The Anglo-Ethiopian Society

Lecture - HYBRID - Healing & Justice: African Miracle Stories & Paintings of the Virgin Mary

Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary Project

Tuesday 23rd April 2024

Online talk - Healing & Justice: The African Tradition of Miracle Stories & Paintings about the Virgin Mary - The Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) Project

With an exhibition of manuscript paintings of Miracles of Mary commissioned from artists in Adet, Tigray, in 2007
18:00 BST, Ethiopian Community in Britain, 2a Lithos Road, London NW3 6EF - Public event (all welcome), with the talk being broadcast online at the exhibition at 19:00 BST.

Online talk:

Members of the Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project will present on their findings about the devotion to the Virgin Mary in Africa and the hundreds of stories and thousands of paintings that can be found in Ge'ez (classical Ethiopic) manuscripts dating from the 1300s to the present. They will show how the African tradition is older, richer, and more indigenous than previously thought.

Presentations by Principal Investigator Professor Wendy Laura Belcher; Senior Researcher, Cataloger and Translator Dr. Jeremy R. Brown; Researchers, Catalogers, and Translators Dawit Muluneh and Mehari Worku; Technical Lead Henok Alem; and Project Manager Blaine Kebede.

Exhibition of Paintings - Will be on view from about 18:00 BST

The paintings were commissioned from individuals in communities of painters in the district of Adet, Tigray, over 3 months in Summer 2007. First, local scribes were employed to copy different Miracles of Mary on to sheets of parchment, and then the parchments were given to painters to illustrate. Only one parchment was given to each painter, but it soon became clear, from the similarities in styles and colours in some of the finished work, that that a number of the painters being interviewed were not actually painters but were friends or relatives of some of the painters who wanted extra commissions. In total nearly 100 different miracles were commissioned and the collection features work from about 60 different painters. About 50 of the paintings will be on view during the exhibition.

The fieldwork for this project, which was to study natural colours used for manuscript and icon painting in Northern Ethiopia, was supported by a British Academy Small Research Grant.

Refreshments will be served during the exhibition.

Please reserve your place soon to avoid disappointment.

Eventbrite Tickets - Exhibition - Miracles of Mary Paintings


Unable to attend the exhibition in person? Register for an online ticket to be sent a link to a Zoom broadcast of the talk.

Eventbrite Tickets - Online Talk - Healing & Justice: African Miracle Stories & Paintings of the Virgin Mary


Miracles of MaryMiracles of Mary
PEMM ID 316-D: Temple: The Virgin Mary is taken to the Temple at three years old
painted by Aleka Kunfe Gebre Medhin
PEMM ID 445: Nativity: How the Virgin Mary gave birth
painted by Aleka Tesfay Gebre Kidane

First Published in News File Winter 2023

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