The breastfeeding Mama Mary

Nuestra Senora de la Leche at the Manila Cathedral.

Photo by the author. 

This August is the National Breastfeeding Awareness Month 2018 in the Philippines. August 1 to 7 was the Worldwide Breastfeeding Week.

That week, we saw two newspapers featuring a picture of a group of breastfeeding mothers in their front pages: the Philippine Daily Inquirer and an African broadsheet.

What could be the best icon for breastfeeding? The Virgin Mary in her representation as Nuestra Senora de la Leche (Our Lady of the Milk), or Nuestra Senora de la Leche y Buen Parto (Happy Delivery), or La Virgen de la Leche (The Virgin of the Milk).

I remembered taking a picture of the image of the Nuestra Senora de la Leche in one of the alcoves of the Manila Cathedral in November last year, right beside the large painting of the Filipiniana-dressed Our Lady of the Philippines. The feast day of the breastfeeding Mama Mary is on 11 October. It could be that the image is brought out only for veneration at the cathedral in October to November.

In the image, she holds the baby Jesus nursing on her right breast. She is like any mother opening her blouse anywhere to feed her hungry baby.

This very human, motherly image of Mary is far from the Nuestra Senoras garbed in rich garments in religious processions in provincial towns during her various feast days and in Intramuros during the Marian festival in December.

In Santiago, Chile, according to reports, the image of La Virgen de la Leche enshrined at the Church of Our Lady of Divine Providence is believed to be miraculous. Many childless couples attend her processions hoping that they be gifted with a child.

Pilgrims to the Holy Land may have visited the Chapel of the Milk Grotto, which is near the Church of the Nativity.

The grotto, according to tradition, is where Mary and Joseph rested during their flight to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod. While she was nursing the baby Jesus, a few drops of her milk fell on the rocks, and soft yellowish-brown limestone turned creamy white.

Infertile couples, Christians and Muslims, according to pilgrimage accounts, visit the Milk Grotto to seek Mary's intercession for them to have a baby. Muslims have a high regard too for Mary.

The breastfeeding Mama Mary has been the subject of paintings around the time of Leonardo da Vinci. One painting attributed to him, the Madonna and Child (also called the Madonna Litta after its previous owner Count Antonio Litta) at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, shows Mary nursing the Christ child set against a mountainous scenery framed by symmetrical windows.

The Madonna Litta, c1490s. Da Vinci. Hermitage Museum.

The Museo Nacional de Prado [Prado Museum] in Spain has a collection of La Virgen de la Leche paintings.

Several paintings depict Mary nursing on her right breast --

La Virgen de la Leche. Alvaro de Luna. c1490.

-- and in this scene, we see Mary's milk spurting after the baby may have had his fill onto St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Benedict:

'La Vrgen de la Leche con Nino' between St. Bernard of Clairvaux
& St. Benedict. Pere Lembri. 1410-1415.

She is also depicted nursing on her left breast --

La Virgen de la Leche. Bernard van Orley. c1520.

In this painting by Orley, there are five angels in the background: a harpist and singers, three of them reading a large music book.

La Virgen de la Leche. Marinus van Reymerswaele. 1525-1550.

If not for the title, Reymerswaele's mother and child could be any nursing mother anywhere in the world.

The Virgin and the Souls of Purgatory. Pedro Machuca, 1517.

The Machuca painting is described as an intriguing version of the La Virgen de la Leche, 'a symbol of Marian mercy that serves to help the souls of Purgatory.' 

Here we see Mary with both of her breasts open, with milk dropping from the right toward the souls below. It appears that the baby wants to help her mother quench the thirst of the souls too.

The beautiful woman feeding her child in these paintings is the epitome of motherhood and motherly love. She is Mama, indeed!


References:

1. The Madonna Litta at The Hermitage at
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/01.+Paintings/29633/?lng=en

2. The La Virgen de la Leche collection at Museo del Prado at https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obras-de-arte?searchObras=la%20virgen%20de%20la%20leche

The Immaculate Conception in Philippine history

19th century Inmacuda image.

Visitors at the Manila Cathedral would not miss the image of the Immaculate Conception enshrined at the main altar. On the Sunday preceding her feast day, 08 December,  a grand procession of Marian images had been held around Intramuros these past many years.

We visited the Cathedral on the 7th, and we discovered a new image on a colorful carroza inside one of the Cathedral's side altars. 

It's described as a "19th century Philippine-made image of the Virgin [that] was found in an antique shop [that] resembl[es] the Immaculada venerated in the Franciscan church in pre-war Intramuros"  It was recreated based on an "old photograph of the original Immaculada .. believed to have been lost during the Second World War."

There was a Royal Decree ordering compliance to a brief issued on 16 February 1761 advocating that in all domains under the Spanish monarchy the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary is the universal and singular patroness.  

This can be found as an entry in Cedulario 1748-1768 (folder SDS-699 in the National Archives of the Philippines).  Rose Marie Mendoza, good friend and fellow researcher at the National Archives these last couple of years, posted in Facebook a photograph of this entry page just in time for the feast day of the patroness (08 December 2015). 

The entry reads: "Real Cedula. Que ordena el cumplimiento del breve que acompaña de 16 Febrero ultimo para que en todos los dominios de la monarquia Española se tome por universal y singular patrona y abogada de ella a la Inmaculada Concepcion de la Virgen Maria." [in the backside of page 289 of the Cedulario]

That came after several events in the history of the Inmaculada in the Philippines. These can be found in the Anales Ecclesiasticos de Philipinas, 1574-1682, published as Philippine Church History, A Summary Translation in two volumes in 1994: 

•  Item 4 under Philippine Historical Personality - Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (f.16-f.17 of the Anales; page 30 of vol.1, Summary): "On June 24, 1571, [Legazpi] took possesion of Manila. It was the feastday of St. John the Baptist. On that day too, he established the Parochial Church of the city under the patronage of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. Its first parish priest was Lcdo, Juan de Villanueva."

• Item 13 under the Biography of Maestro Don Fray Domingo de Salazar, O.P., D.D., First Bishop and First Archbishop of Manila (f.18-f.21; p 35): "On December 21, 1581 it [the church constructed by Bishop Salazar] was made into a Cathedral, the first Episcopal seat in the entire archipelago. A suffragan to the Archdiocese of Mexico, it was dedicated to the Most Pure and Immaculate Conception of Our Lady by virtue of the Bull of Pope Gregory XIII issued at Rome in the 7th year of His Pontificate in 1578."     

• PROMULGATION. Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Patroness of the Cathedral (and Archdiocese of Manila (f.110; pp 126-127):  "The last promise Archbishop Poblete and Governor Manrique de Lara fulfilled dealt with Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. They agreed to celebrate her feast permanently every 8th of December up to its Octave.

How was the first day celebrated? "Thoughout the celebration there were fireworks, plays etc.On the first day, the Governor and the Royal Audiencia were the sponsors. A Pontifical Sung Mass was offered by the Archbishop at the Cathedral with Don Fr. Antonio de San Gregorio,OFM, Bishop of Nueva Caceres as preacher. The celebration was continued at the Cathedral the following day with the City and its Officials as sponsors. The succeeding celebrations were celebrated (and sponsored) by the Religious Orders. The last day was celebrated at the San Francisco Church with the Nueva Caceres Prelate as celebrant and the Archbishop as preacher.'

Then there is the interesting story on the death of Archbishop Miguel de Poblete on 08 December 1667 (f.198-f.200; pp 210-212:

The Archbishop was suffering from the recurrence of an ailment; he also had dysentery which 'so weakened him that he had to take to his bed,' He could no longer deliver his sermon, and complicated by high fever, 'on the eve of the Immaculate Conception, December 7, it was suggested for him to make his last will' and 'to prepare himself for the Holy Viaticum.'  The Viaticum was brought from Sta. Cruz instead from the Cathedral and adminsitered to him at four in the afternoon that day.

The Inmaculada at the cental altar of Manila Cathedral.

After 1:00 a.m. of December 8, "they [probablythe servant, Fr Juan de la Paz and the Archbishop's nephew] saw that he was lying on his right side with his right hand on his cheek. His eyes were closed and his robe, unruffled. Thinking that he was just probably asleep, they made some noise, But as they did not notice any movement, the Father Confessor called to him. Not hearing any response, they knew the Archbishop had passed away. At precisely that moment, the Cathedral tower clock struck. It was 2:00 a.m. of December 8, 1667, a Thursday and the feast of the Immaculate Concepcion of which Archbishop Poblete was a staunch devotee,'

He could not be buried that day because they were celebrating the Royal Coronation. 

He had been staying at his house by the Pasig river, "When the Intramuros gates were opened, they brought the body there for embalming.  They transported it aboard a small sampan. Upon docking, they transferred it into a hammock. Hardly had they entered the Sto. Domingo gate when the Cathedral and the Church bells of Intramuros started ringing. Such was the practice at daybreak every December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The Religious escorting the body commented that indeed the corpse of such a holy and faultless man really merited a grand "welcome". The soldiers at the gate, with tears of joy, jubilantly received and let the party pass through. A big, informal procession followed.'

The body was laid out in the Archbishop's Palace. Its doors opened at 4:00 a.m. of December 9 so that the throng of people from Manila and from towns 6 or 8 leagues away from the city could pay their respect.  He was buried in the Cathedral three days later, 11 December, a Sunday.

Photos by the author,

References:

• Cedulario 1748-1768. Folder SDS-699. National Archives of the Philippines.

• Anales Ecclesiasticos de Philipinas, 1574-1682. Philippine Church History, A Summary Translation, Vol. 1. (Manila: Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila and Rev. Fr. Ruperto C. Santos), 1994.