Worldcrunch
It’s a miraculous story: 35 years ago, Yves Saint Laurent dressed a statue of Mary nestled in a small chapel between Neuilly and Paris. An unlikely stunning outfit of the 1980s, the haute couture icon was forgotten until the Metropolitan Museum of Art rediscovered it.
The Mapping Diversity platform examined maps of 30 cities across 17 European countries, finding that women are severely underrepresented in the group of those who name streets and squares. The one (unsurprising) exception: The Virgin Mary.
The village of Fatima in central Portugal became known worldwide in 1917, when three young shepherds said the Virgin Mary appeared to them. Since then, she appears in various forms and packaging to whoever steps into one of Fatima’s religious shops.
Fifty kilometers (30 miles) west of Barcelona stands the beautiful Santa Maria de Montserrat Benedictine abbey. Like many holy places, it features ex-votos, or offerings — but I had never seen such a profusion of wax body parts, most of them given as a gesture of gratitude for having been cured from a disease afflicting […]