Clermont-Ferrand II

Notre Dame du Port

In the crypt of the beautiful Romanesque basilica Notre Dame du Port, 4 Rue Notre Dame du Port, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, wood, 29 cm, 17th century copy of a much older Byzantine original.

Many pilgrims came to the church in the Middle Ages to revere this statue. Ean Begg mentions an ancient Gallo-Roman sacred well in the crypt, perhaps dedicated to Cybele, where the Black Madonna may have been found, and writes: "The present Virgin, an Oriental Vierge de Tendresse, whose image is known from 13 C; was saved by two women at the Revolution, but stolen on 28 Jan. 1864. It cried so much that it was restored by the remorseful thief in 1873."[1]

Clermont-Ferrand was an important cultural center even during Druidic times. St. Gregory of Tours (538 – 594 AD), bishop and historian, called it the equal of Rome. It was a center of Marian devotion, but also the place where a Church council convened and decided on the first Crusade in 1095. Dr. Christena Cleveland points to the contrast between what men proclaimed in this city and what this Black Madonna seems to say in her form: “There is another way! Small is beautiful and gentle tenderness is powerful!”[2]

Footnotes:
[1] Ean Begg, The Cult of the Black Vrigin, Arkana: 1985, p. 181
[2] In her first online class of the series: “Embody your Sacred Wholeness Through the Black Madonna”, taught on 4/4/2023, Shift Network