Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius
October 11, 2015
Spiritual Ponderings
Images of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Our Lady of Atocha

I have decided to once again devote my spiritual ponderings for the month of October to the Blessed Virgin Mary and in a special way look at how the Blessed Virgin Mary has been displayed throughout history and what religious lessons a particular image of the Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us. I will be referring to a book by hagiographer (a person who writes biographies of saints) Ann Ball. The book is called: The Other Faces of Mary: Stories, Devotions, and Pictures of the Holy Virgin around The World.

Have you ever thought what a unique creature human beings are? We are made up of matter (something that can be seen, taste, touched, smell, or heard) but yet we there is something spiritual to us. It is because of this uniqueness that Catholicism never devalues matter or material things. In fact we use material things to help express our spiritual-ness. For example we use incense at Mass to symbolize our prayers rising up to God and to remind us that we understand divine things only vaguely as if looking through a pillar of smoke with watery eyes. We light candles to remind us that Christ is the light of the world and we have been charged with spreading His light to the world in need.

Please keep the above in mind as I introduce the next image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This next image of the Blessed Virgin Mary is called Our Lady of Atocha. This image of Blessed Virgin Mary is peculiar in that it is the only image of the Blessed Virgin Mary where the Christ child can be separated from the main statue. Devotees to this particular image of Mary can symbolically receive the Christ child from Mary to take into their home. As part of the devotion, people ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to not only intercede with them for their petition but also to allow her son to visit their house in a special way. (I know of some parishes that have a statue of Our Lady of Fatima that travels from home to home, I am assuming the Christ child travels in much the same way). This devotion should make each of us pause and think about what things we would change if we knew Christ would be spending the week with us and then realize that Christ is always with us and so let us change those things

The image is also unique in that it portrays Mary as a fair-skinned medieval Spanish queen who is dressed with rich embroidered clothes and she wears a golden crown. Jesus on the other hand is dressed as a Spanish pilgrim and had Indian (I am assuming Native American and not someone from India) features.

There is some who believe that the statue or at least the image that the statue of Mary is based on dates all the way back to St. Luke himself. It is said by some devotees that St. Luke carved the image when he was living in Antioch and thus “Atocha” is a shortened form of Antioch.

Another unique legend that surrounds this image of Mary is that during the time that part of Spain was under Moorish (Islamic) rule, people who were thrown into prison for one reason or another were left there to starve and therefore it was up to family members to bring food to their love ones in prison. A really evil Moorish leader came to power and declared that no one over the age of 12 would be allowed near the prison. It was the belief then that the older wiser men would starve to death because they would not have children under the age of 12 to bring them food. According to the legend, the women of the town went and prayed at the Church and appealed to the Blessed Virgin Mary for help. Soon the children of the town began to tell story to the adults about an unknown boy who was visiting and feeding the prisoners. They said that he would always come at night, slipped pass the sleeping guard, and that his basket of bread and jug of water could feed all the prisoners without every running out. The women eventually returned to the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and thank her for the miracle and they noticed that the shoes on the infant statue of Jesus were worn out.

Ten years ago, I would have said that this was a nice story, because back then I thought that I had to know everything and I did not like the idea of being surprised by things that I did not know. I also think that there was a part of me that did not want to admit that stories like this might be true because I did not trust God that much. In this present moment, I don’t necessarily believe the story to be true but I don’t believe it to be false either. All I know is that I don’t know everything and I have seen many things that I cannot explain. I also do not fear God as much because I can see how He has used the bad times of my life to bring about good things. I also cannot help but believe that my God is a God of miracles.