With its Black Madonna, labyrinth, and its legend of an ancient Black Madonna under the earth Guingamp, Brittany competed for centuries with Chartres, 400 km to the East. To this day it honors its Lady of Good Help with festivities known as ‘the Pardon of Our Lady’. Unlike in Chartres, there is no whitening the Black Madonna or covering the labyrinth with chairs or slacking off of devotion here!

Our Lady's monastery goes back to a hermit by the name of Gombaud who lived in a cave on the site around the year 1000. This Black Madonna was originally known as…

Miracle working Our Lady of Laghet near Nice and Monte-Carlo in a retreat center run by Catholic nuns. The dark copy in the crypt reminiscent of the original Black Madonna

This Black Madonna sits enthroned above a globe (the earth), which is supported by the symbols of the four evangelists: an angel, a lion, an ox, and an eagle…

In 1844, this 17th century approximate copy of Our Lady of Le Puy was taken from another church to assume the empty throne and title of her burnt sister…

The story of this shrine in the Auvergne begins with stones, a dolmen, i.e. a Druidic stone altar. Since time immemorial stones had been associated with Goddess…

Here is her legend as told on this Black Madonna’s parish website: It is the year 1110 A.D. three brothers from the diocese of Laon (17 km from Liesse-Notre-Dame) leave for the Holy Land…

This modern Black Madonna is inspired by Romanesque ones of the Auvergne such as Our Lady of Le Puy…

Our Lady of Marsat has been associated with the theme of light and darkness ever since the above mentioned St. Gregory of Tours recounted the following experience…

Since the end of the 13th century, this Black Virgin has been the object of fervent popular devotion during Candlemas week. Like any real Black Madonna she works miracles…

Notre Dame de la Roche in Mayres near Clermont Ferrand, whom Dr. Cleveland calls Our Lady of the Side-Eye. 14th century statue commemorating the vision of a 12 C monk. Is she rolling her eyes at White patriarchs or what? Anybody have a better picture please?

One evening around the year 507 A.D., Théodechilde, daughter of the Merovingian King Clovis saw a great light in a nearby forest…

This is one of the strangest Black Madonnas. She wears a kind of turban, except that it is open on the top, revealing the Virgin's black hair….

I believe the “Black Virgin of Menton” is a copy of the Black Madonna of Montserrat, her famous sister venerated 700 km to the South. For the centuries, the faithful wouldn’t hesitate to walk that far in search for a miraculous healing. Once they were granted their wish, they would give public thanks with an ex-voto, a painting commemorating the miracle. That’s what we are looking at here.

While this Black Madonna is robed in the traditional garb that hides most of the statue, her picture on the votive candles sold in the church shows her round belly…

Here is another whitened Black Madonna. She was restored in 1954. (For more on the issue of restoring Black Madonnas to their original colors see Ronziere and Saint Guiraud)…

Many Black Madonnas were associated with the realm of the dead. Since this realm was imagined to lie deep in the earth I like translating “Notre-Dame (de) Sous Terre” as “Our Lady of the Underworld”…

Legend states that the original Black Madonna was brought to France from the Holy Land by a Lord of Bourbon. Somehow she came into the possession of King Louis IX…

The Romanesque Black Madonna of Myans became famous when she stopped a giant avalanche of rocks at the door step of her church, where a group of Franciscan monks had taken refuge after getting kicked out of their abbey.

Legend claims that this is one of several statues, which King Saint Louis brought back to France from the Crusades. While Ean Begg mentions that the king did indeed have “many connections with Murat”…