Our Lady of Bethlehem
An old wooden statue of Our Lady holding the Christ Child is preserved in our monastery. It was carved from bog oak, hence the dark colour of the wood and the reason why she is known affectionately by the sisters as ‘The Black Lady’. She has accompanied our Community for the best part of four centuries. In art history circles the statue is often referred to as the ‘Athlone Madonna’ because the motherhouse of our Community was a monastery known as ‘Bethlehem’ near Athlone on the shores of Lough Ree. The Poor Clare community had arrived there in about 1631, having been expelled from Dublin. By 1642, the political situation in Ireland was such that remaining there would have been dangerous for the sisters. In January 1642, one group of sisters, among whom were some native Galwegians, left Bethlehem to make a foundation in the relatively safer environment of Galway .
Meanwhile, in the Summer of 1642, the remaining sisters in ‘Bethlehem’ were forced to flee. Mother Bonaventure Browne in her Chronicle of the early history of the Poor Clares in Ireland outlined what happened. (The excerpt below has been modernised by Fr. Celsus O' Brien)
The Sisters spent some weeks there until they were finally warned that the heretics were on their way to the convent. They then escaped in boats to the other side of the lake. Seeing that their evil intentions came to nothing, the ruthless heretics entered the convent and stayed there for three days and three nights. They ate all the food of the poor Sisters and made great sport and mockery of the altars, pictures, ornaments and sacred objects found there. Some of them put on the nuns’ habits and said as a jest, “Come let’s say Mass while you serve us”. Finally, they set fire to the convent and everything that was in it only God preserved miraculously the tabernacle in the Choir where the Most Blessed Sacrament used to be kept and before which the Sisters prayed fervently for deliverance from their enemies; and likewise an old statue of Our Blessed Lady. Both of these were made of wood.
The statue was later brought to Galway when the Bethlehem community dispersed. The statue has been carefully looked after and cherished by our Community ever since and the Mother and Child are invoked regularly as we pass by on our way to and from the Choir for prayer. Details of the statue can be viewed in the gallery below. 
In 1948, the statue was included in an exhibition in the National Museum. While it was out of the monastery experts treated the wood in order to preserve it for future generations. Our archives contain a series of letters from the director of the exhibition, Caitríona MacLeod.
She had authoured an article three years previously in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland outlining the known history of the statue and comparing it with two other famous wooden Madonna statues in the West of Ireland which survived the nation-wide destruction which arose from religious persecution. We are grateful to the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland for permission to reprint the article below. Anyone wishing to use the article for any other publication must obtain a further permission from the RSAI.
Please click on the images below
Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that he might take something away from us? Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life so beautiful? Do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything.
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