Queen and Mother: Mary as the Embodiment of Mercy in Polish Religiosity, in P. Krasny (ed.) (2016) Maria Mater Misericordiae, Exhibition Catalogue (National Museum in Kraków) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Mary in Poland: A Polish Master Symbol
[with Cathelijne de Busser], in: Hermkens A-K, Jansen W. and Notermans C. (eds.) (2009) Moved by Mary: The Power of Pilgrimage in the Modern World, 2009
Co-authored with Cathelijne de Busser Published in: Moved by Mary: The Power of Pilgrimage in the Modern World, Edited by Anna-Karina Hermkens, Willy Jansen and Catrien Notermans Marian veneration is deeply rooted in Polish history, culture, and society. Images of Our Lady can be found all over the country, and an estimated seven hundred shrines are devoted to Mary (Datko 2000: 312). In this chapter, we discuss several practices of Marian devotion in Poland and the manner in which Mary empowers people to deal with all kinds of problems in private and public life, both in the past and in present times. We focus on the enduring popularity of Marian veneration in Poland—and more specifically, the veneration of Our Lady of Częstochowa—by classifying Mary as a Polish “master symbol” who seems to “enshrine the major hopes and aspirations of an entire society” (Wolf 1958). Mary as Polish master symbol derives a significant part of her power from her ability to combine and link two different levels: one that refers to the sphere of private religious practices—Mary as mother of individual people—and one that is deeply embedded in the Polish national myth of origin—Mary as queen of the Polish nation.
The Virgin Mary in the narratives of contemporary Catholic and Muslim mothers in Poland
LUD Organ Polskiego Towarzystwa Ludoznawczego i Komitetu Nauk Etnologicznych PAN
In this paper, we demonstrate how the figure of the Virgin Mary functions as an important element of the lived religion of contemporary Catholic and Muslim mothers in Poland. Based on the analysis of in-depth interviews and observational data we argue that the figure of Mary is recognized as a religious ideal and a role model by mothers identifying with both religions. We trace similarities and differences between Catholic and Muslim mothers in their reflexive engagement with ideas, symbols, and prescriptions attached to Mary and discuss how they reinvent the figure and ascribe it with personalised meanings: embrace some of the traditional attributes of Mary, challenge, and contest others, and construct new meanings firmly embedded in their daily life mothering experiences.
Pilgrimage, Partitions, and Patriarchy: Polish Women and the Virgin Mary
Confluence: The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies, 2016
“We are all born into stories that began long before we arrived, and we become self within their borders.” Marie Tondreau We build our life story incrementally—linking moment to moment, each episode contributing to the construction of our identity. While the tales of the generation before us also play a role, framing our perspective, they sometimes overwhelm the story that is ours to convey. Overshadowed by the dramatic tale of my parents' arranged marriage and twenty-year separation due to the Second World War and its aftermath, I am mining the past for facts and context. In peeling away the layers that comprised their identities, I am revealing my own. Situated within the context of my family's experiences, this paper considers the origins of Poles' reverence of the Virgin Mary and its impact upon Polish women. It suggests that the Polish Catholic hierarchy promoted Mary as protector of the nation, especially during the Partition Period of Poland’s history. They also presented Mary as a feminine role model for women to emulate, defining her as a patient and humble servant while filling the roles of wife and mother. The gendered construction of Mary by theologians is considered, especially her role as mediatrix to God, as well as the self-sacrificing image of the Matka Polka (Mother Poland). Ultimately, the influence of the Church’s messaging—carried over to Polish American women—reveals the dichotomy of suffering yet comfort gleaned in the guise of Marian reverence.
Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary (review)
Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 2011
This is an astonishingly wide-ranging and detailed account of Marian devotion from the time of the early Church to the seventeenth century, with afterthoughts on Mary's significance for the modern world. In twenty-three chapters, Rubin asks how and why Mary emerged from relative obscurity in the Gospels to become a "constant presence" (p. xxi) in European history. Drawing with great sensitivity on a variety of sources-theological and devotional writings, music, poetry, and images-Rubin explores Mary's significance not just for leading churchmen and nobles but also for ordinary laymen and-women. The heart of this book may be its description of the Western European Marian devotion of the Middle Ages, but its chronological and geographical span give it a significance that no more narrowly focused study could possibly have.
Polish Marian devotion has shaped the iconography of six modern artworks depicting St. Jadwiga of Anjou, St. Maximilian Kolbe, and St. Pope John Paul II. Imagery of these saints has reinforced socio-political and religious principles via the Marian themes of parental suffering, chivalry and internationalism. In conjunction with relevant critiques, the methodology of iconography shall be used for its symbolic and historical focus to explore the depictions of these saints' lives and the varieties of media used to depict them. This methodology will examine how the relationship between traditional Polish religious ideology and the themes discussed are manifest within saint iconography to shape Polish identity.
The Mystery of Mary: Patronal Transformation in the Order of Mercy
Els Turquets d’Algar. La redempció de captius per l’Ordre dels Mercedaris al Camp de Morvedre. I Jornades internacionals d’historia a Algar de Palància, 2018
In its Constitutions of 1272, the Order of Mercy supplanted its traditional patroness, St. Eulalia of Barcelona, with the Virgin Mary. Among Catholic religious orders, such a shift in patronage and name is most unusual. This paper attempts to understand the circumstances of this transformation. First, it seeks to establish a timeline that helps us to understand the context that might have influenced this shift in patronage. Next, it seeks to identify the agents who promoted this transformation. Were these agents external, such as the king or papacy, or are they internal and tied to a particular group or faction within the thirteenth-century community? Finally, there is the Marian context itself: how was the image of Mary, as the Mother of Mercy, changing in this century and whence comes her association with captives? In tying together these various threads the paper hopes to solve the mystery of Mary and her association with the medieval Order of Captives.
The Image and the Figure: Our Lady of Częstochowa in Polish Culture and Popular Religion
2010
""The image of Our Lady of Częstochowa is the most famous and the most venerated holy image of Polish Catholics. In contemporary Poland the image is a kind of a cultural icon, instantly recognizable and connected with popular symbolic and mythological meanings. Presented in this book is an analysis of beliefs, narratives ( great and small stories ), myths and rituals. This analysis reveals that for its devotees the image is not merely a material object and a picture – it is perceived, lived and experienced as a real person – figure of Mary – Queen and Mother. “Polish Catholicism in its contemporary form is strongly related to the notion of national identity. This strong interconnection was caused by variety of historical reasons. Throughout the entire nineteenth century it was the Catholic religion that unified the Polish society, which was at that time deprived of its own state. Those and similar processes were not unique to Poland, it was a time when new nationalisms were being born throughout Europe. Without an actual state, Polish history became the basis of preserving the national identity. In those circumstances the cult of Our Lady of Częstochowa was flourishing and her image became a national symbol. In her book, The Image and the Figure, Anna Niedźwiedź is describing and interpreting various forms and expressions of that cult.” Professor Czesław Robotycki, Jagiellonian University ""