“God does not exist, but Mary is His mother” wrote George Santayana. From Europe to the Far East, from Africa to America and the Muslim world, here is the stunningly cross-sectional image of the Virgin, on altars, printed on fabrics sold in African markets, on souvenir stalls, on monuments, on the windshield of a taxi cab. Thus the Virgin, also venerated by Islam as the mother of one of Allah’s prophets, or by the Chinese who in the past decade have embraced the Christian cult more as a Western fashion than a religious doctrine, appears in the most diverse contexts, some of which surprising and absolutely non-consistent, revealing all the global power of Her icon. And, maybe, some sense of humour among Her followers.
