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Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project

Miracles of Mary Stories about Paintings, Icons, and Other Arts

By Wendy Laura Belcher

October 6, 2023

The Ethiopian Miracles of Mary is one of the most beautifully illustrated manuscripts in the Ethiopian canon, or indeed anywhere. About 10 percent of all Marian stories are illustrated in the Ethiopian tradition.

The thirty-three most commonly illustrated stories are the following. Each story has a dedicated paintings page, where you can see all the PEMM paintings for a particular story. You can see them by clicking on the story titles below. Each story is listed only once below, even if it fits multiple topics.

Paintings depicting Books, Writing, Artwork, and Painting

As is often the way, some of the stories with paintings are also about paintings. For class, read the stories and view the paintings of the six required items below.

Story about the Bishop Hildephonsus of Toledo compiling Marian stories (required)
Artwork about the Bishop Hildephonsus compiling Marian stories (required)

Story about The scribes copying the Miracles of the Virgin Mary and falling into sin (required)
Artwork about The scribes copying the Miracles of the Virgin Mary and falling into sin (required)

Story about the Ephrem the Syrian Potter who composed a famous praise hymn about Mary  (required)
Artwork about Ephrem the Syrian Potter who composed a famous  praise hymn about Mary  (required)

Story about The monastic scribe who used to write the Virgin Mary's name in golden ink (required)
Artwork about The monastic scribe who used to write the Virgin Mary's name in golden ink (required)

Story about The French artist knocked off his scaffolding by Satan (required)
Artwork about The French artist knocked off his scaffolding by Satan (required)

Paintings depicting Healing

A significant proportion, a full third, of the stories with paintings are about people being healed. In most of these stories, they are healed by interacting with a painted icon of Mary.

The rich man from Colosse who was shot in the eye with an arrow while fighting the Qwez (required)
The story about the rich man shot in the eye. (required)

An aged monk from Egypt whom the Virgin Mary made young again
The story about  the aged Egyptian monk

The former pagan, the Bishop of Rome, who cut off his hand because of a lustful thought and the Virgin Mary healed him
The story about the man who cut off his hand.

John Bakansi, the blind Egyptian monk, whose eyes the Virgin Mary healed with her breast milk
The story about the blind Egyptian monk.

Elizabeth, the blind Egyptian girl from Badraman, whose eyes the Virgin Mary healed with her breast milk
The story about the blind Egyptian girl.

Katir, the aged priest from Al-Kasus, who was mistreated by a church custodian, is restored to strength by the Virgin Mary
The story about the mistreated Egyptian priest.

A European man, lame due to a stone foot, is healed by praying in front of the icon of the Virgin Mary
The story about the man with the stone foot.

Bishop Mercurius contracted leprosy and the patriarch banned him from serving communion due to his ailment
The story about the bishop who contracts leprosy.

A poor woman with a broken leg is healed by the icon of the Virgin Mary in the church of Harat ar-Rum in Cairo
The story about the Egyptian woman with a broken leg.

Dabra Nagadeyan's dying monk prays in front of her icon to go to Jerusalem and the Virgin Mary takes him from Lower Egypt to all around the holy land
The story about the dying Egyptian monk.

Paintings depicting Animals and Plants

A young man who used to crown the icon of the Virgin Mary with roses

As a girl, the Virgin Mary gave water in her shoe to a thirsty dog

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

The noble man from Qemer who was a cannibal and ate 78 people, gave a drop of water to a beggar, and went to heaven

Paintings depicting Water and Oceans

The church of the Virgin Mary that moved by itself to the shore of the Mediterranean Sea

The pregnant woman who was caught by a wave while going to the church of Saint Michael (Mont Saint Michel) and gives birth underwater protected by the Virgin Mary's cloak

Paintings depicting Prisons and Thieves

The two women who were attacked by robbers on their way to church

George the Younger, the martyr, was visited in prison by the Virgin Mary

Two brothers were dyers from Dalga, Egypt, and one was tricked in a religious debate and imprisoned

The sinful deacon whom his enemies could not kill until he had confessed himself to a priest.

A widow who saved her only son from execution by hanging when she prayed to the Virgin Mary

Miscellaneous

The laborer who complained to the Virgin Mary because she did not reply to his Hail Mary

The Egyptian monk Issac who prayed every night for seven years that the Virgin Mary would appear to him

Maryam, an Egyptian child from Defra, who wanted to receive Communion but whose family locked her in the house when they went to church

A widow who could not find husbands for her three daughters

A pregnant abbess is secretly delivered of her son by the Virgin Mary and he grows up to become a bishop

A deacon prayed the prayer that contained the word 'rejoice' five times for the five joys of the Virgin Mary

Dabra Qalemon's monk who humbly pretends not to fast and is saved from his brothers by the Virgin Mary.

pricenton ethiopian eritrean & egyptian miracles of marry project

The Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project is a comprehensive resource for the 1,000+ miracle stories written about and the 2,500+ images painted of the Virgin Mary in these African countries, and preserved in Geʿez between 1300 and the present.

Princeton Department of Comparative Literature 133 East Pyne, Princeton, NJ 08540

Princeton Department of African American Studies Morrison Hall, Princeton, NJ 08540

pemm@princeton.edu

© 2024 The Trustees of Princeton University