THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Doane, T. W. (Thomas William)
"We may be surprised that, as Europe has Black Madonnas, Egypt had Black images and pictures of Isis. At the same time it is a little odd that the Virgin Mary copies most honored should not only be Black, but have a decided Isis cast of feature."[338:1]
The shrine now known as that of the "Virgin in Amadon," in France, was formerly an old Black Venus.[338:2]
"To this we may add," (says Dr. Inman), "that at the Abbey of Einsiedelen, on Lake Zurich, the object of adoration is an old black doll, dressed in gold brocade, and glittering with jewels. She is called, apparently, the Virgin of the Swiss Mountains. My friend, Mr. Newton, also tells me that he saw, over a church door at Ivrea, in Italy, twenty-nine miles from Turin, the fresco of a Black Virgin and child, the former bearing a triple crown."[338:3]
This triple crown is to be seen on the heads of Pagan gods and goddesses, especially those of the Hindoos.
Dr. Barlow says:
"The doctrine of the Mother of God was of Egyptian origin. It was brought in along with the worship of the Madonna by Cyril (Bishop of Alexandria, and the Cyril of Hypatia) and the monks of Alexandria, in the fifth century. The earliest representations of the Madonna have quite a Greco-Egyptian character, and there can be little doubt that Isis nursing Horus was the origin of them all."[338:4]
And Arthur Murphy tells us that:
"The superstition and religious ceremonies of the Egyptians were diffused over Asia, Greece, and the rest of Europe. Brotier says, that inscriptions of Isis and Serapis (Horus?) have been frequently found in Germany. . . . The missionaries who went in the eighth and ninth centuries to propagate the Christian religion in those parts, saw many images and statues of these gods."[338:5]
These "many images and statues of these gods" were evidently baptized anew, given other names, and allowed to remain where they were.
In many parts of Italy are to be seen pictures of the Virgin with her infant in her arms, inscribed with the words: "Deo Soli." This betrays their Pagan origin.