ANTIQUE CHRISTIAN RELIC ex crypta B.M.V. lactis dicta BLESSED VIRGIN MARY POWDER

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ANTIQUE CHRISTIAN RELIC ex crypta B.M.V. lactis dicta BLESSED VIRGIN MARY POWDER:
$61.99

THIS ANTIQUE RELIC FROM:(Bethlehem: The Milk Grotto Church) SHOWS SOME SIGNS OF WEAR BUT STILL HAS THE WHITE POWDER FROM THIS SACRED PLACE THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY VISITED!\"Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.\"(Lk 11:27)When leaving the Church of the Nativity via the Greek convent yard one reaches a street with the Milk Grotto. According to an old Armenian tradition this is the place where the Holy Family hid before they fled to Egypt. When the Virgin Mary nursed her child, her milk dropped on the rocks which turned milky white.Christians of all denominations as well as Muslims pilgrim to this place. On the walls of the cave are many representations of Maria lactans (the nursing Madonna) and of Old Testament prophetsAlready in the fifth century Paula who was associated with St. Jerome had a church built at that place which was first known as Mary’s Church and after Paula’s death was named after her. In 1375 Pope Gregory XI granted permission to the Franciscans to restore and enlarge the church.The present church was completed in 1892 and offers consolation to mothers who seek refuge in Mary’s care. The confidence of Christian and Muslim mothers in Mary at the Milk Grotto is very strong.Up to the 1960 they even received small bags containing the limestone powder from the grotto. It had the inscription: Ex S. Crypta B.M.V. Lactis dicta. Since these souvenirs/ sacramentals are no longer available, many women scratch the walls of the cave in order to procure some of the beneficial white dust. Byzantine iconography calls the Nursing Mother Galaktotrophousa (Giver of Milk). In the West portrays of Maria lactans spread widely during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.