File:The Virgin Mary and Jesus - Detail (2848027251).jpg

Visitors to the new Church of St. Mary of Zion in Axum, Ethiopia, are fortunate enough to receive a showing of several ancient books containing exquisite paintings of biblical scenes.

I wasn't able to ascertain their age during my visit to the church, but one of my well-informed viewers states they are from the Gondarine Dynasty that arose after the Muslim incursions of the 16th century, which would date them to the 17th or 18th century.

These manuscript paintings and the books to which they belong have been fairly widely photographed by other visitors to Axum.

What I haven't seen are many photos that focus on a single painting or part of one of the paintings. I am hoping to make up for that here.

Update, April 2009 The Santa Maria Maggiore Style My research has revealed that this version of the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus is rendered in the Santa Maria Maggiore style. According to a Web page titled "Ethiopian Icons - Faith,"

"This style of image was derived from an Italian engraving (copied from an icon in Rome's Santa Maria Maggiore), which Jesuit missionaries introduced to Ethiopia early in the 17th century. Typically, Mary wears a blue shawl draped with folds and has a cross on her head and a star on her shoulder. She carries Christ, who is holding a book, in her left arm with her hands crossed. The blessing gesture of both figures is emphasized. Ethiopian artists added a handkerchief, an emblem of high status, twisted around Mary's thumb." (Emphasis added.)

africa.si.edu/exhibits/icons/faith-glossary.html

Read the description, compare it to the painting, and you'll find all the elements are there.

Ancient Icon of the Virgin Mary in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome Wikipedia has this to say about the source icon in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome:

"[The icon] is known as Salus Populi Romani, or Health of the Roman People, due to a miracle in which the icon helped keep plague from the city. The icon is at least a thousand years old, and tradition holds that it was painted from life by St Luke the Evangelist. (According to published material[citation needed] at the Basilica, radiocarbon dating establishes the age of the icon to be approximately 2,000 years, thus reinforcing its sacred tradition.)" [A. Davey's Note: I think claims the icon is 2,000 years old and was painted from life are highly suspect.]

"The Salus Populi Romani has been a favorite of several Popes and acted as a key Mariological symbol. Roman born Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli) celebrated his first Holy Mass there on April 1, 1899. In 1953, the icon was carried through Rome to initiate the first Marian year in Church history. In 1954, the icon was crowned by Pope Pius XII as he introduced a new Marian feast Queenship of Mary. Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI all honoroured the Salus Populi Romani with personal visits and liturgical celebrations."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_di_Santa_Maria_Maggiore

You can see a photograph of the icon in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore that served as the source for the painting shown above by clicking on the Wikipedia link, also above.

I prefer the Ethiopian version of the icon to the original.

Jesuit Missionaries in Ethiopia? According to Scott Pearson, the former Stanford University Professor who accompanied us on our trip to Ethiopia, gave lectures on Ethiopia throughout the trip, and was generally a font of knowledge about Ethiopia and Africa in general:

"The Portuguese in Ethiopia (16th-17th centuries). Ethiopia first became known to Europeans through the Prester John legend. A fictitious letter, written in the 12th century, claimed that a powerful Christian king, named Prester John, ruled a mysterious land in Africa or Asia and might come to the aid of European nations in the Crusades. When Portugal sent a naval envoy (1510) and a diplomatic mission (1520-1525) to Ethiopia, the Portuguese referred to the Ethiopian emperor as Prester John."

"Portugal had commercial, military, and religious motivations for intervening in Ethiopia in the 16th and 17th centuries. The commercial motive was to take control of ports in the Red Sea, principally Massawa. But after Portugal captured ports in east Africa and India and thus controlled the major Asian trade route in the 1520s, the commercial value of the Red Sea ports declined."

"Portugal’s military interest was to fend off further expansion of the rising Ottoman Empire and to contain the spread of Islam. For this reason, Portugal answered the request from Emperor Galawedos (1540-1559) for military assistance against Ahmad ibn Ibrahim in 1542 and helped end the Turkish-supported Islamic jihad in 1543."