Stansstad on Vierwaldstaetter lake
Mother of God of Stansstad
In the Holy Family Catholic church, Dorfstrasse 19, 6362 Stansstad, 1962 copy of the original, created by the local sculptor Josef Z’Rotz. The original linden wood statue is kept by its owner on the farm of the Rohrer family in Winterswil ob Stansstad, high above the town.
Legend has it that this Black Madonna appeared in a linden tree and later saved two fishermen in danger of perishing in a storm on the lake.
From 1798 to 1815, French revolutionary troops occupied Switzerland, destroying churches and holy images wherever they went. They threw the Mother of God of Stansstad into the lake. Stupid! Hadn’t she already proved her mastery over those waters?! She was found intact and all the more highly venerated by the people. However, one bishop was apparently influenced by the French spirit of “reason” and decried the Black Madonna as “Pagan handiwork” (‘Machwerk’, a derogatory word for a thing.) He certainly wasn’t the only one who saw a connection between Black Madonnas and pre-Christian goddesses. Other Black Madonnas in Switzerland and elsewhere were decried as “the Black goddess Diana (Artemis) of Ephesus”.[1] He banned her from the town.
Somehow, she ended up in the possession of the Rohrer family up the mountain. After the bishop passed, the people wanted to bring their precious Mother back into her church, but the new owners wouldn’t hear of it. They only allowed an exact copy to be made of her for the town that had let her go.
She still is not acknowledged as a Black Madonna on the parish website. Then again, neither does it mention the name of the church. She stands on one side.
the original up on the Alm
Sources:
2002, documentary film by Margrit R. Schmid “Schwarz bin ich und schoen: die Verehrung der schwarzen Madonna in der Schweiz” aired by the Swiss public broadcasting Company SRF, at 13.07 minutes.
[1] Ibid at 7:50 minutes talks about a Black Madonna in St. Gallen, Switzerland that was destroyed during the Reformation after being mocked as “the Black goddess Diana of Ephesus” and accused of bringing the city nothing but annoyance and tension. The same happened in Walshingahm, UK.