Miracles of Mary Stories about Animals, Plants, and Nature
By Wendy Laura Belcher
January 31, 2024
Many stories about Mary are about animals and nature, sometimes in surprising ways. Studying these stories brings much to light about how human beings have viewed the environment over time and space.
If you identify a story about an animal or nature and we do not list it below, please let us know by emailing us. Stories are listed only once below, even if it is about more than one animal or natural object. Instructors may also email us to receive a lesson plan for teaching about animals and nature in the medieval African folktale.
For class, read the ten stories below with the word "required."
Dogs
As a girl, the Virgin Mary gave water in her shoe to a thirsty dog (required) (this story has many paintings of dogs as well)
The dog that ran off with a manuscript of the Ta'ammera Maryam (Miracles of the Virgin Mary)
Book of Dersana Urael: Part 12: The Holy Family goes to Ophir in Ethiopia and Jesus turns five camels into stone
The hunter who caught a gassa kalb (dog-headed man) in his net.
Hyenas
A woman whose baby daughter was carried off by a hyena
A monk heals two blind hyena cubs with an icon of the Virgin Mary (required)
Cattle
Dabra Zamaddo's monastery and how the people there detailed he monastery's cow as recompense.
A herder saves his sheep and cattle during a storm by praying to the Virgin Mary
Lions, Leopards, Cats
Dabra Zamaddo's Qwerbana Dengel encounters a leopard as a child
Dabra Zamaddo's leopard that dug out tombs and ate the corpses (required)
A pious monk who had drunk too much wine was saved from a lion and a dog by the Virgin Mary (required)
The king's washerman who was attacked by a lion.
Zena Krestos, a European monk, who was a herder and whose beasts were attacked by a lion.
Lambs, Sheep, Goats, Rams
A thief named Jacob stole and ate the one sheep a widow had
A goat comes miraculously to be slaughtered.
Baboons
Pigs
Reptiles (Snakes, Serpents, Dragons, Crocodiles)
A snake enters the belly of a drunk man and Mary's icon casts it out (required)
Dabra Qalemon's gifts from two Arabs who, journeying on the Nile in Egypt, fall into the water due to a storm and are saved from crocodiles (required) (lots of paintings)
The fisherman who was eaten up by a dragon but was found alive when the dragon's belly was cut open.
Fish and Whales
Birds
George the Younger, the martyr, was visited in prison by the Virgin Mary (lots of paintings)
Saint Barsuma the Great's disciples are visited by the Virgin Mary in the form of a dove.
Insects
Dabra Zamaddo's righteous monk who was afflicted by bugs.
Trees
Dabra Zamaddo's church and the tree that wrecked havoc on it (required)
Dabra Zamaddo's church and the punishment for cutting trees from the church's precinct (required)
Dabra Zamaddo's Abbot Abuna Sinodos whom people opposed to cut the hab tree.
The monastery near Alexandria whose trees were cut down by Jews.
Stone
Ocean, Rivers, Streams
A stream runs uphill after its neighbor had diverted it (required)
Book of Nagara Maryam: Month C: Part 04: The Virgin Mary blesses the people and animals in the sea
Book of Nagara Maryam: Month G: Part 01:The Virgin Mary blesses the people and animals in the sea
Book of Vision of Timothy of Alexandria: Part 05: The Holy Family crosses the Nile at Asmunayn.
The Egyptian woman who lost a silver plate while bathing in a miraculous spring.
A woman who was crossing a river on a raft [mezlal].
Natural Disasters
Syrian church of the Virgin Mary in Homs collapses in an earthquake.
Miscellaneous (minor mentions of the natural world)
Dabra Zamaddo's "Keep yourself from minor things, lest you fall from big things"
Dabra Zamaddo's Walatta Nagast whom the Blessed Virgin saved from a raid by the Arami.
A young man who used to crown the icon of the Virgin Mary with roses
