Presentation: Wendy Belcher, “Ladder of Heaven”

Wendy Laura Belcher presents the "Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project," a resource for stories about and images of the Virgin Mary in these African countries.

About the project:

"Ladder of Heaven: The Miracles of the Virgin Mary in Medieval African Literature and Art" 

The Virgin Mary is the world’s most storied person. For two millennia, countless stories have been told about the miracles the Mother of Jesus Christ has performed for the faithful who call upon her name. Africans were among the first to compose stories about her and over the centuries folk tellers from Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia have written 1,000 short, meaningful narratives about her and healing, reparative justice, and personal ethics in a violent world. Africans have also painted her for centuries. Together, these stories constitute a body of literature that many people believe doesn’t exist—written African literature from before the arrival of Europeans.  Come learn about these stories and paintings, which are the subject of the Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) digital humanities project at pemm.princeton.edu.

Some of these stories depict good people in desperate need—those in search of healing from disabilities, rescue from criminals and abusers, safe passage on difficult journeys, protection from punishment, relief from desire, and delivery from savage animals. Many stories are full of slippery characters up to no good and wide-eyed innocents ensnared in their shenanigans, all of whom stumble through startling plot turns to arrive in the arms of the all-forgiving mother. These Marian miracle stories are preserved in the ancient African language of Gəˁəz (classical Ethiopic) in a compilation text called the Täˀammərä Maryam (the Miracle of Mary). This text is preserved up until today on handmade parchment manuscripts in Egyptian and Ethiopian Christian monasteries. As such, these Marian miracle stories represent a rich repository of African thought and innovation.