The gate of the year

Statue of the Madonna del Soccorso (“Our Lady of Relief”) kept in the Sanctuary of the Beata Vergine del Soccorso at San Severo, Foggia, Italy. According to tradition, the statue had come from Sicily in 1564, but was restored and turned into baroque style, following the tastes of the time, in 1760 by the work of artist Domenico Urbano. The cult of the Black Madonna was promoted by Augustinian friars since the 1500s. The Virgin’s function as protectress of the fields is evidenced by the ears of wheat that she holds in her hand. She was appealed to in periods of drought, storms or other dangers for the crops and her statue was carried in procession along the fields and the streets.
The cult of the Black Madonna has provoked many questions and aroused various interpretative hypotheses, but it seems unquestionable that a meaningful continuity existed with the cults of the female divinities of Antiquity. The color of her face would be referred to the fertile soil, as a sign of generative power and propitiation of the vital forces.

[Image: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beata_Vergine_Maria_del_Soccorso]




Female Symbols

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Statue of the Madonna del Soccorso (“Our Lady of Relief”) kept in the Sanctuary of the Beata Vergine del Soccorso at San Severo, Foggia, Italy. According to tradition, the statue had come from Sicily in 1564, but was restored and turned into baroque style, following the tastes of the time, in 1760 by the work of artist Domenico Urbano. The cult of the Black Madonna was promoted by Augustinian friars since the 1500s. The Virgin’s function as protectress of the fields is evidenced by the ears of wheat that she holds in her hand. She was appealed to in periods of drought, storms or other dangers for the crops and her statue was carried in procession along the fields and the streets. The cult of the Black Madonna has provoked many questions and aroused various interpretative hypotheses, but it seems unquestionable that a meaningful continuity existed with the cults of the female divinities of Antiquity. The color of her face would be referred to the fertile soil, as a sign of generative power and propitiation of the vital forces. [Image: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beata_Vergine_Maria_del_Soccorso]