Miracles of Mary: Apparitions, Legends, and Miraculous Works of the Blessed Virgin Mary

A lavishly illustrated profile of the Virgin Mary combines such art masterpieces as The Lady in White at Lourdes, The Virgin of Guadalupe, and the Queen of Heaven with stories about her miracles and apparitions.

Story and art often express the religious understandings of humanity better than doctrines and theology. Journalist Durham offers a wonderfully comprehensive collection of narratives and images to provide a multifaceted view of Mary as she has been experienced by humankind through the centuries. Miracles includes 56 stories ranging from the first century to the 1990s, grouped according to various aspects of Mary, such as Our Lady of Peace and Prayer, Lady of Legend and Healing Mary. "The Gospels provide a rough sketch of Mary," says Durham, "and we are left to fill in the details." His book functions similarly: the stories are presented in a straightforward fashion and the art speaks for itself. Believers and non-believers alike may interpret as they choose from this fascinating and varied mosaic; and even it that weren't true, the 60 handsome reproductions of artists' depictions of Mary would make this book well worth having.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Former Life reporter Durham explores the influence of the cult of Mary on culture and religion through a retelling of 60 stories of her miraculous appearances to believers. Each story is stunningly illustrated with paintings, sculptures, or woodcuts from a variety of cultures and time periods. For example, the story of Mary's appearance in a Hawthorne tree in Beauraing, Belgium, in 1932 is set off against Renaissance artist Jacopo Ligozzi's stark drawing of "The Beech Tree of the Madonna at La Verna." Durham's collection reveals the many facets of the Blessed Virgin's personality from the Lady of Peace and Prayer to the Healing Mary. A beautifully rendered book, this is recommended for all collections.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Durham has gathered an impressive variety of images of Mary, together with stories of her appearances from the first century to the present, that will appeal to a broad audience at a time of widespread interest in and practice of Marian devotion. Durham's style is popular, and the book is readily accessible. Apparitions are grouped thematically rather than chronologically, and the text is interlaced with 60 color illustrations that are the focal point of the book. Carefully documented sources for the illustrations and a short section on books about Mary will direct interested readers to collections and museums where images are housed and to shrines where apparitions have occurred as well as to more detailed source material and scholarly work. Steve Schroeder