And Now, U Git Beated.
Date: 1/28/2009
From:
Jeff Geerling 
(No, not the child... the demon. You sicko!).
Depicted above is Mary, Mother of Help (or, popularly, Mary, Exterminatrix of Heresies). This is but one of many depictions of the Blessed Virgin Mary 'beating the hell' out of a child (quite literally!). Like many icons, this is NOT necessarily an accurate depiction of an historic event!* She doesn't go around beating little children. But you already knew that, right?
Instead, it depicts a vision of the Madonna del Soccoroso from the 14th century. It is said that a mother in Sciacca accidentally invited the devil into her son's life, and then begged Mary to help banish the devil. Mary appeared, beat the devil down with her club, and then stood on the devil.
You can read more about this apparition, as well as many others, at The Fisherman's Feast website.
[Update: Here's a link to "Rifugio San Gaspare," where the above picture came from. Thanks!]
*If you interpret every piece of art and literature literally, may God have mercy on your soul! You can never discover the true beauty and meaning in life without understanding it from a non-literalist perspective.
I hope that the child isn't protected by any laws that will allow him to claim independence while his mom goes to prison for 20 years because of child abuse!... oops, I thought it was the child being beaten and not the devil :-(
Obviously, we need to work on our reading comprehension, Mr. clg01!
;-)
Oh my word...I snorked, this was SOOOO funny!
GREAT visual for what goes on in the invisible realm as Satan loses battle after battle.
~MB
She is dressed like OL of Guadalupe.
Oh yes, this ole thing it was my maternity outfit, do you like?
It hangs in the upper floors of the cloister of our Mother House in Umbria. I believe this is one of the pics taken from my blog.
@ Fr. Keyes: My apologies if this picture was taken from your site unjustly—please click on my name above and use the Contact form to contact me directly, if you would like this picture removed. We could use another picture if you have a copyright on the above picture.
No, I appreciate the humor,and I put it on my blog to spread it around. I am amused by the titles people give it. I just wanted the photo attributed to me or my blog.
I love that painting. It hangs in a non-public space in an obscure part of Umbria, a place tourists do not go, except me. It is a place out of yesterday, and incredibly beautiful. If you look at my blog http://gasparian.stblogs.org and go to the link "Visit to Rifugio" you will see in one of the pics that an enlargment of the phot hangs over my fireplace.
@ Fr. Keyes: You now have a link on the posting; thanks!
"Depicted above is Mary, Mother of Help (or, popularly, Mary, Exterminatrix of Heresies)"
So how did we get from saving a child from the devil to exterminating heresies?
Not that I'm against exterminating heretics, mind you.
Errr....Mary exterminates heresies, not heretics. "The criminal we must forgive seventy times seven. The crime we must not forgive at all." (Chesterton, a great Marian Christian).
@ TC: Well, I think it's just the general awesomeness of the title. You can view it as Mary helping the child, or Mary putting the 'smack down' on the demon... and thus saving the child. I guess it's just a matter of perspective.
In a way, you could say certain other saints were exterminating heresies as well ;-)