Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

"I am black, but beautiful: the Madonna of Tindari"

Tindari, Sicily (Italy)

High atop a promontory overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, atop the ruins of ancient Tyndaris in Sicily, stands the Madonna Nera di Tindari, Our Lady of Tindari, a Black Madonna image holding the Christ Child. The site, with its breathtaking landscape, is one of the island's most beloved Marian shrines.

The most celebrated tradition of the sanctuary is that of a woman who, upon seeing the dark image of the Virgin, was surprised or scorned by her black face, saying that her own image in her homeland was more beautiful. At that moment, according to the tale, her young son fell from the cliff; upon invoking the Virgin, a tongue of sand miraculously emerged from the sea and received the child, saving him. That lagoon-like beach, which can still be seen today at the foot of the promontory, is associated in popular devotion with this miracle. At the foot of the image, an inscription bears the words from the Song of Songs: "Nigra sum, sed formosa" — "I am black, but beautiful."

It is important to distinguish between tradition and history. The story of the woman, the child, and the sand that saved him belongs to the pious legend of the sanctuary, passed down from generation to generation; it is not a documented historical account, and its details should be presented as tradition. In contrast, the antiquity of the cult of the Madonna Nera in Tindari and the existence of the sanctuary on the site of the ancient Greek settlement are widely attested. Where there is no documentary certainty, it is honest to say that it is not documented.

The Rosary accompanies the Marian devotion of Tindari as in any sanctuary, without there being a singular episode that specifically links it to the origin of this devotion.