rediscovered Holy Treasure.
(English) Ikons: Windows into Heaven.
(English) The Miraculous Icons—an entry on Our Lady of Kazan at OrthodoxWorld.ru.
(English) OrthodoxWiki entry on Our Lady of Kazan.
Showing posts with label Isis and the Virgin Mary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Isis and the Virgin Mary. Show all posts
Monday, November 10, 2008
Our Lady of Kazan: Another Black Madonna
I read about this Marian icon of Kazan earlier this evening in Katherine Neville's "The Fire." This image is from Wikipedia - see entry below.
She is one of the "black" Madonnas - so-called both because of the often dusky color of their skin (in some cases, after cleaning, attributed to the accumulation of generations of soot from candles burnt under the images) and because in many cases they were either excavated from underground ruins or were originally worshipped in underground caverns, perhaps due to Marian persecutions.
A famous Black Madonna around these parts is "Our Lady of 'Chestakowa' (spelled phonetically), revered by generations of Polish Catholic immigrants - Milwaukee's south side was originally settled by Polish immigrants and the grand basilica of St. Josephat's on South 6th Street and West Lincoln Avenue stands as a testimony to their dedication to the Roman Catholic Church. There is a Roman Catholic Church on the corner of South 6th Street and West Mitchell Street (don't know the name), with a large mosaic representation of Our Lady of 'Chestakowa' on its south side, just around the corner from the main entranceway stairs.
Here is information from Wikipedia on the Black Madonna of Kazan:
Our Lady of Kazan, also called Theotokos of Kazan (Russian: Казанская Богоматерь), is a holy icon of the highest stature within the Russian Orthodox Church. It has been considered a palladium of Russia for centuries. Two major Kazan Cathedrals, in Moscow and in St Petersburg, are consecrated in her name, as are numerous churches throughout the land. Her feast days are July 21 and November 4, (which is also the Day of National Unity).
The icon was credited by the Russian commanders - Dmitry Pozharsky and Mikhail Kutuzov - with helping the country to repel the Polish invasion of 1612, the Swedish invasion of 1709, and Napoleon's invasion of 1812.
The icon was discovered on July 8, 1579, underground in the city of Kazan, after the Theotokos, the Blessed Virgin Mary, in a Marian apparition revealed its location to a little girl, Matrona. The original icon was kept in one of the monasteries in Kazan, whereas its ancient and venerated copies [my emphasis added] have been displayed at the Kazan Cathedral of Moscow, at Yaroslavl, and at St. Petersburg.
In the night on June 29, 1904 the icon was stolen from a cathedral in Kazan where it had been kept for centuries. Thieves apparently coveted the icon's golden setting, which featured many jewels of highest value. When several years later Russian police finally apprehended the thieves and recovered the precious setting, they declared that the icon itself had been cut to pieces and burnt. The Orthodox church interpreted the disappearance of the icon as a sign of tragedies that would plague Russia after the Holy Protectress of Russia had been lost.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, there were plenty of theories speculating that the original icon was in fact preserved in St. Petersburg and later sold by the Bolsheviks abroad. Although such theories were not credited by the Russian Orthodox church, one of several reputed originals [this should be - copy] (dated by experts to ca. 1730) was acquired by the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima and enshrined in Fátima, Portugal in the 1970s.
In 1993, the icon was given to Pope John Paul II, who took it to the Vatican and had it installed in his study, where it was venerated by him for eleven years. In his own words, "...it has found a home with me and has accompanied my daily service to the Church with its motherly gaze."[1] John Paul II wished to visit Moscow or Kazan in order to return the icon to the Russian Orthodox Church. When these efforts were blocked by the Moscow Patriarchate, the icon was presented to the Russian Church unconditionally in August 2004. On August 26, 2004 it was exhibited for veneration on the altar of St. Peter's Basilica and then delivered to Moscow.
On the next feast day of the holy icon, July 21, 2005, Patriarch Alexius II and Mintimer Shaymiev, the President of Tatarstan, placed it in the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kazan Kremlin.
The icon is enshrined in the Church of the Elevation of the Holy Cross, the site where the original icon of Our Lady of Kazan was found. Plans are underway to make the monastery where the icon was found into an international pilgrimage center.
References
"Liturgy of the Word in honour of the Icon of the Mother of God of Kazan - August 25, 2004". Retrieved on 2008-10-13.
External links
John Paul delivers Our Lady of Kazan to the russian church, july 18 2005
(English) Rediscovered Holy Treasure.
(English) Ikons: Windows into Heaven.
(English) The Miraculous Icons—an entry on Our Lady of Kazan at OrthodoxWorld.ru.
(English) OrthodoxWiki entry on Our Lady of Kazan.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
5,000 Year Old Figurines Found Near Caral, Peru
5000-year-old anthropomorphic figures found in Huaura, LimaFigure: Iconic mother nursing child from Huaura excavation; compare to figures of Isis and the Virgin Mary)
Lima, Jun. 08 (ANDINA).- In the last days, a team of archaeologists headed by Ruth Shady has discovered a number of anthropomorphic figures believed to be some five thousand years old near the district of Vegueta in the province of Huaura on the coast north of Lima.
These relics have been unearthed in the archeological site of Vichama, or "hidden city", a place that belongs to the same civilization of Caral and which is located 159 kilometers north of Lima. Caral is considered the oldest city of America with around 5000 years old.
The figures represent a woman nursing and a person of high social status. It was reported that Carbon 14 dating will soon determine how old these relics are.
This discovery occurs almost a year after the start of archaeological Works on this site headed by Dr. Ruth Shady.
These objects, along with others found at the scene, will be exhibited at the Communitarian Museum of Vegueta starting this weekend.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
More Chess Lessons from Ancient History
See prior posts:
August 8, 2007: Chess Lessons from Ancient History
August 9, 2007: More Chess Lessons from Ancient History
September 4, 2007: The Priestesses of Mary
It has been said that chess is a game of archetypes. One of those archetypes is the concept of rulership, as embodied in the throne. The throne is a woman. As far back as we have datable archaeological artifacts, the throne is a woman (more on this later). This isn't a feminist manifesto of uterine power - it's just the plain ol' simple truth. Jan, August 9, 2007
I’m saving a lot of good stuff for an eventual big, long and scholarly (cough, cough) article for Goddesschess, but I realized I owed a post here based on the "more on this later" comment I made in my August 9, 2007 post referenced above.
There is a big gap, time-wise, between the ancient Egyptian Goddess Isis, the Ashdoda, and Mary, Queen of Heaven. In between are many women/throne combination artifacts that have been excavated over the years, all across the Middle East, the Aegean, and Central Asia. By way of example, several thousand years before Isis, there was the "Leopard Queen" discovered at Katul Hoyuk, who is perhaps the oldest representation of a woman upon a throne; the Vinca culture, represented by recent excavations at Plocnik, dates to about 5000 BCE (photo: a headless goddess sits on a chair, with hands resting on rounded belly, perhaps pregnant, Vinca culture, Plocknik); Isis dates to about 3400-3200 BCE. There is a chronological and cultural progression of worship of the Queen of Heaven during all that time, right down to the 3rd century CE, when the Collyridians worshipped the Virgin Mary as the Queen of Heaven.
Epiphanius states that the "priestesses of Mary" worshipped her as a goddess in her own right, the Queen of Heaven, with rituals far older than Christianity, and "adorn a chair or square throne, spread a cloth over it, and at a certain solemn time, place bread on it and offer it in the name of Mary." The worshippers also partook of the sacred cakes.
In the Bible, this harkens back to reports made by the prophets in the Old Testament regarding worship of a much more ancient Queen of Heaven than the Virgin Mary, who was worshipped in Palestine and Phoenicia thousands of years before Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, was conceived. The worshippers of Ashtoreth, Asherah and Ishtar all celebrated their revered Goddesses by baking specially marked "cakes" (various types of flat and risen breads) and consuming them at special feast times. The custom passed all the way down to modern times, in the form of "Hot Cross Buns" which are served on Easter Sunday, the holiday of the Germanic Mother Goddess Eostre.
Despite the Church Fathers’ best efforts to suppress the "heresy" of worship of the Mother Goddess, the Queen of Heaven, they failed. Finally, they capitulated (perhaps in the nature of "if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em…) The Council of Ephesus in 431 CE formally sanctioned devotion to the Virgin Mary as Theotokos, Mother of God, (literally, God bearer), allowing the creation of icons bearing the images of the Virgin and Child. Devotion to Mary was, however, already widespread by this point. Early representations showed Mary as the "Throne of Heaven" with Mary and the Child Jesus both crowned as royalty. These are, though, just a reiteration of the 3000 years earlier representations of Isis with Horus on her lap.
Like Isis with the infant Horus was in her day, Mary as the Queen of Heaven (both crowned and uncrowned) with the infant Jesus on her lap was a particularly popular theme among Medieval and Renaissance artists.
I yet need to provide a link between "Mary, Queen of Heaven" and the game of chess – beyond the rather esoteric and yet ancient concept of " woman as throne" that I previously mentioned. Stay tuned…
August 8, 2007: Chess Lessons from Ancient History
August 9, 2007: More Chess Lessons from Ancient History
September 4, 2007: The Priestesses of Mary
It has been said that chess is a game of archetypes. One of those archetypes is the concept of rulership, as embodied in the throne. The throne is a woman. As far back as we have datable archaeological artifacts, the throne is a woman (more on this later). This isn't a feminist manifesto of uterine power - it's just the plain ol' simple truth. Jan, August 9, 2007
I’m saving a lot of good stuff for an eventual big, long and scholarly (cough, cough) article for Goddesschess, but I realized I owed a post here based on the "more on this later" comment I made in my August 9, 2007 post referenced above.
There is a big gap, time-wise, between the ancient Egyptian Goddess Isis, the Ashdoda, and Mary, Queen of Heaven. In between are many women/throne combination artifacts that have been excavated over the years, all across the Middle East, the Aegean, and Central Asia. By way of example, several thousand years before Isis, there was the "Leopard Queen" discovered at Katul Hoyuk, who is perhaps the oldest representation of a woman upon a throne; the Vinca culture, represented by recent excavations at Plocnik, dates to about 5000 BCE (photo: a headless goddess sits on a chair, with hands resting on rounded belly, perhaps pregnant, Vinca culture, Plocknik); Isis dates to about 3400-3200 BCE. There is a chronological and cultural progression of worship of the Queen of Heaven during all that time, right down to the 3rd century CE, when the Collyridians worshipped the Virgin Mary as the Queen of Heaven.Epiphanius states that the "priestesses of Mary" worshipped her as a goddess in her own right, the Queen of Heaven, with rituals far older than Christianity, and "adorn a chair or square throne, spread a cloth over it, and at a certain solemn time, place bread on it and offer it in the name of Mary." The worshippers also partook of the sacred cakes.
In the Bible, this harkens back to reports made by the prophets in the Old Testament regarding worship of a much more ancient Queen of Heaven than the Virgin Mary, who was worshipped in Palestine and Phoenicia thousands of years before Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, was conceived. The worshippers of Ashtoreth, Asherah and Ishtar all celebrated their revered Goddesses by baking specially marked "cakes" (various types of flat and risen breads) and consuming them at special feast times. The custom passed all the way down to modern times, in the form of "Hot Cross Buns" which are served on Easter Sunday, the holiday of the Germanic Mother Goddess Eostre.
Despite the Church Fathers’ best efforts to suppress the "heresy" of worship of the Mother Goddess, the Queen of Heaven, they failed. Finally, they capitulated (perhaps in the nature of "if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em…) The Council of Ephesus in 431 CE formally sanctioned devotion to the Virgin Mary as Theotokos, Mother of God, (literally, God bearer), allowing the creation of icons bearing the images of the Virgin and Child. Devotion to Mary was, however, already widespread by this point. Early representations showed Mary as the "Throne of Heaven" with Mary and the Child Jesus both crowned as royalty. These are, though, just a reiteration of the 3000 years earlier representations of Isis with Horus on her lap.
Like Isis with the infant Horus was in her day, Mary as the Queen of Heaven (both crowned and uncrowned) with the infant Jesus on her lap was a particularly popular theme among Medieval and Renaissance artists.
I yet need to provide a link between "Mary, Queen of Heaven" and the game of chess – beyond the rather esoteric and yet ancient concept of " woman as throne" that I previously mentioned. Stay tuned…
Friday, August 10, 2007
Friday Night Miscellany
Hola Darlings. It's hot as hell and I have no choice but to continue to take it - unless I move, which I'm not planning on doing until I reach retirement age. Sigh.
It's Friday night and I'm feeling alright other than a mild case of heat stroke; School of Rock is on and it's tres funny - love the manic character of Jack Black.
Here's a selection of this and that. First up, Frank “Boy” Pestaño's column about King Kirzan and his abduction by aliens years ago.
Eight year old C H Meghna models herself after India's GM Koneru Humpy...
Gee - an integrated, comprehensive and cross-disciplinary approach and interpretation of archaeological finds yields - A NEW CONSENSUS on development of civilization in the Middle East? Well, DUH! One note - Jiroft IS located on a river - the Halilrood in Iran (Lawler didn't pick that up for some reason???) - and so the model of civilizations developing around rivers/alluvial plains still holds...
Lately, I've become fascinated with "Marian" apparitions. I am about to tread on some religious sensibilities here so, if you are susceptible, please DISCONTINUE READING NOW! This ties into some research I've been doing off and on for years - about sacred spaces/sacred places. In many of these ancient "places of power" (for lack of a better descriptive term), apparitions of the Virgin Mary have been seen. But, as places of power are invariably ancient, predating christianity, I believe that in those ancient places (such as Lourdes) where the "Virgin Mary" has been seen, it is actually a manifestation of an older mother goddess tradition that is "filtered" through the eyes of Christians who have seen these visions and - thus - they say it's the Virgin Mary.
I know, darlings, you think I'm full of baloney sausage but you'll humor me anyway :) I would like to point out this interesting "coincidence." The ancient Egyptian goddess, Isis (Aset), sometimes wore a star-spangled cloak or cape in some of her depictions. Isis (Aset) predates the Christian Virgin Mary by 3500 years, give or take a few years. The Virgin Mary, in her manifestation at Pontmain in 1871 for instance, also wore a star-spangled cloak. Hmmm, methinks that the Goddess doesn't change over time, but our perceptions do...
Dylan McLain writes about chess in the movies at the New York Times.
Enjoy -
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