Awhile ago when I was reading the Catholic Times I came across an article that said that the Vatican was calling for a revival of liturgical art that depicts Mary breastfeeding Jesus. I had the craziest reaction because I never knew (after almost 30 years of being Catholic) that anything of the sort even existed! I had, up until that point, never seen anything that even came close.
So I got super curious and started to do some research to see if I could find any of this ancient artwork. Apparently, images of that nature were once quite popular but were then wiped out of the picture with the rise of protestantism and the complaint that they were indecent.
Once I started looking into it and, finding some of the pictures, I fell in love with them. I think my husband started to think I was going wacko, but, I realized, the reason was that this was a Mary that I could actually identify with. I have never been able to have a very strong devotion to Mary and I think that it is because of the perfect and better-than-everybody-else light that she is usually cast in (perpetual virginity, human but never sinned, chosen one of God, assumed bodily into Heaven, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, Immaculately conceived, etc, etc, etc---all true, but, to me, not very relatable).
Finally, when I saw Our Lady of Le Leche, I saw a Mary that I could relate to. With all my heart. She was a human mother. She loved her son intimately, she gave up her body for him, she fed him tenderly from her own breast. I can identify a little better with this Mary.
It's also interesting that in Spain when the devotion to Our Lady of Le Leche was being spread, the title also included "y Buen Parto," and a happy delivery.
I'm including a couple of links in case you're interested.
For general info:
Vatican appeal article:
Huge compilation of pictures:
What beautiful art! Thank you so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know such a thing existed either! I would love to put one of these in the nursery. :)
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