Compañía Pilgrimage

Our Lady of Montserrat felt so familiar to me. A Black Madonna, I stayed with her for quite some time wondering where I had experienced her image before. It eventually came to me. My grandmother, a Black woman raised during the Jim Crow era, had a similar picture in her home when I was a child. I learned during our Pilgrimage that there is some controversy about the Madonna’s dark skin and that some speculate that she only turned dark because of smoke from candles or aging. Why must Blackness be controversial? Can we open our minds and hearts enough to imagine a Black Virgin? Let’s envision a Holy Mother who is Black, beautiful, and full of grace. Let’s all aspire to see ourselves in her image.