Schwarze Notmuttergottes and Our Lady of Dublin: Two more Black Virgins

I've seen upwards of 20 Black Madonnas since stumbling half-drunk into the dark and cool confines of the Notre Dame de la Daurade basilica in Toulouse 15 years ago, so astonished at its Black Madonna that I embarked on a near-obsessional path in search of more "Vierges Noires".  The flame has abated, but it still gives me an excuse from time to time, when I travel someplace new, to visit an out-of-the-way village church or chapel in order to see another example or to simply poke around some place I might not otherwise have visited.

That said, I've never seen anything but "Latin" examples, for lack of a better term, in the south of France, Spain and Catalonia and, to my surprise, Andorra.  So it was with great pleasure that I was able to see a couple of examples outside of those countries.  The first is in Luxembourg city, the second in Dublin.

Schwarze Notmuttergottes

The first thing I noticed about the Luxembourg and Dublin Madonnas is that there is no origin story similar to the Spanish and especially French Madonnas.  These are almost to a number described as having been found after the strange behavior of animals, usually cows or oxen.  They were often found in springs, buried or hidden within bushes or trees.  They usually could not be moved from where they had been found.

Like most Black Madonnas, the Schwarze Notmuttergottes is renowned as a miracle-worker.  Many scholars date her to ca. 1360 and from the Cologne school, but there are no documents to support this; some Medieval accounts say she was brought back from the Middle East during the Crusades, which may account for one of her titles, the "Egyptian Mother of God."  We have seen a strong link between the Black Madonnas with Egypt before, not only in connection with Isis, but with Saint Sarah and the "three Marys".  It occurs to me that her mysterious origin may be a key feature to an especially fervent cult; not knowing from where or when she came, it's easier to imbue this ambiguity with a sense of mystery and miracle.  Having detailed documentation of being sculpted in a workshop makes it more difficult to imagine her as a miracle-working wonder sent from God.  To my eye, her posture, s-curve, coloration, crown and baton make her a dead-ringer for Notre Dame de Bonne Délivrance, located in the wealthy Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, said to be a 14th c. copy of an 11th c. original, though some say she is far more recent.

Her titles have included "Star of the Heavens" and the "Queen of Peace".  Already dark due to the wood in which she is made, she was inevitably darkened by years of burning tapers and incense, becoming specifically the Schwartze Notmuttergottes, or "Black" Mother in the wake of a plague epidemic, when she was charged with protecting children.  The centrality of her blackness as a salient feature is attested to not only in her name after this event, but in the fact that in later restorations her skin has been painted black; by the time of the plague, her blackness had become a critical part of her power.

The "Emergency Mother" was housed in a Franciscan monastery which was destroyed during the French Revolution; She was hidden for a while at the convent in Marienthal until in 1805 it became possible again to publicly display her at the church of Saint-Jean-du-Grund.  She is especially venerated during Lent.

Our Lady of Dublin is housed in Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland. It is sculpted in wood and probably dates from the 16th century

Local legend says she started her life at St. Mary's Abbey, which was dissolved in 1539 as part of the Henrician reforms.  The first documentary evidence has her at St. Mary's Lane Parochial Chapel in 1749.  This chapel was razed in 1816, and (according to newspaper accounts in 1947 and 1974) Our Lady was found by a Carmelite priest in 1824.  It had been thoroughly disrespected at his point.  The priest is reported to have found her for sale in a common shop, and that she had in the interim, perhaps just after the Dissolution, been placed face down in an Inn's courtyard to serve as a pig trough!

Reports of neglect are a common theme in her story; a newspaper account from the 1830's reports that Her silver crown had been sold off; an article from the 60's states that when the Jesuits relocated the St. Mary's Lane chapel to Anne St., they simply left the statue behind.  In 1947 She went on temporary display at the National Museum of Ireland "as an example of a Catholic statue to survive the Penal days in Ireland"  She had obviously been rehabilitated; indeed, it has been on display in its current chapel since 1915, and rededicated in 1974.  (https://comeheretome.com/2013/11/13/our-lady-of-dublin-a-pig-trough-and-the-pillar/)

Her neglect and disrespect, and most of all, survival, is perhaps why she has been so revered.  The Irish survived English attempts to subjugate them and their Catholicism survived the Protestantism the English brought with them.  She thus has a kid of nationalist role like the Black Madonnas, for example, of Mexico, Poland, and Brazil.

North of the Border

Old friend Dr. Jensen (see Sausages in suitcases) sends us this interesting article about the growth of the Mexican La Santa Muerte cult in the U.S., and not just among Mexican immigrants (two devotees quoted are named Bragg and Beasley....)  Not to be confused with Argentina's San La Muerte. 

Underworld saint La Santa Muerte, symbol of vengeance prayed to by cartels, becoming popular in U.S. 

Folk saints are fascinating and evidently reflect a popular need.  That said, the growth of the crudest forms of superstition and irrational religious devotion is not really a good sign of a healthy society.

I could be wrong.

Previously:http://lawsofsilence.blogspot.fr/2007/08/folk-heroes-and-cults-of-death.html

♪ ♫ Get yerself a black Madonna....♪ ♫

Wanting to tie up any loose ends regarding my experiences with Black Madonnas, I decided to write a brief post on two roadside shrines I photographed years ago featuring Virgins dark in hue.

The first is located in the small town of Loubens-Lauragais, where an American acquaintance of mine once lived.  I made a web search to see if I could find any info on this shrine and there, on the village website,  I saw a link to...."la vierge noire".  I was both surprised and delighted.

The link leads to a PDF which tells us the legend of a child about to be attacked by a wolf and saved by an apparition of the Virgin.  Indeed, the parish church is dedicated to Notre Dame de Loubens-Lauragais.  This incident almost certainly gave the village it's name, as Loubens (Lobens de Lauragués in Occitan) is derived from the word for wolf.  "Lop" in some dialects of Occitan, "Lobo" in Spanish" etc.  In Latin is it "lupus."  We can see from the two examples how he "b" and the "p" in Romance languages interchange. 

The sculptor was Regis Vialaret, who also painted the interior of the church and apparently was a friend of the local priest.  The work is ceramic, made sometime in the 1950's.  The shrine is built into the wall of the local chateau, a modest affair belonging to a family of minor local nobles with a rich family history.

Calling it a "vierge noire" is a canny stroke, given contemporary interest in the phenomenon.  I would stop to visit if I was passing that way if I knew there was a Black Virgin to be found, and so would many others.  As it turns out, I was there anyway, took an interest in the sculpture, but never thought of it in the Black Virgin context until now....and my instinct has been vindicated.  As far as I can tell, no miracles are attributed to this statue and it doesn't have a fervent cult.....but it is dark and I can only imagine that the artist was either referring to the phenomenon of the Black Virgins or had his own aesthetic reasons, the appellation Black Virgin added later.

I think the wolf as an animal of pagan goddesses could be evoked here, but I'm more inclined to think  it's a straightforward reference is to the legend and the very real danger wolves presented to villagers in the Middle Ages, back when they were more numerous and apparently, much larger.

Coincidentally, I just saw the film Brotherhood of the Wolf, a fantastical take on real events in 18th-century France about the the Beast of Gévaudan.  This was a real reign of terror; in the course of a year or two there were over 200 attacks and nearly a hundred deaths by a wolf, wolf-pack or wolf hybrid.  The exact nature of the animal(s) is still not clear.  Although this is an extreme case, the danger was widespread.   This Virgin commemorates that collective memory.

The second roadside shrine in this post is also a more contemporary statue, but I have absolutely no details about it.  I can't even remember where it is.  Is does appear in a folder between photographs I took at Aspet and St. Béat....that is to say two chapels dedicated to Black Virgins.  There are several others within a short distance of these as well, representing a kind of micro-cluster among the already well-represented Pyrenées.  My next (and last post) on this phenomenon will discuss some examples I photographed in Andorra, which, as far as I can tell, have not been documented as Black Virgins.

What these two shrines tell me is that the Blackness of certain Virgins continues to exert a fascination and continues to be a salient feature worth referring to, even in humble devotions. Although the majority of the "BVs" are Romanesque works or post-Revolutionary re-creations of statues thrown onto the bonfires, it's more interesting to see this not as a static historical phenomenon but an ongoing devotion which is, to judge by the number of books and articles which continue to appear on the subject, a notable manifestation of contemporary spirituality.

P.S.  Jan. 16, 2012.

Gid asked in a comment (see below) if the second Madonna was holding Jesus.

From the close-up taken from the picture on the left, it would appear Mary is holding her hands in prayer and not the infant Jesus.

Crucifix in a Death Hand, pt. 4

LoS a while back translated some articles from the French press regarding a disturbed young woman who beat her mother to death with--among other objects--a crucifix. She was then placed under observation in a psychiatric hospital, where she was found dead during the night at the foot of her bed. Last we read an autopsy was ordered and then....nothing.

We'd all but given up on hearing more about this case, but as it turns out there was some follow-up. It just wasn't very loud. Apparently the autopsy revealed that:

"Les causes de la mort de cette femme sont naturelles. Elle ne s'est pas suicidée et n'a subi aucune violence."

"The causes of this woman's death were natural. She didn't commit suicide or suffer any violence."

When asked how then, she died, the procurer responded:

"Je n'en dirai pas plus."

"I won't speak of it further."

So, that clears things up.

We suspect that by being grossly incompetent in leaving the young woman alone, hospital officials would rather let this story fade away and sadly, the French legal system and media seem all too willing to comply. Which, if you know France, isn't actually all that surprising. One hand washes the other.

Mektoub.

Mexico targets Death Saint popular with criminals

You may have heard of the "Narco-Saint" Jesus Malverde and La Santísima Muerte. These unofficial "folk" saints are very popular in Mexico among the poor and apparently with drug traffickers, hitmen, other bogeymen of the Prohibition state. All, we suppose, groups of people immersed in a violent milieu and with little faith in the system. They put their faith in only one true certainty.

According to this article in the Washington Post, the Mexican government has added destroying shrines to Santa Muerte to its list of ways to fight the drug cartels.

"A skeletal figure of a cloaked woman with a scythe in her bony hand, the Santa Muerte has become more popular in Mexico even as its drug wars have become more violent. Mexican law enforcement won't say outright it is targeting Santa Muerte, but last month soldiers stood guard while government backhoes crushed more than 30 public shrines to the saint in Nuevo Laredo, across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas. In the two weeks before, several altars in Tijuana and an altar built on the highway between Reynosa and Rio Bravo were razed."

Crucifix in a death hand, pt. 3

She beat her mother to death with a crucifix
25/03/2009

Awash in mysticism and dementia this drama unfolded Monday in a little apartment on the
rue de l'église.

"I had visions in a dream. I saw that I was the devil, that I was evil and that I had to do it." So declared Élisabeth F., 34, to the police soon after killing her mother Thérèse, 81, during the night on Monday.

The drama unfolded at around 1:15 am in a little apartment the two women occupied on the first floor at 7, place de l’église, in Lourdes. The old woman was asleep in her bedroom and her daughter, like every evening, unfolded the sofa bed in the dining room where she slept. Suddenly, certainly “taken with an attack of dementia” in the words of state prosecutor Gérard Aldigé, she went into her mother’s room and lept upon her in order to do the harm her recent vision incited. She grabbed a lamp from the night table and with it landed several blows upon the face and body of her mother. In a state of extreme agitation, she next took a slat from the bed and continued to hit her mother; she began once again, this time with the crucifix which had evidently been fixed above the bed of her elderly mother. The poor woman could not survive such a flurry of violence.

Prostrate and covered in blood

Soon after, Élisabeth went back into the dining room to call the SAMU [paramedics -LoS]. She simply said: “Come, I’ve just killed my mother.” When the firemen and police arrived her mother was prostrate and covered in blood. As the body of the old woman was transported to the morgue, investigators collected their first statements and placed the young woman in custody. The incoherence of her statements quickly convinced them that she was insensate.

The examining doctor diagnosed that she was suffering from serious mental illness and would not be responsible for her actions. Monday at the end of the day she was placed in the psychiatric unit of the Lannemezan hospital.

An apartment shrine

She will again be examined by one or more psychiatrists in the coming days or weeks. “These examinations will allow us to determine if she is or isn’t capable of standing trial” explained the state prosecutor.

The two women lived here “for about 2 years” reported Émile Magendie, the owner of their apartment. Apparently they had been living in a little lodging on the rue Bartayres. They had left Champagne and the rest of their family for Paris before installing themselves in the Marial city a little more than four years ago. It seems that Thérèse was no longer in contact with her ex-husband and her seven other children. Élisabeth no longer saw them either. The family had come apart after several personal quarrels. Élisabeth, a secret to nobody, suffered from serious psychological problems (see article below).

Very pious, they chose this city because of the devotion they vowed to the Virgin and God. Their two-room flat was stuffed with religious objects, statuettes of Mary and the crucifix. “They were really very faithful, not to say mystics” confirms a neighbor, who always saw them together. Lately Thérèse went out much less. She looked tired. As for Élisabeth, her condition had worsened.

At Lourdes, everyone who crossed their path assures “that they demonstrated a great mutual attachment, they had a great and real love for each other.”

Yesterday in the corridor of their little building, a cat was meowing before their door. It was theirs. It searched in vain for its mistresses. In the afternoon the owner of the apartment took it to the SPA.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"She dreamed of giving her mother a tomb."

Jacques Barzu, departmental president of the Red Cross, knew Thérèse and Élisabeth well: “The came to pick up their care packages every week, I felt they were very close and attentive to one another. I’m devastated by this news; I didn’t think she was so disturbed or violent. Depressive, yes.” He said that for Élisabeth "The future of her mother was an obsessive preoccupation, above all, her death. She often evoked the last remains of her mother and complained of not having enough money to offer her a tomb.” In effect, with both of their small pensions, retirement for one and disability for the other, they lived with about 700 euros. “For three weeks I felt bad about them both,” continued Jacques Barzu. “I remember when they arrived at Lourdes, it was Christmas evening, they had a hard-boiled egg for the both of them. The Red Cross gave them packages of food and some things for everyday life. Thérèse suffered as well. She called me Friday night to unload and speak about the decline of her daughter. She told me that she was in a great mental suffering.”

Father Bernard Saint-Voirin also evoking their mutual love, dwelt a little on their life in Lourdes as, “two lost in life. The daughter was very depressed. She pursued long and brilliant studies but something happened which remains in a shadowy place. I didn’t feel alarmed, however, and I received them every month.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lourdes, the "fraternal city"

This affair is yet another reminder that Lourdes, called the “fraternal city", attracts the distressed from the world over.

“There are many people lost or suffering from mental problems, who sometimes come to live here” said a member of the SAMU.

The volunteers of the Red Cross and Secours Catholique know very well those who come daily for help.

Unfortunately some of these wanderers end up in dramas such as the one which occurred during Monday night.

Crucifix in a death hand, pt. 2

It may be pointless to go back and translate earlier articles, when the latest in the series pretty much covers all the major points. But so be it. They're interesting for the sense of atmosphere they give. Also the absurdity. The title of the article evokes a "tueuse au crucifix," a crucifix killer, but the article itself mentions only that the crucifix was probably used. Earlier articles give a better indication of why this is likely, and we'll get to them soon. But yeah, the headlines are definitely sensationalist.

Another interesting aspect of this case, media-wise, is that as of today, no more articles have appeared, and the autopsy reports were due out two days ago. Four articles up to this point and no follow-up on the sudden and less-than-clear death of the killer.

The rationalist will see this as an obvious case of a mentally ill and delusional young woman who killed her mother and succumbed to some logical death as a result: shock, heart attack, suicide....

And the rationalist is probably right.

Yet, until all the questions are answered, this has all the makings of a tale of true devilry.

One can only imagine the scene as the incubus stalks into the young killers' room: "B-but you promised...." "Yes" replies the Devil's minion as he licks a clawed index finger. "I did...."

Shadows leap about on the wall as with unseen psionic power the incubus simply removes the soul from the hapless girl, who signed it away years ago and spoke in jumbled remorse of witchcraft and Satan up until the day her contract came to be honored....

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Lannemezan. The crucifix killer found dead
27/03/2009 Hélène Dubarry

After killing her mother at Lourdes, Élizabeth F. is discovered lifeless at the foot of her bed in a psychiatric hospital.

All legal action is now moot: the lifeless body of Élizabeth F. was discovered yesterday at 10:30 am next to her hospital bed.

"We can't say anything for the moment, for the good reason that we don't know anything" explained state prosecutor Gérard Aldigé yesterday afternoon as he confirmed the death of the young woman. During the night last Monday, Élizabeth, 34, killed her mother at Lourdes, in a fit of rage an uncommon violence. The 81-year-old woman succumbed to the blows of a table lamp, a plank from a bed and probably a crucifix (see previous editions). Soon after the drama, the prosecutor evoked the possibility of mental illness. At the very least very altered behavior. Élizabeth, given her psychiatric state, was admitted to the psychiatric hospital of Lannemezan in order to receive appropriate care.

According to our sources the young woman had already been put in a psychiatric hospital at least once.

Since entering Lannemezan, Élizabeth had been receiving treatment, her ususal treatment, doubtless a little modified. Yesterday morning this treatment was administered as usual and the young woman was no more agitated than usual. She was put in a single room. Two hours later, at 10:30, the hospital staff discovered Élizabeth, stretched out dead next to her bed. There were no marks on the body and nothing to give an explanation: "We don't know anything about the cause of death," continued Gérard Aldigé. "We assume nothing. This is the reason why I asked for an autopsy to be performed by Dr. Michel Disteldorf. A toxocological analyses will also be performed."

For the moment, nothing leads one to think of suicide, but nothing prevents on from thinking it, either. The death could possible have a simple organic cause, such as a heart attack. The results of the autopsy will not be known before Monday afternoon.

Crucifix in a death hand

What follows is a translation of an article in originally published on March 30 in Tolouse's Dêpeche du Midi by Francine Depeyre and Guillaume Atchouel. It is the latest in a series that LoS will translate posthaste.

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Crime in Lourdes : "Elisabeth often spoke of satanism."

She killed her mother with blows from a crucifix and then she died in the hospital. The funeral of the two women will be performed this morning. Her brother speaks.

The funeral of Thérèse D., 81, and her daughter Elisabeth F., 34, , are to be performed today at 10:30 in the church of the Sacré-Coeur in Lourdes. The first died tragically during the night last Monday, killed by blows from a crucifix from her daughter with whom she shared a small apartment in the Marial City on the rue de l’église. The second died mysteriously in her room at a psychiatric hospital in Lannemezan where she had just been interned after commiting this terrible act. An autopsy was performed at the end of last week to determine the exact circumstances of her death. For the moment the results of this exam have not been made public.

The family of the two women, natives of the department of Aube, will not all attend the funerals. For more than twenty years harmony has not reigned in this family, it would seem, and “relations were tense” say relatives. After separating from her husband, Thérèse and Élisabeth decided to install themselves in Lourdes after brief stints in Paris and the Aveyron. Even if he had not seen them for several years and despite everything, the eldest son Claude stayed in telephone contact with his mother and sister.

She was fascinated by withcraft

Regarding Élisabeth, it was common knowledge among her entire family that “she was psychologically fragile and that her life was punctuated by several psychiatric episodes.” According to Claude "She was interested for a long time in Satanism and witchcraft. It fascinated her and she often spoke about it.” Soon after killing her mother she explained to a policeman that she had seen in a dream she herself was evil and thus what she had to do. Was the murder of her mother a consequence of the her fascination for the devil on her unwell mind? The use of a crucifix to accomplish her crime leads to this conclusion even if there may no way of ever knowing for certain. There remains the fact that her worried mother recently confided to a member of the Red Cross of Lourdes that “her mental state was aggravated.” She was no less a believer than her mother and very pious. She regularly confided to a priest in Lourdes. The various religious objects cluttering their apartment attests as much to her great devotion.

The two women chose to set themselves up in Lourdes to fully live their faith and to regularly visit the Massabielle grotto to pray.

Élisabeth often repeated that she feared being unable to pay for a burial plot for her mother if she died. It is true that her mother lived with nothing but 7OO euros pension a month. However, her mother had purchased funeral insurance in order to be rid of this financial and administrative rigamarole. Did she know? Or had she hidden this fact?

United in their world they consequently pursued their emotional deadlock into death.

----
Here are links to earlier articles soon to be translated:

Lannemezan. La tueuse au crucifix retrouvée morte (Lannemezan. The crucifix killer found dead) 28 March

Lourdes. « Les délires mystiques, ça arrive vite » (Lourdes. "The mystical ravings come quickly") 26 March

Lourdes. Elle tue sa mère à coups de crucifix (Lourdes. She beat her mother to death with a crucifix)

Actually looks kind of fun....

Villagers throw babies from temple roof

(CNN) -- In a ritual that would terrify most mothers, Indian villagers have cheered as screaming babies were dropped from a 50-foot temple tower.

For 500 years, worshippers at a Muslim shrine in western India have continued the tradition -- a rite considered to bring good health and good luck to the children.

The infants land and bounce on a bed-sheet held taut by men 50 feet below, and are quickly passed through the crowd to their mothers.

Villagers say no babies have been injured during the ritual, which is practiced by Muslims and Hindus in Musti village in the district of Solapur, in the state of Maharashtra.

It also takes place elsewhere in the country, mostly in smaller villages, on special occasions.

Parents who want their infants to participate in the event first take a vow at the Baba Sheikh Umar Saheb Dargah, or temple. Villagers say the ritual is a way of giving thanks.

But critics want the practice banned, with many saying it's unsafe.

"The state has to interfere," said Sanal Edamaruku, founder and president of Rationalist International and the Indian Rationalist Association. The group supports secularism and freedom of expression.


That's the entire CNN article above, but the real gem is this raw footage on CNN Video without commentary. Interesting bit about this ritual is that it's practiced both by Hindus and Muslims. No further comment at this time.

Gauchito Gil Redux

Our Argentine correspondent sends us this article from Santa Fe daily El Litoral dated 8 Janary 2008. Gauchito Gil was previously discussed here. Translation forthcoming. Until then try your luck with an online translator.

....

Update 13 January. The following translation was made with the assistance of http://www.freetranslation.com/; Cassell's Spanish-English Dictionary (1978); and Ximena Faya.

....

Miraculous powers are attributed to him

Thousands of pilgrims in Corrientes to honor Gauchito Gil

Today is the anniversary of his murder, according to legend, by a police patrol.

----

Thousands of pilgrims arrived at a site located in the neighborhood of the city of Mercedes in Corrientes where they paid homage to Gauchito Gil. Today is the anniversary of the day on which, according to legend, he was murdered by a police patrol and since which time miraculous powers have been attributed to him.

Municipal and police sources reported that the faithful have come from all corners and since yesterday have occupied the installations adjacent to the place where Jesus Antonio de la Cruz Gil, best-known as Gauchito Gil, is buried.

In this place a kind of oratory was built and has since given rise all manner of pilgrimage-based commerce, converting the popular rite into a lucrative business.

The sanctuary of Gauchito Gil, located at some 8 kilometers from the center of Mercedes and some 275 kilometers from the city of Corrientes, each year at this time harbors devotees from different points of the country and even neighboring countries.

In 2007 more than 120 thousand people came on January 8 "to salute" Gauchito.

An increased presence of provincial and National Police has been mounted in the zone since last Sunday. It is a matter of preventing not only accidents or fights, somewhat common due to the conglomeration of people and to the excessive consumption of alcohol, but also other types of crime such as contraband merchandise and drug trafficking that in previous years have proliferated in a significantly.

In the early hours today the bulk of the pilgrims arrived, above all from the delegations of other provinces, that arrived together in order to pass "a few hours" in the sanctuary.

A legend that grows

According to popular tradition, Gaucho Gil lived in the period between end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. For his followers he was responsible for bringing a little justice to the disparities of the epoch, stealing from the wealthy to help those in need.

Nevertheless, for the authorities of that time, Antonio de la Cruz Gil was a dishonorable gaucho, a deserter from the Army and a murderous thief. They searched for him intensely until he was trapped in an ambush and killed. The "legend" indicates that in the moments prior to his death he managed to speak with the policeman who wounded him; Gil indicated that his son, seriously ill, would be cured when he returned to his home.

Apparently, when the policeman returned to his dwelling, he found his son cured of his pain and from this the belief in Gaucho Gil’s miraculous powers was born.The legend grew over time, winning increasingly more followers and becoming one of the most popular rites in all the Argentine territory.

A little history

For Félix Coluccio, investigator of the American folk tradition, the gaucho Antonio Mamerto Gil Núñez, or Antonio Gil, or Curuzú Gil had in the middle of the last century a band that "divested money from the rich to give to the poor". The denomination "curuzú" signifies cross.

His greater significance dates from between 1840 and 1860, an epoch of small guerilla bands and their leaders. His life is wrapped in thousand tangles; it is said that he was an exploited laborer that became cunning, that he participated in the war with Paraguay under the orders of one General Madariaga, and that he was executed as a deserter.

According to Mrs. Anabel Miraflores, her mother Estrella Díaz of Miraflores, a rich land owner, had an affair with Gil at the same time she was the intended of the local police chief. This, and the hatred of her brothers, caused Curuzú to flee Pay Ubre and he enlisted in the Paraguay War.

After the fall of Rosas the federal litoraleños [residents of the Littoral, a region of Argentina] were divided into two factions: Reds (traditionalists of the divisa punzó or autonomistas) and Celestials (liberals) According to the legends, Gil was recruited by the Celestial colonel Juan de la Cruz Salazar, and as the gauchito was sympathetic to the Reds, took advantage of an opportunity afforded him by the negligence of his unit and deserted with mestizo Ramiro Brown and the criollo Francisco Gonzalez; companions whose path led them to become famous brigands.

His companions were killed by shots from a blunderbuss and the gaucho was put under arrest and taken to Goya. In spite of the intercession of one Colonel Velázquez, he was hung upside-down from a carob tree (on the way to Goya, at some 8 kilometers from Mercedes) and beheaded. Apparently he was hung that way to elude his reputed hypnotic powers and to avoid the influence of the payé (talisman) of San la Muerte that he had hanging around his neck.

Welcome to Visions of Jesus Christ.com

This site is a collection of weeping statues, weeping icons, miraculous images and a list of Catholic visionaries who are associated with Marian apparitions.

'Nuff said, really.

It was fortuitous that Laws of Silence stumbled onto Visions of Jesus via the page about the rather gruesome Bolivian weeping icon we've pictured with this here blog entry, for he's macabre enough to excite the morbid imagination and invite further exploration of the site.

Although the site is evidently reverential and comes from a standpoint of faith, there are lots of good photos and lore to be found for those seeking to learn more about "miraculous" icons. And hey, why not put it into some context with a dubious Wikipedia link to Weeping statues. While you're at it, take a peep at Marian apparitions.

Folk Heroes and the Cults of Death

Only a post or so ago Laws of Silence linked to a Washington Post article about Jesus Malverde, a folk saint of northern Mexico whose cult has made its way into the teeming capital city. Malverde was a dark and handsome man, or so it is said, who was either a construction worker or railway man. During the anarchy which preceded the Mexican Revolution in 1910, he is said to have become a bandit, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Then he was captured and again, reports differ, but he was either shot or hung. Some accounts give this martyrdom an especially New Testament spin by adding he was betrayed by a friend for a reward. Today he's treated as a full-fledged saint, his shrine attracts thousands yearly and healings have been attributed to him. The Vatican recognizes none of this but no matter, his cult is firmly entrenched anyway. The Post article describes a family shrine in a poor neighborhood of Mexico City, where Malverde is posed with "La Santísima Muerte", patroness of death. The scene described is macabre and the two make a sort of holy couple, he dressed in a stylish cowboy hat and sporting a thick mustache, she dressed as the blushing bride, her skeletal hand clutching a scythe!

Jump a few thousand kilometers south to Argentina. Gauchito Gil was a farmhand born in the 1840's in the region of Corrientes. A handsome young man, he fell in love with a wealthy widow. They may have had an affair. When a rival, who happened to be the local police chief, heard of this affair he conspired to have Gil arrested. Gil fled to the army, where he fought against neighboring Paraguay. He returned a hero and was temporarily shielded, but was pressed back into service in the Argentine Civil War.

By this time Gil was tired of the fighting and he deserted. When the police finally caught up with him he was tortured and strung up by his heels from a tree. As one of their number approached to kill Gil, Gil told him that he knew the man's son was dying, but if he prayed to him (Gil), his dying son would be spared. The cop then slit his throat.

The policeman, however, could not let the condemned man's words rest, and he prayed for Gil's intercession. The dying son recovered. The policeman, grateful, decided to give Gil a proper burial, build a shrine in his memory and spread the word of the miracle. (Alternate details of the legend can be found here.)

The story is strikingly similar to that of Malverde. A poor yet virile and honorable man lives outside the law, becoming a hero to the marginal and suffers death for it. Like Malverde, Gil's cult is fervent among the poor and thousands flock to his shrine near Mercedes (Corrientes) each year, especially on January 8th, the day of his "martyrdom." Also like Malverde, the Church has given no official recognition to this cult.

Corrientes is home to many beliefs which are not officially recognized by the Church. Another regional folk saint honors death. Again, like Malverde, one can also find Gil side by side with San La Muerte or the Señor de la Muerte.

The cult of Señor de la Muerte or San La Muerte is very widespread in Corrientes. Just as the cult of Jesus Malverde spread to the capital city from the north, Gauchito Gil and San La Muerte have ended up in Buenos Aires. This website, if you can read Spanish or not, is guaranteed to intrigue. All of it seems so exotic, but to the practitioners, there is no conflict with this cult and Catholicism. They are simply celebrating another saint, morbid though it may be. The Protestants are trying to chip away at these beliefs as they are everywhere else in Latin America; in the process, they've left some interesting photos and descriptions.

What is intriguing is that in Mexico and Argentina we find nearly identical stories of a common man, virile and mustachioed, struck down by the Man and resurrected as a folk saint. Their stories are essentially the same and both are found side by side with Holy Death.

San La Muerte, unfortunately, is not simply colorful regional charm to blog about blythely. While surely not representative of the cult in any wider sense, some authorities in Corrientes suspect it had a part to play in the gruesome ritual murder of a 12-year-old boy.

The following account of this gruesome story comes from a report by Argentina's Pagina 12.

Ramoncito was the child of a poor woman who became a prostitute to support her family. He himself was eventually drawn into the world of child prostitution, still managing to go to school. In fact he was last seen leaving his school, on October 6, 2006. He was found the following day, dressed only in shorts. His head had been placed by his left shoulder.

Forensics reports state that he was beheaded with a sharp knife from left to right. As the beheading began, the boy was alive. The boy had cigarette burns on his hips, arms and the palms of his hands. A deep cut under his left buttock was found. His blood had been drained and the third to seventh cervical vertebrae had been removed.

Early in the case, the authorities thought they had found the murderers, suspected practioners of kimbanda among them. They were released in June as there was insufficient reason to hold them further. Then, in mid-July two women were arrested after a search revealed traces of human blood on the walls in one of the women's houses, located in the slaughterhouse district of Mercedes. They were both practitioners of a mish-mash of Christianity, kimbanda, various Afro-Brazilian practices, spiritualism and especially devoted to the Corrientes version of Señor La Muerte.

The judicial hypothesis is that the boy was a sacrifice in the death cult. "....Finding the body at a crossroads of street and avenue, the trunk and the feet pointing northeast. The position of the skull, that had been removed by somebody with certain knowledge. And mainly the fact the blood had been used for something, that we did not find any blood in the body makes us think this is a ritual crime" said a source familiar with the case to Pagina 12.

The family's lawyer, though appreciative of police efforts, said that "we cannot think there is much more behind this." Sources at the prosecutor's office admit that another line to follow is the "drugs" theory, though there is nothing concrete beyond the idea that the participants may have used drugs when they participated in the "sacrifice."

Jose Humberto Miceli, an ethnographer studying new religious movements since 1985, believes that to find an explanation of the crime one must look to the cult of Señor de la Muerte. Formerly he is said to have consumed blood symbolically because if not he would dry up. The missing vertebrae are also important. "Normally they [his devotees] robbed these from cemeteries," said Miceli, "and made talismans from them or with the scrapings of these, made ointments. It is the magico-religious tradition of Corrientes."

If it does prove to be the case that a perverted devotion to San La Muerte is behind this sad story, there is no reason the tar the entire belief system. The murderers are exceptional not only in their cruelty but in murdering someone at all. In the last century, this would be the first muder directly linked to the worship of San La Muerte. It's not the cult which should be eradicated, but the grinding poverty and degradation that compelled a mother and her son into prostitution in order to survive, and led the child directly into the hands of a savage and unconscionable death.

"The Eagle of the Arabs"

Saddam Hussein's burial place, in his native village on the banks of the Tigris, may be the only public space in Iraq where the former ruler, hanged in December at the age of 69, is openly extolled. Under a decree dating from the American occupation in 2003, still in force under the new Iraqi government, all paintings, photographs and statues of Mr. Hussein are forbidden, as are public protests in his support. At least in terms of public hagiography, he remains, everywhere else in Iraq, a nonperson.

Interesting NYT article about the shrine to Saddam erected by his family in Awja. Reporter John F. Burns seems to be sporting a heavy set of brass balls.

The Narco-Saint

"I am the Devil. Dance with me," the recorded voice shrieks. "I can give you sex. I can give you drugs. I can give you house." The audience watches, transfixed. Some carry statues of La Santísima Muerte and peer at the whirling young girl under the blade of the saint's sickle.

So reads a Washington Post article about Jesús Malverde, a folk hero from the Mexican State of Sinaloa. There are conflicting stories about who he was, how he met his end at the hands of the Mexican government and his existence has never actually been verified. But he's a popular figure in the north due to his reputation as a kind of Robin Hood, often called the "narco-saint" after having been adoped by drug traffickers as their patron; his shrine in Culiacán attracts thousand each year, despite not being recognized in any way by the Catholic church. Nonetheless, miracles and healing have been attributed to him.

The ritual described in the Post article is fascinating and bizarre, recommended reading from the Laws of Silence.