Sunday, December 02, 2012

AN ADVENT TRADITION YOU MAY NOT HAVE HEARD ABOUT.

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No. 522  / 


Over the last number of years, we have found over 100 images of Christ in Mary's womb from around the world. Recently, we discovered that 2 of these images are part of an Advent Tradition that surprised us. The St. Phillip Neri Institute in Berlin has a wonderful statue that a friend of theirs carved for them. It is a copy of a miraculous statue of "Maria Gravida"  that is in the Church of Maria Hilf Assumptio in Malta, Austria. This miraculous statue dates from around the 1400's.

Below are a few views of the statue of Maria Gravida at St. Phillip Neri Institute in Germany.

 

 

During Advent this Maria Gravida statue is placed on a pedestal in front of a blue curtain - behind the curtain is a Nativity scene. At Midnight on Christmas eve, the statue of Mary Pregnant is taken off the pedestal and the Nativity scene is unveiled.

We have also discovered a similar tradition for the statue of Our Lady of Divine Hope in the Iglesia de San Martín Sevilla in Spain which we will highlight in a future post.


Visit the website: Unborn Word Alliance
Visit the blog version of: Unborn Word of the day



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