She is the Our Lady of the Tree, Rock, Sea and Cave
Beloved Mother of Wisdom, You are Black and Beautiful!
She is the Madonna of Fire and Water
Beloved Mother of Wisdom, You are Black and Beautiful!
She is the Madonna of High Places, and of places deep within the earth.
Beloved Mother of Wisdom, You are Black and Beautiful!
She reminds us of cycles of the seasons, honoring the above and below and the passages in between
Beloved Mother of Wisdom, You are Black and Beautiful!
She is the Throne, the Seat of our Wisdom
Beloved Mother of Wisdom, You are Black and Beautiful!
She reminds us of the Earth as Source, of Female as source, Goddess as source. She blesses us with her holy blood and sanctifies our own blood.
Beloved Mother of Wisdom, You are Black and Beautiful!
She helps us find the Black Madonna within us all.
Beloved Mother of Wisdom, You are Black and Beautiful
She is fierce to protect us, compassionate to hold us and hear our prayers.
Beloved Mother of Wisdom, You are Black and Beautiful!
She is Queen and Virgin, one unto herself. She is inviolate. She is rising up.
Beloved Mother of Wisdom, You are Black and Beautiful!
She unites opposites. She brings balance.
Beloved Mother of Wisdom, You are Black and Beautiful!
She is the face of our First Mother, our Oldest Mother, our African Mother. She reminds us that we are all Sisters, Brothers.
Beloved Mother of Wisdom, You are Black and Beautiful!
She is Mother, Mother of All, Mother of All that is.
Beloved Mother of Wisdom, You are Black and Beautiful!
The inspiration for the call-and-response form of this praise-poem is the Litany of Loreto, an ancient song of praise and petition said in procession to the highly venerated Black Madonna of Loreto, near Ancona, Italy. She is considered to be the protector of Italy, and is celebrated on December 10.
The phrase “You are black and beautiful, my friend” is engraved above where the Black Madonna of Montevergine in Avellino used to hang.
Of all the sites in Crete that beckoned, it was the thousand-year-old Sacred Myrtle Tree that I most looked forward to visiting. I had first read about it in 1995, in Carol Christ’s Odyssey to the Goddess.* Carol described the Panagia Myrtià, the All Holy Myrtle, as a place of veneration, tended by the local nun’s, and extremely sacred. At that time, I was about to begin my own odyssey over the months and years to come, first encountering the Black Madonna while doing genealogy research in Italy, and then returning to Italy to delve deeply into my ancestral heritage. Now, here I was in 2015, twenty years later, gathered at the base of the Sacred Tree with Carol Christ and a group of women as part of a 
This summer I received a postcard from a friend in Italy portraying the Madonna in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the major church in Rome dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Far more than a just a beautiful image, this Black Madonna has been attributed with miraculous and awesome power. Her titles “Our Lady of the Snows” and “Salvation of the Roman People” offer clues of her power over the weather and her ability to protect a whole community.
In 1995, I took a sabbatical from my job to do genealogical research in Italy. My journey started with a pilgrimage to Goddess sites in southern Italy with a small group of women, led by archaeologist Frances Bernstein. I had been going to Italy for 20 years. But it had never occurred to me that among all the ruins and hidden in the churches and in nature were places once sacred to women and men who honored female divinities.
December is the darkest month here in the northern hemisphere, a time of going within to access the dark maternal matrix of creation. On liturgical calendars throughout Italy, December 10 is the date dedicated to the Black Madonna of Loreto. The sanctuary of Loreto in Ancona, Le Marche, is a major pilgrimage site of Europe with millions of visitors a year. Considered to be the protector of Italy, the Madonna of Loreto is a highly revered and well-known. Sibyls and prophets adorn the outside of the marble enclosure of the Santa Casa, or Holy House, in which her image is venerated. As one enters the small shrine within the large church, there is a feeling of intimacy and accumulated devotion. 
