The Milk Grotto
Historical, Archaeological, and Anthropological Perspectives
Edited by Michele Bacci
As pilgrims to Bethlehem know, most of the holy spots worthy of worship are found in underground environments, including one that is universally known as the Milk Grotto. The present book can be considered as the biography of it, described and interpreted from three different viewpoints: cultural-historical, anthropological, and archaeological.
As pilgrims to Bethlehem well know, most of the holy spots that are worthy of worship are not to be found on the earthly surface, but rather in underground environments, as in the case of the Nativity cave, and the nearby Grottos. A few meters from these caves there is another one that is universally known as the Milk Grotto, which differs from other loca sancta in its distinctive character. Its public worship was nurtured and kept alive mainly by the local population and particularly by women, Christian and Muslim, who recognized in the whitish powder of its rocky walls a powerful remedy against the momentary loss of breast milk.
The present book can be considered as the biography of a very special locus sanctus, whose multiple lives, thanks to the collaboration of Michele Bacci with two scholars with different backgrounds, are described and interpreted from three different viewpoints: cultural-historical, anthropological, and archaeological.
In his text, Bacci analyses the history of the site and the cultic phenomena associated with it from the first documented moments in the 12th century until our times. Annette Hoffmann’s article delves into the history of the cultic practices associated with the holy site, and more specifically with the habit of ingesting its chalky earth in the aim to obtain the restitution of lacking milk. Carmelo Pappalardo investigates the history of the built structures that are to be found in the plot of ground located above the Milk Grotto.
With essays by Michele Bacci, Annette Hoffmann and Carmelo Pappalardo.
Michele Bacci è professore di Arte medievale all’Università di Friburgo (Svizzera) e membro dell’Academia Europaea. È autore di numerosi studi sugli scambi artistici e culturali nel Mediterraneo in età medievale, oltre che sulla storia delle pratiche religiose associate agli oggetti di culto e ai luoghi sacri. Tra i suoi libri: Il pennello dell’Evangelista (1998), Pro remedio animae (2000), Lo spazio dell’anima (2005), San Nicola il Grande Taumaturgo (2009), The Many Faces of Christ (2014), The Mystic Cave. A History of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem (2017), e Veneto-Byzantine Interactions in Icon Painting (1280-1450), in greco (2021).
- Edited by Michele Bacci
Other Titles in this Series
An Introduction to Late Antique Epigraphy in the Holy Land
A thorough study on Greek and Latin epigraphy in the Holy Land
Volume 46
Similar Books
‘For You I Study, For You I Work, For You I Live, For You I Am Ready To Even Give My Life’
Essays in Honour of Francis (Frank) J Moloney, SDB
A Connecting Polemic in the Medieval Mediterranean
The Correspondence of Leo III and ʿUmar II
Volume 6
Cultic Kisses
Fruitful Encounters Between Deities and Humans. Festschrift for Angelika Berlejung on the Occasion of Her 65th Birthday
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Fear, Fear of God, God-Fearers
Philological and Historical Perspectives on the World of Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Hoghe minne es deen vor dander
Essays on the Christian Mystical Tradition in Honour of Rob Faesen SJ
Volume 122
Liturgia semper reformanda
Adaptations and accommodations in the liturgy in light of canon 838 of the Code of Canon Law
On Becoming a Theologian of the Cross
Revisiting Luther’s theologus crucis from the Heidelberg Disputation to the Genesis Lectures
Pre-Christian Religions, Rituals, and Beliefs in Central and Northern Europe
Interdisciplinary Investigations
Volume 5
Reforming Good Works in Geneva
Bénédict Pictet’s Doctrine of Good Works and His Place in Late Reformed Orthodoxy
Volume 85
