FOR the late Pope Francis SJ, the image of the Virgin and Child in the papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore was the first port of call for his devotions whenever he returned to his diocese. He asked that on his death he should be immured alongside it: a wish that was granted.

Once thought to have been painted by St Luke himself, this 14th-century icon both is symbolic of the authority of the Mother of God and was particularly important to the Society of Jesus.

The Jesuits came to Ethiopia in 1555 to convert the Copts; theirs was a short-lived mission, as they were expelled in 1633 by Emperor Fasilädäs. St Francis Borgia, who became the third Minister General of the Jesuits in 1565, obtained permission from Pope Paul V to allow the Santa Maria Maggiore icon to be copied. Countless woodcuts and engravings were widely circulated, influencing iconography in Ethiopia and elsewhere.

After an opening introduction to Ethiopia’s tradition of Abrahamic faith — Islam had arrived by the 12th century — Marilyn Heldman’s second chapter, in a book that was planned as a catalogue for an exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC, shows that the cult of Our Lady Mary was established long before the Jesuits arrived.

It had been forcibly imposed by imperial decree. Emperor Zär’a Ya‘?qob, who ruled from 1434 to 1468, committed his country and the Church to commemorating Marian feasts and prescribed that all Christians prostrate themselves at the name of Mary. Those who refused, arguing that such prostration was fitting only for the Triune God, were excommunicated.

In a third chapter, Getatchew Haile explains that Ethiopian Orthodox Christians believe that by an unbroken covenant (Kidan) the beloved Son granted their land to the Virgin — Maryland — when she asked him for a country as her tithe. Consequently, devotees at the liturgy focus their eyes on Mary and not on the infant Jesus when an icon of the Virgin and Child is placed on the altar.

A fourth chapter (by Denis Nosnitsin) explores the witness of the saints, especially of Sts George of Lydda, Cyriacus, and his mother Julitta, John the Baptist, and Alexius. This takes up from the first chapter, with the richly decorated church of Gänätä Maryam, built by the Emperor Yekuno Amlak (1270-85).

The final chapters offer a survey of relations between Church and State from the 13th to the 16th centuries and of the late Solomonic (Gondär) Period.

gift of Joseph and patricia brumitAn Ethiopian triptych, Mary and the Christ Child with the Twelve Apostles, from the book

Throughout, the book is richly illustrated, showing the wealth of colour which the Copts use in liturgical art and the consummate skill of their metalworkers, drawing from collections far beyond those of the Smithsonian.

This highlights a folding processional icon nearly four metres wide (The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, in the other Maryland) and Harvard’s “Covenant of Mercy” triptych, in which the harrowing of hell has Christ raise Adam with his right hand as Eve desperately tugs at his left sleeve as if to hitch a lift. Both, with their deep black eyes, swivel their gaze to penetrate the mystery of the Second Adam.

At the time of writing, the museum, which celebrated its 60th anniversary year in 2024 and joined the Smithsonian in 1979, is still open. Since December 2024, it has been led by John Lippiana, Under Secretary of State for Museums and Culture. Heran Sereke-Brhan is the assistant director and recently (23 January 2026) opened an exhibition: “Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art” is curated to give voice to artists who “claim belonging” in the LGBTQ+ African community. With the federal funding of the Smithsonian open to fulminations from the White House, this is a bold venture, risking, no doubt, secular excommunication.

Canon Nicholas Cranfield is the Vicar of All Saints’, Blackheath, in south London.

Ethiopian Devotions: Paintings, illuminated manuscripts, and processional crosses from the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries
Marilyn E. Heldman, editor
Smithsonian £38
(978–1–58834-807–4)
Church Times Bookshop £34.20