Marian Devotion Among the Roma in Slovakia: Ethnicised and Enculturated Mary

Abstract

This chapter explores how Marian devotion is embedded in a particular ethnic context, as well as the unwritten system of rules and values of Roma communities in Slovakia. It elucidates the process of ‘appropriation’ of the Virgin Mary within traditional Romani Christianity (i.e. Catholicism), particularly the processes of ethnicisation and enculturation in which the ‘White’ Virgin Mary is ethnically ‘transcribed’ and culturally ‘translated’ in order to better fit the needs and hopes of people living on the ‘periphery’. The core of the chapter is devoted to the exploration of the roles and functions the Virgin Mary plays within Romani Christianity in Slovakia at the beginning of the twenty-first century, including the description of appeals, rituals, and practices She takes part in. Finally, the phenomena of the Chocolate Mary—the ethnicised and enculturated, Romani Virgin Mary—and her potential to be the post-modern religious response to the marginalisation of Roma people in Slovakia are discussed.