Black Madonna

In Algiers on a steep mount overhanging the city was placed, centuries ago, an image of Isis done in the blackest of black basalt. Early in the Christian Era, the image was accepted by the African Christians as an image of the Blessed Virgin.

The story of this myth was retold last Sunday at Dr. William Guthrie's church, Manhattan, by a dramatic reading from the Gospel of Isis and Osiris. Said Rector Guthrie: "God wanted the Gospel of Jesus preached in Africa. The discovered 'Black Madonna' meant that He does not reject the negro race from His family and would be willing to have His Mother belong to that race. Here then is living contact to be made with the religious myths and dogmas of the Nile Valley in ancient days in the midst of a swarming Mahammadan and Christian city of our time."