The Blessed Virgin Mary tenderly eyes the beholder with a smile for the Redemption her Son has won, but with the sorrow of the price He paid.
In the center, the youthful looking Madonna clutches a brown coat. Due to her young appearance, it is probable that this portrait of the Madonna was meant to be well before the Passion of Jesus Christ—perhaps after she had just made the seamless tunic, which she knew would eventually suffer with her Son Jesus.
The Sacred Coat, which Our Lady holds in the painting, is referred to in Scripture:
"The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified him, took his garments, (and they made four parts, to every soldier a part,) and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from
the top throughout. They said then one to another: Let us not cut it, but let us cast lots for it, whose it shall be; that the scripture might be fulfilled, saying: They have parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they have cast lots." John 19:23-24
The artist (Charles Bosseron Chambers) is said to have painted many of his religious subjects purely from imagination. He painted this rendition of the Madonna as an altar piece for St. Ignatius Church, Chicago, where it still resides today.
Title: Madonna of the Sacred Coat | Artist: CB Chambers
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Patrick Werick
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