The Virgin Mary on the Camino

On our walk on the Camino de Santiago we visited many chapels, churches, cathedrals and basilicas. We couldn’t count them all, and in each and every church was a statue, painting or carving of the Virgin Mary. The Christian Church venerates her because she was the mother of Jesus. The doctrine of Mary is traced through titles given to her in Christian history: she made the Incarnation possible (God became man in Jesus). Mary is called Ever Virgin, Second Eve, Immaculate, and Assumed into Heaven.

Chris started her devotion to Mary when she was growing up in Tehachapi. She belonged to a young woman’s group called The Children of Mary. Throughout her young adult time she wore the Miraculous Medal. The Miraculous Medal originated in 1830 when the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Catherine Labouré at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity in Paris, France. Mary instructed Catherine to have a medal made based on the vision she had. The medal, originally called the “Medal of the Immaculate Conception,” became known as the “Miraculous Medal” due to the numerous miracles attributed to those who wore it. The first medals were produced in 1832. Chris has kept her medal and she wore the medal and chain her grandmother gave her on the Camino walk.

Our walk on the Camino took us through a small village named Rabe de las Calzadas where we came to the Hermitage of the Virgin Monastery. We were thrilled that it was open and as we walked into the small stone church we were greeted by two diminutive nuns of the Sisters of Charity Order. We both received a Pilgrim’s Blessing from them with a hug and a small Miraculous Medal strung on a piece of string placed around our necks. They were thrilled when they saw the medal I wore. It was a very blessed moment of our Camino.

Some might say Catholics “worship” Mary and the saints when we pray to them for help. Critics of this practice think that we should only be praying and worshiping God. Catholics ask Mary to pray for them meaning “intercede” not “worship”. Catholics see her as the “Mother of God” who has a close relationship with Jesus her son. The faithful believe asking Mary and the other saints to pray for them is like asking a holy person here on Earth to do the same, but with the added power of their heavenly presence.

Of course the Virgin Mary images and statues we saw on the Camino varied widely. Each community has a “favorite” Mary according to what they want to pray to her for. The Virgin Mary has appeared on earth in several places including Lourdes in France, Fatima in Portugal, and Guadalupe in Mexico. At each apparition Mary was a beautiful lady with different attributes, asking for different things to be done on earth in her name. As stated above, Saint Catherine made the medal with her image on it. Early on our trip we visited Lourdes where Mary appeared to Bernadette; she wore a blue sash and held a rosary, and produced a healing spring, In the churches along the Camino there were so many Virgins loved by the local people.

Our Lady of the Pillar is the name given to the Virgin Mary while living in Jerusalem after Jesus’s death. During this time she supernaturally appeared to the Apostle James in AD 40 while James was in Iberia (Spain today) preaching by the Ebro River. She told him to build a Sanctuary (church) to glorify God and gave him a pillar with her image on it to be placed in the Sanctuary. She said that the faith of the Spanish People would one day be as strong as the pillar. The Blessed Virgin also told James to return to Jerusalem when finished with the building where he would soon be martyred. After James death his remains were miraculously returned to Galicia by his supporters and the origin of the Camino de Santiago story begins.

On the Way we both photographed Mary when we saw her in places of worship, in grottos, and in pictures of her made with tile on the sides of buildings. This post is a collection of the many of beautiful Virgin Mary sacred pieces we wear able to behold.