The Illuminating Black Madonna

Sue Monk Kidd Lecture
April 13, 2005

Sue Monk Kidd, author of the bestselling novel The Secret Life of Bees and just published The Mermaid Chair, joined an audience of more than 800 in the nave of Washington National Cathedral on Wednesday, April 13 to share her personal perspective and experience of the Black Madonna as a powerful symbol of “outrage and boldness for those who are left out,” of “the nurturing heart of God” and of the idea that our bodies and the earth “are sacred and holy.”

Offering a series of twenty images of Madonnas, both black and white, Kidd contrasted the development of the image through history, from ancient roots, through the Enlightenment, to modern day, reclaiming her powerful dimension as a “picture of God that includes the feminine.”

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