The Black Madonna: Race, Religion and Erasure
How did a black Virgin Mary come to be enshrined in hundreds of churches across Europe and Latin America? The answer is not so simple...
On the east coast of Tenerife, in the town of Candelaria, stands Our Lady of Candelaria — the patron saint of the Canary Islands and of mining communities across the Americas. Aside from her beautiful robes, something else stands out: this Virgin Mary is black. And she isn’t the only one. Across Europe, there are hundreds of Black Madonnas, celebrated with the same, if not greater, fervour as other holy figures.
Declared a patroness in 1867 and canonically crowned in 1889, the Black Virgin of Candelaria—popularly called La Morenita—is celebrated each year on February 2nd and August 15th, when thousands gather to worship her. Legend has it she washed up on the shores of Tenerife at the end of the 14th century, long before the Spanish “occupation” of the Canary Islands.
The Discovery
Our story begins in 1392, when two Guanche herders discovered a statue of a woman along the shore. (The Guanche were the pre-Hispanic, Indigenous people of the Canary Islands.)
Not knowing who or what this statue was, one shepherd attempted to throw a rock at it and — whether you believe in what’s about to transpire — this is where the legend gets interesting: it’s said that as soon as he did it, one of his arms became paralysed.The second shepherd, witnessing this, tried stabbing the statue, only to cut himself.
Now filled with terror, both men fled and reported the strange happenings to their local mencey (Guanche king). The king ordered that the statue be taken to a cave—the Cave of Chinguaro—and worshipped as the goddess Chaxiraxi.
In Guanche mythology, Chaxiraxi was the mother goddess of fertility, rain, harvests, and the sun. The statue was associated with her because of the mystical powers it was believed to possess (remember the paralysed arm and the self-inflicted wound) and was worshipped accordingly until a young Guanche, recently escaped from Spanish captivity and converted to Christianity, identified it as the Virgin Mary.
It’s important to note that this legend was first recorded in 1496 by a monk named Alonso de Espinosa. Because history was primarily passed down orally until then, we’ll likely never know exactly what happened.
What matters is this: a chapel was built for the Black Virgin, her festival began to be celebrated in 1497, and she was named the Virgin of Candelaria, after the green candle she held in her hand.
The Rise Of The Black Madonna
Interestingly, the Canary Islands aren’t the only place where the Black Virgin is venerated. She is also worshipped in parts of the Philippines, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, and Puerto Rico.
After the Spanish colonised the Canaries, they brought Canary Islanders with them on further expeditions. These Islanders, in turn, brought their traditions. Add to that the transatlantic slave trade and Spanish efforts to spread Catholicism, and it’s no surprise that Candelaria was adopted as a patron saint by many enslaved Black communities across the Americas. She was even syncretised with African deities like Oyá, the Yoruba orisha of winds and storms.
But this still doesn’t answer the question: why is she black?
Why Is She Black?
There isn’t a single, definitive answer. In fact, very few scholars have studied the Black Madonna phenomenon. But several theories exist.
One theory suggests that black depictions of the Virgin Mary are accidental, the result of ageing materials and environmental factors like candle smoke or fire.
While plausible at first glance, this explanation falls apart under scrutiny.
If ageing alone caused the darkening, why would it predominantly affect only skin color? Why aren't there more darkened statues of saints? And why, for instance, does a Black Madonna in Sicily feature a Latin inscription reading, “I am Black but beautiful,” a direct reference to the Song of Solomon?
Another theory, proposed by Moss and Cappannari in 1952, argues that Mary herself likely had dark skin, seeing as how she was born and lived in the Middle East.
Where European Christians whitewashed her to reflect themselves in her image, so too did other populations — this is perhaps why she’s been depicted as racially black by African Christians and brown by Middle Eastern Christians.
Now, this theory carries more weight but doesn’t fully explain the widespread presence of Black Madonnas across Europe.
The third and most intriguing theory comes from scholars like Stephen Benko. He argues that the Black Madonna is a vestige of ancient pre-Christian religions.
Even though Europe was officially Christianised by the 1400s, older beliefs didn’t simply disappear. According to Benko, goddesses like Isis, Ceres, and Artemis were gradually reinterpreted into representations of the Virgin Mary.
This blending mirrors what happened among enslaved Africans, who syncretised Catholic saints with Yoruba orishas to preserve their spiritual traditions. If such syncretism occurred in the Caribbean and the Americas, why not earlier, in Europe?
In ancient times, the colour black was not associated with evil. On the contrary, it symbolised fertility, the earth, the divine feminine, and spiritual depth.
The darker the earth, the more fertile it was believed to be — blackness was sacred, a reflection of proximity to the divine. However, with the gradual dominance of male-centred religions, these ancient feminine symbols were marginalised.
Still, pagan rituals continued alongside new accepted faiths, and if this theory is to be believed, their echoes can still be seen in the depictions of Black Madonnas.
One Black Mary, Two Black Maries, Three…
Today, Black Madonnas are quite literally everywhere. There’s the Black Virgin of Montserrat (Spain), the Black Madonna of Tsuruoka (Japan), the Black Virgin of Notre-Dame d’Afrique (Algeria), the Black Madonna of Lapu-Lapu City (Philippines), the Black Virgin of Marija Bistrica (Croatia), and the Black Virgin of Aparecida (Brazil), etc etc…
However, not everyone has embraced the phenomenon.
In Chartres, France, pilgrims worshipped a Black Virgin for nearly 500 years. Pope Pius IX even crowned her in 1855. But during a decade-long restoration completed in 2018, the cathedral’s walls were lightened, and the Black Virgin was “cleaned,” i.e., whitened.
The cathedral wanted to remove the quote “unsightly coating” from this 16th century statue and they sure did. The cathedral’s reasoning was that the Black Madonna had never really been black — decades of dirt and soot had clouded her white exterior and once she was cleaned, her true colours were restored.
And today, the cathedral longer sells images of the Black Madonna, only of Notre-Dame la Blanche — Our Lady the White One. not only is her black physical self no longer there, the cathedral gift shop no longer sells images of the Black Madonna. They just sell her white representation, which was apparently was commissioned as a copy of "a much-admired earlier Madonna. Notre-Dame la Blanche — Our Lady the White One.”
Despite these efforts to erase her, there is no denying the Black Madonna’s presence. Across centuries, cultures, and continents, she continues to inspire devotion, just like in Tenerife, where thousands gather every year to honour Our Lady of Candelaria.