Marian Apparitions in Cultural Contexts by Valeria Céspedes Musso

Author:Valeria Céspedes Musso
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

The reported material by individuals or groups experiencing a vision or apparition, whether partaking of the event directly or not, may be useful information in understanding the narrative or myth developed around respective apparitional phenomena, and in ascertaining the specific role or roles associated with the Virgin Mother. This historical material on previous Marian apparitions as well as non-apparitional historical references to the Virgin Mary enhances an understanding of the symbolism of this image, which in my opinion forms part the amplification or comparative material. The next few paragraphs include such material.

In 1311, Italian painter Duccio di Buoninsegna completed the Maestà, the largest painting at the time, with the Passion of the Christ on one side and the Virgin enthroned on the other. An inscription on the base of the throne where the Virgin sits reads as a prayer: “Holy Mother of God, be thou the cause of peace for Siena and, because he painted thee thus, of life for Duccio” (Dougherty 1998, p. 479). M. Dougherty posits that when Duccio prays these words, the Virgin is acknowledged as the “political and religious protectress of Siena…and that She could bring peace to the Sienese after years of war with the Florentines” (Dougherty 1998, p. 480). Duccio’s painting may have represented his unconscious contents, and it may be an example of how the painting reflected the collective attitude and concerns of the Sienese as can be exemplified by the shutdown of the city for a devotional procession of Duccio’s masterpiece (Dougherty 1998, p. 479). In this example, the Virgin Mary is obviously projected as the protectress against the warring Florentine neighbours through the medium of the image of the painting.

Visions of the Virgin Mary may also manifest themselves as a backlash against secularization and not only during times of war. In April 1948, Italians headed to the polls to vote for their first parliament after two years of fascist dictatorship with the choice of two main contenders: the Christian Democrats or the Popular Front – a coalition of Italian Communist and revolutionary Socialists. Before the election, Pope Pius XII spoke to the Italians regarding the political decision that they faced by reducing their decision to two choices: “essere con Cristo o contro Cristo: è tutta la questione”, to be either with Christ or against Christ (Ventresca 2003, p. 439). This statement came against the backdrop of “the grand Marian pilgrimages of 1947–1948” followed by the wave of apparitions of the Virgin Mary throughout the country. The most famous of the apparitions was in Assisi, the birthplace of Saint Francis, where a woman claimed to see a statue of the Virgin Mary move her head and chest “as if the Virgin was breathing heavily, as if she were sighing” (Ventresca 2003, p. 444). News of the woman’s vision spread quickly through the towns and villages, and a local radio station announced without scepticism that the Madonna sighed heavily “as if She was in deep pain”; Ventresca comments that the suffering and weeping

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