'Daurade' is a kind of fish and must be one of the strangest nick-names for a statue of the Blessed Mother. Yet it was skilfully chosen, because everybody will ask…

The original church in the mountain hamlet of Vassivière stood until the 13th century and housed the predecessor of this Black Virgin.

As so many Black Madonnas, so this one too resides in a place that was already sacred during pre-Christian times. Excavations have revealed cults of Isis, Cybele…

In 1554 the rulers of Beilstein became Protestants and imposed their faith on their subjects. No wonder perhaps that the locals didn’t mind being occupied by Catholic Spaniards in 1620, during the bloody 30 Years War of Religion…

Not long before the year 1675 the mayor of Cologne made a vow to go on pilgrimage to the Holy House and the Black Madonna of Loreto (see Italy)…

The miracle working Black Madonna im Kirchwald, Bavaria, is a copy of an icon attributed to St. Luke, brought from Rome by Michael Schöpfl in 1644. He was a Lutheran convert turned Catholic hermit, who, with the help of the Mother of God, turned a harmful spring on this mountain into a healing well.

This statue has had a rough life, but now the Black Madonna enjoys good health, so to speak, and an enthusiastic following. So, all's well that ends well…

As most Black Madonnas so this one too is deemed to be a miracle working ‘image of grace’. Most people agree that she must have been sculpted around 1360 by a member of the Cologne school of sculpting

After a fire in 1465 this gothic standing mother and child replaced a 9th-10th century Romanesque Seat of Wisdom Madonna lost in the flames. Baby Jesus holds a bird in his left hand…

While one may say that this is just another one of hundreds of copies of the Black Madonna of Loreto in Europe, several things make it special…