Her Indigo Mantle

In the 2018 restoration of the Salus Populi icon, Mary had her mantle restored to its original indigo. The King James Version of the bible uses the word indigo more than forty times. Other translations more simply say blue. But we know the biblical blue was not baby boy blue or even what a 1950's Catholic would recognize as Blessed Mother Blue. In the icon, the Mother of God, holding her Divine Child, has stepped up to heaven's window, wearing a globe-covering maphorion of indigo blue: we are covered with heaven.

But as indigo is a rich color, so is its meaning. It is the color of intuition or perception - what we might call the third eye - that capacity to know someone deeply by looking at them, even before  words are spoken. 

Indigo is the color of integrity, which is deep sincerity. It is the color of devotion, justice, wisdom, fairness and impartiality. The world could do with being wrapped in some of this. Indigo seems to reduce things to their most fundamental and essential.  

Prayer to the Mother of God, Who Wears a Banishing Blue

Virgin Mary,
Banishing Blue, 
Dislodge the soul clogging resentments,
Dispel the exhausting fears,
Disperse the shade of cynicism,
Allay the hunger to be consulted,
Drive off the rehearsals of punishing revenge,
Expel the provocateurs of hate.

Virgin Mary,
Banishing Blue,
Scatter the tendency to keep God small and leashed,
Rout the old damage which causes us to hurt others,
Oust the hidden desire to be privileged and preferred,
Quell the noisy pride; the ugly arrogance,
Dismiss the joy-stealing complaints,
Cast out the un-Christly bits within.

Virgin Mary,
Banishing Blue,
Exorcise from the nation's heart the demon-spirit of gun lust.

Whose Gaze Is Searching ~ The Salus Populi Icon

Here is a detail of the Salus Populi icon: just the faces of the Mother of God and the Christ. I think there are two take-aways here. The first: notice that the Mother of God is looking out at us with full face and wide-awake eyes. However, she does not look directly ahead, but to her right. It is as if she is looking off afar to the margins. Is is a searching gaze.

Did you ever scope out a seat in the last row of a classroom because you were ill-prepared or late and didn't want to be noticed? Maybe it's something like that. She sees human kind where we hide in shadow and ignorance. She sees us in the things we think and plan that would shame us if they were known: the deals, the machinations, the covert plans, the things that take place underground, off in safe places, in hidden rooms and cells.

As she presents her Healing-Son to the world, she observes and is fully aware of us where we are at our worst. Salus Populi: she is Mother of the People - the people who build great cathedrals and discover cures, but also the people who kill children and can't stop blowing  up things.

Secondly, the Infant Christ doesn't look at us, but at his Mother. It would be very easy to reduce this to sentiment, "Oh baby Jesus is looking at his Mother lovingly." There is more to it than that. In any icon of the Mother of God holding her Infant Son, Jesus never looks like the delicate child on a baby food jar. He is always depicted as a miniature man. He is always the Lord. So here, this "adult" Jesus looks at his Mother, yes, but who is also his first disciple. She is the first to say yes to him.

And you and I are in the long lineage of those who say yes to Jesus. In effect then, he is looking at us, the other disciples. She is the first of us, the ones who go to Jesus, not to clap and cheer, but to learn. That's what a disciple is: one who learns. 

And the learning doesn't mean lamenting that I haven't read the catechism or dropped out of religious instruction after Confirmation, but that there is something heaven wants me to learn personally about how to live my life authentically and fully, as Jesus lived his.

In Her Basilica Home ~ The Salus Populi Icon

This photograph is of Pope Francis visiting the side chapel of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, where the Salus Populi icon of the Mother of God resides. The Pope visits her prior to every trip outside of Rome and then again, upon returning. It is a lovely custom he adheres to. 

Catholics love to decorate. There are dangers. Here, the newly restored icon seems lost in an ocean of carpet swirls, candle sticks and flowers, marble and metal angels. Hmm. I think the Mother of God and her Divine Son would much prefer to be on eye level with us - interfacing - as with the shepherds of Bethlehem and the Magi from the East. 

Christianity is the religion that claims God has a human face, like our own. God meets us first through the meeting of eyes, even before words. And if I am a Christian disciple then this aspect of interface is to be extended. As God looks out at me in Christ, so I am to look out at others, as God's own dear children. It is a summoning to great attention as I see and make eye contact with...

the special needs person who greets me at the door of the "thingdom come" store,

the young fellow behind the deli counter,

the other patients in the doctor's waiting room,

the pharmacist who fills my script,

the stranger at Mass who would like to join me in the pew,

the visiting priest from Africa,

the woman loading groceries into her car next to mine,

the children at the southern border who I see on the news,

the motorists stopped alongside me at the intersection light,

the men who maintain the lawns in this neighborhood (have I ever even waved?)

the women who change adult diapers in the nursing home where I visit,

the others who sit in the Twelve Step circle,

the fellow on the floor of the aisle stocking shelves,

the boy who delivers the pizza,

the others who inhabit this planet in every kind of  variety.

Meaning Discovered in the Salus Populi Icon

Notice that the Mother of God holds the Infant close to her and under her folded hands. This modeling pre-dates the Hodgetria "style" where Mary points to Jesus. The cross inside Jesus' nimbus indicates his divinity. He is an animated figure - seeming almost to be already in motion along the roads of Galilee. Christ's tunic is a royal red. There are vertical stripes on his shoulders called a clavus, symbolizing imperial power - his teaching is from heaven.

Aware of all that vexes us, Jesus blesses us with his right hand, while in his left he carries the Book of the Gospels. But notice that the book is closed. Perhaps it is for us to open. Is he daring us? Surely our eyes will fall upon some line that will require a change, a transformation, a letting go, an inner death to some old way of thinking. Some Christians never take the challenge. There is too much at stake for. They remain fans of Jesus, but not his disciples.

The Holy Mother carries a mappula in her left hand - a ceremonial handkerchief carried by imperial women. Mary is Queen of Heaven, surely, but I prefer to think she'd share the handkerchief with us who are "mourning and weeping in this valley of tears." 

There are an awful lot of broken hearts shedding an awful lot of tears shed on this planet, no? You're attentive to the news, yes? Years ago I had a colleague at school who told me she never reads a newspaper and doesn't have a TV. I asked her how she knew about what was going on beyond her own immediate concerns. She said, "If the world is going to end, someone will tell me." I think that's cavalier, and I wondered how she could pray from any felt place.

Mother of Our Restoration

Here is a short video showing the fascinating restoration effort made to save the 6th century Salus Populi Romani icon of the Mother of God, which was introduced here in last Tuesday's post. Open your screen fully.

However wonderful the icon's cleaning and repair, perhaps of even more urgent importance is our own need for restoration - a return to wholeness and health for individuals, families, the nation, the Church, the planet itself. 

Delighting in the restoration of your icon, O Lady,

we ask for our own return to health and wellness, in...

the epidemic of our drug addiction,

the pestilence of gun lust,

the anguish of parents for the safety of their children,

the groan of the world living in poverty,
the contagion of our militarization,
the debility of our planet destruction,

the disease of distrust,

the bedevilment of our consumerism,

the malady of non-transformative religion,

the blight of resentment,

the torment of those who are hoping to be welcomed,
the contagion of blaming,

the affliction of self-deception,

the ailment of despair,

the scourge of non-questioning,

the illness of our disinterest,

the infection of this ruinous partisanship,
the sickness of all this killing,

the epidemic of our hatred,
the malady of power-quest,
the malignancy of superiority,
the toxicity of power-lies,
the infirmity of our ignorance,
the disorder of our wasteful greed.

Mother of Restoration,
of soundness,
of well-being,
may we inhale your brightness,

your luminous delicacy,

your searching gaze,

your spirit filled mind.
Amen.

Salus Populi: The Icon's Restoration ~ And Ours

This icon is titled: Salus Populi Romani. Arriving in Rome in 590, it is kept in the Pauline Chapel of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major. This is the icon which Pope Francis visits before and after each trip outside of Rome.

The icon's Latin title translates, The Health of the Roman People. But Rome, like Jerusalem and New York, is an international city - everyone from everywhere is there. So maybe we could adjust the title to something more universal, "Salus Populi - Health of the People." 

At the Pope's request, the Vatican Museum undertook a complete restoration of the icon in 2018. The before and after photographs above show us how badly that work was needed. The golden halos were restored, the faces and hands brightened, insect and wood-worm holes were repaired, the delicate colors uncovered, the icon's reverse side was varnished to strengthen the wood panel.

The "Salus Populi" Mother of God icon is unusually large: five feet high and three and a quarter feet wide. It is also filled with spiritual meaning: Mary's gaze, her handkerchief, her indigo maphorion (mantle), the way she holds the holy infant, his blessing hand, and closed gospel book. Perhaps over the next days we can ponder these things together - like going on a mini retreat!

But first: In 593, Pope Gregory prayed before the icon for the city of Rome which was suffering from the Black Plague. In 1571, Pope Pius V prayed for Rome during the naval Battle of Lepanto. In 1837 the icon was venerated during one of Italy's many Cholera Epidemics.

These historical events of healing and strength, and the icon's recent restoration, might help us further to focus our prayer for today. This Mother of God and her Child have assumed a stately pose. She is not down for the count before plague, cholera, naval battle or the polarizations which afflict us in our nation, or the many threats to populations and the planet itself today. 

Might we take a moment to offer a prayer to the restored and regal Mary we encounter so clearly on the right. Ask her and her Son to help us to stay standing and not to crumble before the menace and threats: May we remain alert, confident and strong.