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Louis A. Ruprecht Jr., Georgia State University 

After Christmas and Easter, what’s the most important Christian holiday?  It’s not really a very Protestant question—since you need saints and Mary, and the whole ritual calendar they entail, to pose it—and even in the Catholic or Orthodox Christian world it depends very much on where you put the question. 

In Greece the question has a pretty clear answer: it’s August 15, the feast day of the “All-Holy” (Panagia) Virgin Mary.  And in Rome it’s equally clear: it was June 29, the Feast of Peter and Paul. 

A couple of things strike you about this last feast, right away.  First of all, it’s a strictly Roman holiday, unlike the Panagia for which most of Greece shuts down, even at the height of the tourist season.  By contrast, no other Italian city celebrates this festival as Rome does.  It’s actually a religious festival designed to celebrate the city of Rome, in its way.  Think of it in this sense as a subtle Roman combination of Thanksgiving with the Fourth of July. 

Still more unusually, the festival celebrates two saints together, Peter and Paul, men who were, according to the biblical record at least, sometime antagonists and never really co-workers.  So why celebrate these two saints together? 

The answer has a lot to do with the pre-Christian history of Rome, and the pagan residue that so often exists just beneath the surface of a great many Christian churches, Christian practices, and Christian holidays (think of the Druid trees at Christmas, the Dionysian rending and rejoining at Easter, and so on). 

In this particular case, Peter and Paul look a lot like Romulus and Remus, the mythic founders of the city of Rome.  Peter and Paul are deliberately juxtaposed to Rome’s primordial founders, almost as if to celebrate this, the second founding of the city… as a Christian city, in its new Christian guise.  Both Peter and Paul were believed to have made their way from Jerusalem to Rome, and both men were believed to have been martyred here, in the imperial capital.  This linkage of foundational violence, of the founder’s death and the founding of the city, is also very mythic and very old. 

There is abundant literary evidence for the connection of these two pairs of founding figures, the pagan pair and the Christian pair, in Roman mythology.  Ovid informs us (in Fasti VI, 795-796) that on the 29^th of June (“when as many days of the month remain/ as the Fates have names,” he quips), a temple was dedicated to Quirinus, “the god with the striped gown.”  Livy confirms this (in his History X, 46), adding that this Temple of Quirinus was dedicated with the rich spoils brought to Rome at the conclusion of the Samnite wars. 

But who was this Quirinus?  Ovid gives us the surprising answer (at Fasti II, 475-512): he was none other than Romulus himself, deified after his death, and commemorated as the primordial founder of Rome’s unswerving path to world conquest. 

You can see some remarkably suggestive iconographic parallels here. 

Romulus and Remus, rival brothers, only one of whom survives to establish Rome’s imperial destiny and to give the city its name.  So too with Peter and Paul, rival apostles, only one of whom was named by Christ himself as the Rock on which his church would be built, and who would lend his name to the most famous edifice in western Christendom. 

Peter is almost always depicted holding the keys to the Church Christ commissioned him to build.  Paul, by contrast, is almost always depicted holding the sword with which he was beheaded (as a Roman citizen, he had the ironic right not be crucified).  Peter was believed to have survived Paul, since he (and not Paul) is remembered as the first bishop of Rome, and thus the initiator of an unbroken chain of apostolic command.  Not enjoying Roman citizenship, he died by crucifixion (but upside down, so as not to claim any equality with his Lord). 

The stories regarding Peter’s martyrdom were more confused than Paul’s.  And it took a long time for Christians to settle on the precise date.  Peter’s martyrdom was commemorated on December 28th in the oriental Christian calendar, and on February 22^nd in Gaul.  Elsewhere, it was celebrated on the second Friday after Epiphany.  But not long after Christianity was established as the state religion of the empire with its “capital” in Rome, the date of Peter’s martyrdom was established as well: on none other than June 29^th (this was settled in the western, Latin-speaking churches by the late fourth century, and in the eastern churches by the mid-fifth). 

As so often in early Christian history, the emergence of Christianity as the defining cultural force of the empire, when viewed from one perspective, changed everything; viewed another way, it changed nothing, or put another way, the new faith was absorbed into the ritual life of the very world that it had come to conquer. 

Romulus was deified, renamed as Quirinus, and given a temple of his own on June the 29th. Then the Founder was to be reconceived in a Christian idiom, as a man named Simon who was renamed as Peter.  And after Peter was sanctified, the Founder received yet another temple in Rome, San Pietro, destined to be the premier religious edifice in all of western Christendom. 

But Rome remained Rome, always.  Peter’s successors were to live in a palace whose named (Quirinale) recalled Quirinus’s original temple, and bore the old Roman title of pontifex maximus when officiating at the Basilica of Saint Peter.  And this resplendent new temple dedicated to Peter was to celebrate his feast day on the selfsame date that the very first temple to Romulus was founded: on June the 29^th. 

Recalling the palimpsestic mish-mash that constitutes most religious traditions is to recall a central part of their allure, and offers a suggestive reminder of their fundamental humanity, a humanity that no divinization can quite erase.

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By Heather Abraham

Atop a distant mountain in southwest Turkey, overlooking the ancient city of Ephesus, lies a shrine shrouded in mystery.  Called Meryem Ana Evi (House of Mother Mary) by the native Turks, it is believed to be the last earthly home of the Virgin Mary.  Unlike the Marian shrines of Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe and Knock, which are held to be the locations of apparitions of Mary, Our Lady of Ephesus is a shrine connected to Mary’s physical historical presence.  Pilgrims who journey to Nightingale Mountain to visit the shrine believe it to be the site of her last earthly residence, the place of her death, and, for some, the location from which she was bodily assumed into heaven.  Although sought out by more than a million Christian and Muslim pilgrims annually, Our Lady of Ephesus has received little attention from the academic world.

House of Mary (Our Lady of Ephesus)

“Discovered” in 1891, Our Lady of Ephesus is a comparatively recent Marian phenomenon and was little known outside of the Izmir region of Turkey until 1906 when it received the first pilgrims from abroad.  The Ephesus tradition of Mary’s last years is supported in the traditional belief that Mary, after Jesus’ crucifixion, came to live with and be cared for by the Apostle John who Jesus commanded from the cross to care for his mother.  John 19:26-27 is witness to the event.

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”  Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”  And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

To the Christian faithful, it is reasonable to assume that John would have honored Jesus’ request to care for his mother and as Church tradition holds that John’s ministry was based in and around Ephesus, some have concluded that Mary, at the very least, spent time in Ephesus.

Although Mary is mentioned by several early church fathers as having lived in Ephesus in the years following the death of Jesus, the Jerusalem tradition, as the place of her death and Assumption, overshadowed and eventually replaced the Ephesus tradition and through the centuries, Mary’s connection to Ephesus was forgotten to all but the local Greek Christian population. With the silting up of its harbor, Ephesus, an important Christian center, port city, and banking center for centuries, became a shadow of its former self.  After facing economic hardship, earthquakes, and catastrophic soil erosion that forced a significant portion of its population to flee, the city fell in to a state of decline from which it never recovered. The conquest of the Ephesus and Izmir region by Seljuk Turks, in the eleventh century CE, saw the remaining Christian population’s flight to the isolated mountains surrounding the Ephesus valley.  These Christians, known at the Kirkindje, would keep the Marian Ephesus tradition alive whereas outside of the Ephesus valley, sources containing information about the Ephesus tradition were lost in the silt of the centuries until revived in the visions of an eighteen-century stigmatic Augustinian nun.

Anne Catherine Emmerich’s visions of Mary’s life in Ephesus add yet another layer of mystery to the elusive ruins atop Nightingale Mountain.  Emmerich’s visions, as recorded by the German Poet Clemens Brentano, were instrumental to the shrine’s ultimate discovery in 1891.  In Our Lady of Ephesus, Father Bernard Deutsch stresses the importance of Emmerich’s visions as a catalyst for the discovery of the shrine.  He writes,

It is altogether proper to say that without Catherine Emmerich, Mary’s home would in all probability not be known to the world today.  Without her, then, this house of the Holy Virgin, where already hundreds of thousands have venerated Mary, would still be nothing but a relatively deserted ruin, known only to a few.

Anne Catherine Emmerich

Born in 1774 in a small town in western Germany, Emmerich lived a pious but difficult life filled with poverty and illness.  At the age of twenty-eight, Emmerich entered a small Augustinian convent at Dulmen as a novitiate, and one year later she took her solemn vow becoming an Augustinian nun. With the rise of Napoleon and France’s domination over Europe, the convent at Dulmen was closed by the state, leaving the destitute Emmerich alone and homeless.  With nowhere to go, Emmerich remained at the abandoned convent, until her health deteriorated and she could no longer care for herself.  Hearing of her plight, a compassionate woman from a nearby village took her into her home and cared for Emmerich until her death in 1824.

In 1812 Emmerich allegedly began to bear the stigmata, including a cross over her heart, and wounds from the crown of thorns.  Witnesses to the event reported, “that as she prayed her face became flushed and she was seized by high fever.  Then all of a sudden she was infused by a brightness that specifically illuminated her hands and feet, which were seen to be covered with blood, as if they were punctured.”(Carroll)  After reports of the appearance of the stigmata, Emmerich began to attract visitors including the German Poet Clemens Brentano who spent the next six years recording the visions that ensued shortly after the onset of the stigmata.

Emmerich’s visions consisted of detailed accounts of the Passion of Christ and the life of the Virgin Mary after of the Crucifixion, including the location of her home on Nightingale Mountain overlooking the city of Ephesus.   Brentano spent six years at the bedside of Emmerich, recording and documenting her visions. His manuscripts entitled The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary and The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (inspiration for Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ) were published in 1842.  Both books would become and remain classic Catholic literature, but it was Brentano’s The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary that some believe ultimately led to the discovery of Our Lady of Ephesus.

While perhaps filled with lore, the circulated story of the modern “discovery” of the shrine is a fascinating one.  In 1891, Sister Marie de Mandat-Grancey presented visiting priests to her convent in Smyrna (Izmir) with a copy of Clemens Brentano’s The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  After reading and discussing Emmerich’s visions, Sister Mandat-Grancey challenged the priests to go to nearby Ephesus and investigate the validity of Emmerich’s visions, which included detailed descriptions of Mary’s House and its location on a mountain overlooking the ancient city.  Taking up the challenge, Father Jung and his fellow adventurers embarked on an expedition they believed would prove Emmerich’s visions false.  Armed with only the book to guide them, the skeptical Catholic Priests set off for the ruins of Ephesus.

The expedition left Smyrna and traveled to the seaside town of Kusadasi where they hired a local guide, Mustapha, to take them to Ephesus. After touring the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus and some of the area surrounding the city, Jung and his expedition spent the night in nearby Seljuk.  The next morning, armed only with the accounts of Emmerich’s visions, Jung chose Nightingale Mountain as a target for exploration. At Jung’s instruction, Mustapha led the expedition on an arduous climb up the side of Nightingale Mountain.  Upon reaching the crest, the exhausted and overheated party went in search for water and a place to rest.

Finding a group of Turkish women harvesting tobacco on the side of a hill, the party inquired as to where they could find water and shade in which to rest.  The locals directed them farther up the mountain to the “monastery where there is a fountain.”(Poulin)   Curious, as they were not aware of any monastery in the area, the expedition continued up the mountain until they came upon a well.  After quenching their thirst and resting, they set about exploring their surroundings.  A short distance from the well, they discovered the ruins of a small stone house.

Remembering Emmerich’s description of the house and geographic location, Jung asked Mustapha if one could see both the Aegean Sea and the city of Ephesus from this place on the mountain. Mustapha went off to investigate and retuned with an affirmative answer; both could be seen only from this place on the mountain. Emmerich had described the location, the house, and the surrounding grounds in great detail.

A little way behind the summit of the rocky hill from which one could see over the trees and hills to Ephesus and the sea with its many islands.  The place is nearer the sea than Ephesus, which must be several hours’ journey distant from the coast. (Palairet)

Regarding the house itself, Emmerich described St. John as building a house of stone on the mountainside where several Christian families where living in nearby caves.  After several days in the area, the priests stumbled upon caves and other geological features included in Brentano’s book.  In The Holy Virgins House, Father P. Eugene Poulin, a member of the expedition, writes, “I confess I was quite astonished when, at first sight, details one after another, details of great value appeared all of a sudden, just as C. Emmerich had indicated.  Truth surpassed conviction. There was nothing to say.” (Poulin)  Convinced they had uncovered the impossible, the expedition returned to the Convent in Smyrna (Izmir) and announced that they had found Mary’s House.   Father Vervault, another member of the expedition, recorded in his journal these words: “We looked, and we have found it.”(Caroll)  Reporting their “discovery,” the priests awaited further instruction from the Vatican.  Reacting immediately to the report, Vatican officials authorized a secession of expeditions and ordered a thorough investigation of the ruins and the surrounding area.  The priests would soon encounter, in a nearby mountain village, the Kirkindje Greeks, descendents of the Ephesian Christians who were not only aware of the sacred ruins atop Nightingale Mountain, but had kept the tradition of Mary’s home alive through the centuries with an annual communal pilgrimage to Our Lady of Ephesus.

Today, Our Lady of Ephesus receives more than a million pilgrims a year and it boasts a century of interfaith pilgrimage.  This unique Marian shrine not only attracts Christian pilgrims from a multitude of traditions but also Muslims who journey to Our Lady of Ephesus to connect with and pay respect to one of the Four Perfect Woman in Islam.

For more information on Mary in Islam, see Religion Nerd article entitled “Mary, A Bridge Between Christianity and Islam”

Sources:

• Father Bernard F. Deutsch, Our Lady of Ephesus (Milwaukee, WI: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1965)
• Carroll, Donald,  Mary’s House ( London: UK: Veritas Books, 2000)
• Eugene Poulin, The Holy Virgin’s House: True Story of its Discovery (Istanbul, Turkey: Arikan Yayinlari, 1999)
• Sir Michael Palairet, The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., 1970)

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By Erik Eckholm, New York Times

CHAMPION, Wis. — In France, the shrine at Lourdes is surrounded by hundreds of hotels and has received as many as 45,000 pilgrims in a single day. Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Mexico, draws millions of fervent worshipers a year.  

Now, a little chapel among the dairy farms here, called Our Lady of Good Help, has joined that august company in terms of religious status, if not global fame. This month, it became one of only about a dozen sites worldwide, and the first in the United States, where apparitions of the Virgin Mary have been officially validated by the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1859, the year after Mary is said to have appeared in Lourdes, a Belgian immigrant here named Adele Brise said she was visited three times by Mary, who hovered between two trees in a bright light, clothed in dazzling white with a yellow sash around her waist and a crown of stars above her flowing blond locks. As instructed, Ms. Brise devoted her life to teaching Catholic beliefs to children.

On Dec. 8, after a two-year investigation by theologians who found no evidence of fraud or heresy and a long history of shrine-related conversions, cures and other signs of divine intervention, Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay declared “with moral certainty” that Ms. Brise did indeed have encounters “of a supernatural character” that are “worthy of belief.”

Lourdes-like hordes have not yet gathered, but since the weighty decree a growing stream of visitors, some driving several hours, has found its way here to pray and revel in what many say is the palpable presence of Mary. Calls are coming in from as far as New York from church groups that want to visit by the busload, and local church officials are wondering whether they thought too small when they built a new parking lot — planned well before this month — with 75 spaces.

Debbie Banda, 46, and her mother, Mary Young, 75, who live nearby, learned of the shrine and the bishop’s decision from the news, and came for the first time on Wednesday.

“It’s incredible — she’s here, you just feel it,” Ms. Banda said after praying in the crypt chapel, said to be on the spot of the apparitions. As they passed a statue of Mary in white, just as described by Ms. Brise, Ms. Banda was overcome with emotion, weeping and hugging her mother. The two of them went back to pray some more.

“We need the Virgin Mary’s protection, and for her to keep an eye on our soldiers, too,” said Ms. Young, whose sons have served in the Middle East. “We’ll definitely be coming back.”

Catholic leaders described the decree in Wisconsin as a bolt of joy at a trying time for the Catholic church, which is troubled by revelations of sex abuse.

“This is a gift to the believers,” said the Rev. Johann Roten, director of the International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton.

“It would be devious to say that this was somehow pulled out of the attic to exorcise the problems of the church today,” Father Roten said in a telephone interview. “But hopefully this will have a beneficial impact on the people, showing them that there are ways of living with faith that are very pure.”

The Diocese of Green Bay is under fire from lawyers in an abuse-related lawsuit, who charge that it has obstructed justice by destroying potentially incriminating files on former priests. The diocese says it has cooperated fully with law enforcement and discarded psychiatric records of deceased priests as required by federal privacy laws.

Bishop Ricken, in an interview at his office in Green Bay, noted that the church has a tradition of taking its time with such cases. Over the years, he said, his predecessors had implicitly endorsed the shrine by holding services there and encouraging people to visit.

When he moved to Green Bay in 2008, he said, “I was struck by how many stories I heard of answered prayers” — resolved family and employment problems as well as medical cures — and he decided to start a formal investigation.

“People have a hunger for the spiritual, and right here in our backyard was a source to meet that need,” Bishop Ricken said. The church’s scandals did not influence his decision, he said, but if the shrine can become a source of hope and healing for people, including victims of errant priests, “that would be beautiful.”

The Vatican gives primary responsibility for evaluating apparitions to local bishops. Wary of fraud, the church is generally reluctant even to investigate claims.

Over the 20th century, some 386 major apparitions of Mary were reported at a level beyond local rumors, said Father Roten, who has been an investigator in purported sightings. About 75 of those were studied, and at most a dozen were recognized as valid, he said. Increasingly, he said, the church makes use of psychiatric examinations and brain scans to see if people making claims are mentally healthy and not having hallucinations.

That kind of examination was not possible, of course, for Ms. Brise, and Bishop Ricken said that his panel of three theological specialists had considered a host of indirect factors in concluding that her sighting was credible, following guidelines set by the Vatican in 1978.

By all reports, he said, Ms. Brise was humble and honest and faithfully carried out Mary’s mandate to serve the church throughout her life. In one striking sign of a divine presence, he said, the shrine’s grounds and the terrified crowd who gathered there were spared the flames of the Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871, which devoured the surrounding lands and homes and caused more than 1,200 deaths. Her account of Mary’s apparition and message was consistent with accepted cases.

The dozens of families and individuals who stopped to pray at the shrine on Wednesday afternoon seemed to have no doubts at all about the apparitions.

“There’s a lot of power here,” said Theresa Vandermause, 45, who for years has made a weekly pilgrimage to the shrine with her friend Judy Deprey, 65. “You can feel the presence of Mary, and it feels like she’s listening to you.”

The two women were pleased that the church had finally declared Mary’s visits here to be real, but said that the decree had not really changed anything.

“We knew that already!” they declared.

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A U.S. Catholic interview

To understand Our Lady of Guadalupe–the powerful story of the 16th-century apparition of Mary to the Indian Juan Diego outside what is now Mexico City–Jeanette Rodriguez says we must first enter into the experience of near-annihilation that the indigenous people faced at the hands of the Spanish invaders. It was in response to their agony that Our Lady of Guadalupe spoke her message of loving presence.

Since that time–and for people today–Guadalupe has been a “prism”: some see her simply as an image of Mary, while others see her as showing us the maternal face of God or even an image of the Holy Spirit. However her devotees interpret her, Rodriguez believes Guadalupe reminds us of God’s unconditional love and challenges us to make God accessible to all people.

Rodriguez, chair of the Religious Studies and Theology Department at Seattle University, has explored the meaning of Guadalupe in Our Lady of Guadalupe: Faith and Empowerment Among Mexican-American Women (University of Texas Press, 1994) and is the author of Stories We Live/Cuentos Que Vivimos (Paulist Press, 1996).

What attracted you to Our Lady of Guadalupe?

As an Ecuadorian American, I grew up with the Marian image of the Sorrowful Mother, and I knew at a very young age that I did not want to be a “suffering mother.” Even though I had a great devotion to Mary, I wasn’t willing to embrace the image that I was raised with except as one who could identify with the oppressed or suffering.

When I went to Berkeley for my doctorate, the environment was so undiverse that I decided I needed to make contact with the Latino mission, and so I wound up working with the campesinos. I noticed that they had a great devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, and I was very taken by the affective bond they had with the image of her. And so I observed and I started to read, and I went to Mexico to do my investigation.

Have your studies of Our Lady of Guadalupe also increased your own devotion to her?

When I was writing my book, I was diagnosed with a serious illness, and for three years, I was very sick. There were two things I wanted to do before I deteriorated: I wanted to finish the book, and I wanted to leave a legacy for my children. I wanted my children to know that death would not separate me from them.

I decided to go back to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to which I have made many pilgrimages. I usually carry a little notepad, and when people find out I am going there they often ask me to make sure to pray for their intentions, which I then write down. Recently, for example, I went to the passport agency to get a passport for my son because I’m taking him to the basilica in the near future. When I told the woman at the counter, she said, “When you go to the basilica, would you please thank Our Lady of Guadalupe for me for a successful operation,” I said, “Yes, I’ll do that.”

So when I was diagnosed with my illness and went to the basilica, this particular time I prayed that Our Lady would always protect my children. But I didn’t pray for myself. I didn’t ask for healing, didn’t ask to be cured. When I came back home and everybody asked, “Did you pray to be cured?” I said no, and they all got upset with me. But then when I got back, my lab results were normal for the first time in three years.

I was able to surrender, to say to Guadalupe, “You more than anyone know what it is that I need or want. Just give me the strength to be open to that.” I really feel that she is a gift that the Mexican community has given to me, and I really attribute the gift to them.

What do we need to know to understand Our Lady of Guadalupe?

Number one, the historical context. The 16th-century clash of cultures between the Aztecs and the Spaniards involved different understandings of some fundamental concepts–in particular land, the greatest sins, and time.

The Spaniards felt that the earth had been given to humans by God to claim and use for their own good. The Indians held the earth and space to be sacred, believing it belonged to the gods. Humans had to live in harmony with it.

For the Spaniards, the most important value was salvation of the soul through individual character, both in making a name for oneself and in the hereafter. They understood their salvation came through the sacrifice, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Indians’ most important value was the salvation of the group and its wellbeing and preservation. Indian religion valued the individual only for his or her contribution to collective activities designed to preserve the cosmic order.

For the Spaniards, the greatest sins were heresy, apostasy, and idolatry. The greatest sins for the indigenous people were greed, perversion, and not following the elders–turning away from the ancestors.

It was bad enough for them to be enslaved, to see their land taken away, their homes destroyed, their women raped, and their children killed–but for them the worst part was when the Spanish tried to tell them that the gods that they had worshiped were not true. For a people who had never made a decision without consulting their gods, to be told that what their ancestors had told them was not true was just too devastating to bear. They wanted to die. In the transcripts of missionaries and priests, you find the people expressing this sentiment, “If this is true, then please let us die. If the gods have abandoned us, we don’t want to live.”

How does this historical context relate to the Guadalupe story?

It’s really important to understand those clashes because those same conflicts are still occurring today. This history is a metaphor for understanding the questions and the struggles, the pains and the joys of being human. Otherwise we reduce the image of Guadalupe to a Mexican cultural phenomenon as opposed to something so powerful that it’s manifested in a particular culture, transcends cultures, and really touches all who appreciate it.

Whenever we encounter what we think is “other”–black, white, Spanish, Indian, homosexual–we should ask what contribution they make to our understanding of what it means to be human. The issues are the same today as they were when 16thcentury Spaniards questioned the humanity of this “other,” the Indians.

Unless people come at and try to understand the Guadalupe story from the situation that it emerged out of, they’re not going to get it.

How does the Guadalupe story speak to this clash of cultures and the challenge to understand the “other”?

Out of all the devastation the Indians faced, Guadalupe says to Juan Diego, “I’d like you to build me a casita–a ‘house,’ a ‘home’–here so that I may show forth my love, my hope, my compassion, my defense of you, to all of you, to all the inhabitants of this land, to all of you who call upon me, love me, and trust me. I hear your devastation and your suffering and your pain, and I will respond.” All she says is, “I’m your Mother who will love, help, defend, and protect you.”

And whom does she say it to? She doesn’t say it only to the Spaniards or to the Indians, but she says it to all the inhabitants of this land. Although the world may reject us, God gives us a place in the world. I see her as that promise of being given a place in the world, of having someone to talk to or to understand.

What does Guadalupe have to do with cultural differences today, especially between Latinos and Anglos?

For some Latinos, the Guadalupe story is the lifeline to their culture, their homeland. I remember a story my mother told me about when she first arrived in the United States. When she got off the plane–it was one of those planes that had bleachers, not airplane seats–she said that the minute her foot touched the earth, the land, she felt like all the blood drained out of her body. For some people, the Guadalupe story is the connection to their past and culture.

We here in the West struggle with spiritual poverty. I think the reason Americans are so spiritually deprived is because they’ve lost their way and don’t know how to access spiritual connections at a deep level. A lot of the transmission of faith was through the family. How can you expect to talk to a people about community when they do not have that experience culturally or religiously? You can’t give what you haven’t got. So the challenge then is how to create the community we talk about but don’t give people an experience of.

What could the Latino culture teach other Americans about community?

In Latino culture, we have a lot of different community rituals, like the Day of the Dead. My family celebrates that holiday more than almost any other. My children know we gather with our community, we build our altar, people bring pictures of their loved ones, and we share the legacy of those loved ones. It’s really the power of ritual being able to open the portals of time so that for this one night, you are very conscious of the people who have gone before you, you’re conscious of the people who you’re with, and you’re conscious of the people who will follow you.

And so children are not afraid of death and are affirmed that death is not enough to separate you from the people you love. People in this culture are so afraid of death because they’re so cut off from community.

But who are the facilitators, who are the “priests” facilitating that kind of wisdom? People want to have leaders who can make mystery evident, who can draw us into mystery. I’m talking about professionals trained in theology, liturgy, or ritual.

When people have a fiesta in a parish, the person who gives the speech is no bigger, no better than the woman who’s making tortillas–as a matter of fact, she’s probably got top billing. Everybody has a job to do. And the challenge to pastoral ministry is that people don’t know the difference between identified leaders and the real leaders, and they’re not willing to do good ministry anymore when people come to them. They dispense services as opposed to a way of life.

What other differences do Latinos and Anglos have?

The most healing moment is when you’re able to stand before someone in your brokenness and be accepted. Go to any church in Central America and you’ll find that most people pray out loud–very rabbinic, by the way. You listen to their prayers, and what you hear is heart-wrenching and full of gratitude. In many ways, the American mentality is wonderful for its innovation and creativity but devastating in terms of its ability to accept vulnerability or intimacy, or risk life or passion.

During Holy Week, for example, in American culture we’re very quick to get to the Resurrection because we’re very uncomfortable on Good Friday. Holy Thursday is a big deal–everything happens on Holy Thursday–and then on Good Friday you have the Passion and maybe the Stations of the Cross.

Now, what happens on Saturday? Nothing. But you go to Latino communities and they’ll be in church on Saturday. Why? Because they’re keeping the Virgin company. This notion of accompaniment is something we’ve lost. What I love about Marian devotion on the part of Latinos is that it’s reciprocal. They’re sympathetic because she lost her son, and they know she understands what it’s like to lose a son, maybe not to the cross, but to drugs, to poverty, to violence, to illiteracy.

For a different reason most of my students have had major conversions when studying Guadalupe because in their own way, they don’t have a place in the world. They don’t experience racism or poverty, but they do experience a different kind of poverty, a spiritual poverty.

In what ways is the Guadalupe story a corrective to the dominant Catholic culture?

Guadalupe resurrects a notion of a much more loving, an unconditionally accepting God. Even the other Marian images–I don’t mean to critique them, but when I read their messages, they don’t grab my heart the way the Guadalupe one does because they’re conditional. I don’t know if you’ve seen the document on Fatima, but it’s scary.

Guadalupe’s message is so transformative because it’s so accessible. How could you not respond to someone who offers you love, compassion, and help-when someone promises you that they’re going to be there to hear your sorrows and pains?

In that sense, I think she resurrects or reminds us of that unconditional love of God. Her presence among the poor once again reminds us of the original intent of the biblical God of liberation and the message of Jesus as I understand it. To me it’s much more liberating.

Do you see a problem with people using Guadalupe for their own purposes or agendas?

You have to make a distinction between the original intent of Guadalupe and what they’ve done to her. A lot of women critique Guadalupe not because of who and what she is, because they don’t know that. What they know is what the clergy have told them about her: “Be like Guadalupe, quiet and gentle.” No wonder they’re rejecting her.

But I don’t think that’s the original intent when you read the story. There’s nothing passive about saying, “Go tell the bishop what I just told you.”

I’ll give you an example. In one of the dioceses where I was working, people were asking the bishop permission to use the image of Guadalupe for their prolife campaign. A question that emerges out of this issue is accessibility. Would using Guadalupe in this way enhance people’s accessibility to her and to God?

To what extent do we make God more accessible to people or less accessible? If people can no longer come to God through God the Father, then you better have another path or you’ve just broken that person’s ability to access God. Our God needs to be bigger than us, bigger than the Catholic Church, big enough so that God can be accessed. In a way, I think the story of Guadalupe is the challenge of how do we clear the way so people can come to God?

Is Guadalupe more than a manifestation of Mary?

I don’t perceive Guadalupe as solely Mary, especially Mary at the Cross. I do tend to lean more toward her being even a maternal face of God. I have a more pneumatological understanding–seeing her in terms of spirit–but that’s too heavy for some people to deal with. It’s just starting to be talked about now in circles that she’s much more representative of the Holy Spirit.

I asked the women I talked to as part of my research, “Do you think that she’s more important than God?” and they say,”Oh, no.” But if you say to them, “When you pray, whom do you pray to?” they say, “Guadalupe, Mary.” I say, “Why would you go to her with things that you would not go to God with?” “Because she’s a woman, she understands.”

This is why I like to look at Guadalupe as a prism. For those people who look at her and come to her as Mary, no problem. There will be other people who will come to her as the maternal face of God, and still others–like a Jewish woman I interviewed who claims to be a Guadalupe devotee–for whom Guadalupe comes through the Spirit. And why would I want to take that away from any of them?

Instead of putting Guadalupe in a box, I would put her in the category of a unconditional and grace-filled gift to the people. What she was able to do was reconcile two groups of people that had absolutely nothing in common and could not come together. Looking at the contemporary situation of conflict, can she still play the role of reconciler personally and physically for those of us who struggle with not being one or the other?

What do the people who go to the Guadalupe shrine bring?

They bring their pains, they bring their sorrows, they bring their worries, they bring their gratitude, and they bring their promises.

I’ll tell you this story. I was with a Spanish priest, and he was showing me around the basilica and there was this old man on the side. The priest said, “Hombre, what are you doing here?” And the old man said, I want to pray to the Lady.” The priest replied, “Well, I don’t see you praying.” And the old man admitted, “Oh, Father, I don’t know how to pray.” So Father said, “OK, here’s a prayer book.” The old man said, “I don’t know how to read,” and then the priest starts yelling at him, “Well, what are you doing here?” And the old man said, “You know, it’s just enough for me to look in her face.”

A U.S. Catholic interview

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By:  Heather Abraham

With the passing of the first decade of the 21^st century the world is confronted with an ever increasing atmosphere of tension and discord between the Christian and Muslim worlds.  Turn on the nightly news or pop into your favorite internet web-news site and you will be confronted with the news of yet another terrorist bombing, another radical Muslim cleric calling for the destruction of America, another ill informed Christian spouting hatred against “Islamicists” (whatever that means), or another report on the most recent casualties of our “war on terror.”  We are living in an era of confusion and misinformation where the mere mention of Islam or Muslim often elicits comments founded on half-truths, anxiety, and fear.  

In this atmosphere of tension, it may be prudent to attempt to find common ground between these two clashing Abrahamic traditions.  Christianity and Islam are in some ways, intimately connected; sharing many sacred stories, devotion to one god, ethical standards, and scriptural figures.  Illuminating commonalities between these two mega religions, whose adherents make up almost fifty percent of the world’s population, may be the first step in building an understanding and hopefully, a bridge between the two. 

Although it is a common practice to begin this discussion with the familiar patriarchs whose stories are told in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur’an, this article will focus not on Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, or Jesus,  but instead, illuminate the role of a lesser known common figure as embodied in the Virgin Mary.  Many may be surprised to learn that Mary is a significant and highly revered figure in Islam.  Although Mary plays an important but not extensive role in the New Testament, she has a much more prominent position in the sacred text of Islam.  Mary is mentioned no fewer than thirty-four times in the Quran, and she is the only woman in the Quran to have her own chapter or sura.  Mary, the title of the nineteenth sura of the Quran, includes detail about Mary’s life before, during, and after the Annunciation.  

Many of the Quranic stories concerning Mary and Jesus are foreign to Christian ears and sensibilities.  Even though  there are many differing accounts, the Quran and New Testament also share similar stories about Mary.  In the following Annunciation accounts from sura 19:14-21 and Luke 1:30-34, Mary’s reactions to the heavenly messenger are strikingly similar.  

And when she saw him she said: ‘May the Merciful defend me from you! If you fear the Lord, leave me and go your way.’  ‘I am the messenger of your Lord,’ he replied, ‘and have come to give you a holy son.’  ‘How shall I bear a child,’ she answered, ‘when I am a virgin, untouched by man?’ ‘Such is the will of your lord,’ he replied. ‘That is no difficult thing for Him. He shall be a sign to mankind,’ says the Lord, ‘and a blessing from Ourself. This is Our decree.’ 

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And now you shall conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.  He will be great and be called the son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David.”  Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin.”   

Although Mary has no salvific powers in Islam, she is one of the most revered women in the Islamic faith.  In various hadiths, Mary is discussed as being one of the four ‘Perfect Women’ in history.  Mary belongs in an exclusive group of women who are considered ‘Perfect’ because of their strength of faith and submission to God.   In Mary the Blessed Mother of Islam, Aliah Schleifer argues that, unlike the traditional Orthodox Christian understanding of Mary, the Mary of Islam is an important figure in her own right.  

Mary, in traditional Sunni Islam is an important figure in herself. Her position is not just that of the most exalted category of women, but she is ranked in the highest category of all human beings. In fact, from the perspective of those scholars who consider Mary to be a prophetess, she is considered equal to this aspect of her son Jesus. And to those who focus on Mary’s outstanding spiritual achievements, she is seen to have been blessed with stages of spiritual development that approach those of the Prophet Muhammad. In no case is Mary seen solely as the mother of Jesus. (95) 

For Muslims, Mary is a paradigmatic servant of God and an example for all humanity to emulate.   

Although there are many theological differences between Christianity and Islam, Mary’s shared importance in both religions can be understood as an opportunity for interfaith dialogue.  The easing of political and religious tension between the Christian and Islamic worlds is an enormous undertaking yet because religious differences are often used to justify anger and distrust, maybe, just maybe, religious similarities may lessen the divide.   This brings me to the question of the day:  Why are the media (Western and Eastern) and religious clerics (Christian and Muslim) not focusing on the commonalities and unifying aspects of these two Abrahamic cousins?

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By Heather Abraham 

While most Muslim Turks labored to complete their first week of Ramadan during a record breaking heat wave, two branches of Christianity celebrated the August 15^th Feast of the Assumption at prominent Christian pilgrimage sites.  In Western Turkey, Capuchin Catholic Priests celebrated the Feast of the Assumption at the Our Lady of Ephesus Shrine (Meryem Ana) and in the Black Sea region, His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of some 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians, presided over the Assumption Mass at Sumela Monastery in Trabzon, Turkey.    

Our Lady of Ephesus

I had the privileged of visiting Our Lady of Ephesus last week and spent some time at the shrine speaking with the nuns who were preparing for the event which attracts thousands of Christian and Muslim pilgrims annually.  A highly revered figure in Christianity and Islam, Mary’s Assumption is an interreligious celebration at the Ephesus shrine.  For years, Muslim pilgrims flocked to Our Lady of Ephesus desiring the opportunity to participate in the Catholic celebration.  In order to accommodate the Muslim pilgrims, Catholic officials added an ecumenical Feast of the Fruits in which both Christian and Muslim pilgrims participate communally.  Afterward, officiating priests celebrate Mass exclusively for Catholic participants.  The flexible attitude of the Catholic guardians of the shrine ensured that Mary’s House continues its ecumenical legacy, embracing the interfaith pilgrims who make the journey to celebrate Mary’s earthly life and the event of her Assumption.  Our Lady of Ephesus has long been a sacred site that affords pilgrims the opportunity to peacefully venerate the Virgin Mary of the New Testament and the Quran in a welcoming atmosphere.  

Sumela Monastery

In contrast, the Sumela Monastery is struggling to reestablish a safe environment for pilgrims who venture to a region that has been somewhat hostile to members of the Christian faith.  Located in Trabzon, a hotbed for Turkish nationalism and conservative Muslims, the opening of the Sumela Monastery has met with some opposition from local residents who worry that the resumption of Christian pilgrimage to the monastery may threaten their Turkish-Muslim identity.    

Sumela Pilgrims

The Sumela Monastery was established in 386 CE after several monks found a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary (believed to have been painted by St. Luke) in a cave on a mountain near the Black Sea.  The icon reportedly possessed miraculous healing powers and as a result, Sumela became an important destination for Christian pilgrims for centuries; renowned for its beauty and as a sacred site dedicated to the Virgin Mary.  Following the Ottoman conquest of the region in 1461, Sultan Mehmet II granted the Sumela Monastery protection which continued through a succession of Sultans up to the break-up of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.  Sumela was temporarily occupied by Russia from 1916-1918 and was eventually abandoned during the population exchange between Greece and the new Republic of Turkey in 1923.  

Sunday’s liturgy marked the first mass to be held at Sumela since 1923 and attracted thousands of Orthodox Christians from Russia, Georgia, and Greece.  Security concerns were high and Turkish gendarmes joined local police in securing the area for the thousands of pilgrims who gathered to witness the historic event.  

As Mary is a revered figure and Christians are respected in Islam as “people of the book”, one has to wonder why this disparate reaction exists between the two Turkish regions.  And yet, I can’t help but see the similarities in events in the United States where the population is split over the “Ground Zero Mosque” complex.  For some, it appears, patriotism and nationalism have become so deeply embedded with one’s religious identity that religious tolerance is no longer an option.  For others, religious tolerance is understood to be a necessary element in an increasingly interrelated and interdependent world.

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By:  Heather Abraham

According to the International Marian Research Institute, eighty percent of all Catholic shrines are dedicated to the Virgin Mary and are among the most desired pilgrimage destinations in the world.  In fact, Marian shrines receive more annual pilgrims than any other religious figure.  Although a dominant figure in Catholicism, Mary’s appeal transcends theological differences, as Mary’s devoted pilgrims hail from all Christian denominations and the many branches of Islam.  Yes, I said Islam.   Mary, who plays an important but not extensive role in the New Testament, has a much more prominent position in the sacred text of Islam.   This article, however, is not about Mary in Islam; that subject I will save for a future posting.  Today, I intend to explore the Mary of the people—Mary as she appears in lived religion.  Most specifically how Mary’s image is utilized by her followers in artistic, new, and unique ways.

More popular than ever before, Mary has become Christianity’s most versatile, utilized, and venerated figure.  Most intriguingly, Mary’s image has become main-stream and is found in the most unusual of places.   Images of Mary are often depicted on t-shirts, purses, murals, wallets, yard art, jewelry, graffiti, and on the bodies of her devoted followers.  Tattoo images of Mary range from small devotionals to enormous masterpieces— covering an entire human back.  To illustrate Mary’s versatility, I will acquaint you with two recent encounters I had in my hometown of Atlanta—one of the most religiously diverse cities in the south.

During a recent shopping trip to my local farmers market I encountered what, for many, may seem strange but which demonstrates perfectly how effortlessly Mary’s image shifts from sacred space and into the mundane world to commune with those who venerate her.  While paying for my groceries, I noticed an image of Mary, as the Virgin of Guadalupe, gracing a common scale which stood about 4 feet in height.  Leaving my husband at the register, I wandered over to investigate and to take some pictures.  Above and below Mary’s image were the words “Get Your Daily Inspirational Message” in English and Spanish.  For a fee of 25 cents, customers could weigh themselves and be rewarded with an inspiring message from the Virgin Mother.  No judgmental weigh-in here!  As I delightedly snapped pictures, I caught the attention of the store security who warned that pictures were forbidden in the store by order of management.  I quickly explained my interest to the perplexed security guard who was concerned that I was stealing secrets for the competition until I showed him that I only had pictures of the Mary scale on my camera.  Although he was obviously confused, he finally acquiesced agreeing that “the Virgin is good” and walked away muttering to another employee that I was loco.   Being the nerd that I am, I sat nearby with my patient husband and observed how a few customers interacted with the scale.  I didn’t have to wait long before three teen girls approached the scale and one by one stepped up, blessing themselves first, and received their weigh in and inspirational message for the day.

The most humorously delightful chanced upon image of Mary that I have ever encountered occurred on a hot summer day as I was driving on Peachtree Street.  Sitting at a red light, I noticed a large pick-up truck pull up on my right.  Not one to be impressed with cars (I drive a 23 year old Volvo) I was drawn to the beauty of the pearl white truck which glowed in the sun—highly polished and chromed out.  After proceeding through the light the truck pulled in front of me and thus revealed the amazing mural airbrushed on the tail-gate.  Picture this:  center-right of the tail-gate was an image of Mary, again in the form of the Virgin of Guadalupe, floating a few feet off the ground and surrounded by an indigo sky.  In front of her was a man kneeling in supplication, hands together in prayer beseeching Mary for a boon.  Now comes the best and most creative part—above this kneeling man’s head was a bubble like the ones used in comic books.  In the bubble was an image of the exact truck that the “real” man was driving.  I was blown away at the artistry of the images and the message they conveyed.  Unfortunately, I did not have my camera and my cell was lost in the black hole I call a purse.  Sadly, I have been looking for the truck ever since.  Although I don’t possess a physical photo of the vehicle, I can still conjure up the image in my mind’s eye and delight in the iconic representation which was so devotedly created in honor and veneration of this versatile Saint.

For those devoted to her, Mary is a compelling figure who provides solace, reassurance and hope.   Mary is also an elusive figure impossible to simply define, for she has played many roles in the lives of those who have bowed their heads in request or supplication.  Leonard Boff, In The Maternal Face of God: The Feminine and Its Religious Expressions, argues that Mary’s persona changes to meet the needs of her devotees. He writes, “Each new generation finds itself in Mary, projecting its dreams, its sociocultural ideals, upon her.  In her, each new generation discovers the revelatory path of the feminine archetype that crowd our unconscious.” (251)  Mary is the most human of historical and scriptural figures; welcoming the masses and participating in the daily lives of her followers who embrace her as one who has experienced and transcended human fragility.  It maybe that those who venerate Mary do so because they feel she somehow “lives” in the world with or around them and is not a distant figure, too aloof to take part in their everyday world.

This leads me to the question of the day:  Although these images are not indicative of the “standard” understanding of religious art, they obviously play a crucial role for modern day Marian devotees.  Why does Mary’s image lend itself to such displays of art and do these examples represent a new wave of early 21^st century religious art?

P.S. If any Religion Nerd reader finds my elusive truck, please snap a picture for me and send it to the editor along with any other unique representations of Mary.

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