Leven met Maria
In late medieval society, Mary was omnipresent. Her image could be seen everywhere. All these Marian artifacts held the potential to display miraculous powers. When that happened, the hometowns could begin to attract devotees from outside of the city, and become places of pilgrimage. Living with Mary studies what happened among citizens of a late medieval town when a statue of the Virgin Mary started to perform miracles. Some people supported the statue of the Virgin Mary from the start, but others could be opposed to the new miracle worker. What happened then?
How could some miracle working statues rapidly conquer the hearts of the inhabitants of their home towns and the surrounding regions, and others not? Based on the histories of Our Sweet Lady of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Our Lady of the Eem in Amersfoort and Our Lady of Grace in Scheut (near Brussels) the (group)processes are described that could occur surrounding miraculous statues of the Virgin Mary.
A developmental model for Marian devotions in the late Middle Ages is constructed. Step by step, the devotion for these Mary’s had to find its place within society. The statues could fill different kinds of functions within their cities. Individuals and groups could express their connection to the statue in different ways. Because they believed the statues of the Virgin Mary were living, acting persons, these were reciprocal relations. The statue itself initiated contact as well. People were actually living with Mary.