In time for the Christmas season (and in time, too, for the celebration of the Feast of Mary as the Mother of God later this week), the Inquirer published a story this morning mentioning the Vatican's approval of images of Mary breastfeeding Baby Jesus.

According to the article, the Vatican in 2008 announced that it wanted more breastfeeding pictures of the Virgin Mary.

by Andrea Solari circa 1507.

Apparently, such images were more common in pre-Reformation years of Christianity. However, sensibilities began to change with the arrival of the modern age and the Protestant movement. A Catholic News Service report from June 2008 notes pictures depicting Our Lady's naked breast were deemed too 'unseemly,' and paintings of a nursing Mary disappeared in around the 16th or 17th century. Christian historians lament that this attempt to make Mary seem less "carnal" also "diminished her human, loving and tender side."

The article from CNS also quotes Salesian Father Enrico dal Covolo, a professor of classic and Christian literature, who points out an interesting paradox in the image of a nursing Mary: "He who gives nourishment to all things, Mary included, now lets himself be nourished by her.... The Virgin Mary who nurses her son Jesus is one of the most eloquent signs that the word of God truly and undoubtedly became flesh."

As a nursing mom and as a Catholic, I find it comforting to know that Mary probably went through a lot of the same breastfeeding woes that we go through. This includes the good old baby-distracted-in-the-middle-of-nursing episode depicted perfectly by 15th century painter Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio here:



I'll end this post with this painting from 1628 by Orazio Gentileschie. It's timely, because it depicts a scene from the Flight to Egypt, which happened shortly after the birth of Christ. And if you're a nursing mom, I'm sure you can relate to this middle-of-the-night experience:



Happy Christmas to all!

(Thanks, too, to Jowan for mentioning the Inquirer article in an email to us!)

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