Regimanta STANKEVIČIENĖ
Culture, Philosophy and Arts Research Institute, Vilnius
The Image The Blessed Virgin Mary with the Child of the Šiluva Basilica: the Problems of the Origin, Iconographic Context and Dating
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T H E SH R I N E
Key words: Church history, Catholic Church, legend of the Apparition, The Blessed Virgin Mary with the Child of Šiluva.
O F
The image of the High altar of the Basilica of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Šiluva The Blessed Virgin Mary with the Child is famous for miracles and on September 8, 1786, with the permission of Pope Pius VI, was crowned with golden crowns. The image is also called The Blessed Virgin Mary of Šiluva, Our Lady of Šiluva or Šiluva Madonna (Fig. 1). The history of the Šiluva church and of its image of Mary is based on events supported by documents and on the story, which has become a tradition, about the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Šiluva at the beginning of the 17th century. The history of the Šiluva church from the middle of the 19th century has been frequently discussed in special publications of various genres or in literature of a more general character1. For a long time conclusions of the first historians of the Šiluva church had not been analysed, but only supplemented with details. In the 20th century during the interwar period, a scientific research on the history of the Šiluva church had been undertaken, but no significant studies were prepared. The first coherent, although not covering all the aspects of the research, scientific work was Šiluva in the History of Samogitia by
Stasys Yla (Šiluva Žemaičių istorijoje. Boston, 1970). At the beginning of the 21st century Lithuanian scientists have been researching the history of the Šiluva church from new aspects such as the analysis of documents, traditions of devotion, architecture of the building and sacral art history, as well as using new methods (research is also reflected by this volume). The history of the Šiluva church is similar to the history of many other churches of Lithuania established after the christening of the country in the end of the 14th and 15th centuries. The Šiluva church, founded in 1457 by Petras Gedgaudas2, after the fire at the beginning of the 16th century was rebuilt by Andrius Zaviša or Mikalojus Kęsgaila3. The son of Andrius Zaviša, Merkelis Zaviša, having inherited Šiluva in 1532, became a Calvinist and took thought for an establishment of the shrine of this confession. The Catholic church, as it had happened in quite many places of the dioceses of Vilnius and Samogitia in the 16th century, atrophied. According to the legend of the Mary’s Apparition in Šiluva, from the decay of the Catholic church till the Apparition (dated 1607, 1608 and 1612, at present the date of 1608 is fixed) when the Blessed Virgin complained of the destroyed church of Her Son, 80 years had passed. Thus it was believed that the Catholic church atrophied at once after the Calvinists had established
Š I LU VA
THE ORIGIN OF THE IMAGE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE CHURCH HISTORY AND THE LEGEND OF THE APPARITION