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Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project

Miracles of Mary Stories about Marriage

By Wendy Laura Belcher

April 11, 2024

Some Marian miracle stories are about marriage. Some long to get married, some long to say single. Many of the stories are about those are wicked to their spouses.

These stories include the following. 

Avowedly Single or Celibate

Yohannes Kama and his wife preserved their virginity throughout their lives after the Virgin Mary appeared to them

Getting Married

A young man becomes impotent on his wedding night.

The poor, pious firewood collector to whom the town's gatekeeper betrothed his daughter

A widow who could not find husbands for her three daughters (*required)

Wicked Wives

A woman who had poisoned her sister and married her husband is swallowed up by the earth when she anoints herself with the oil that flowed from the Virgin Mary's icon (recommended)

A woman marries seven times, but each time her husband is killed by a demon (required)

Wicked Husbands

A divorced wife who prayed for revenge against her husband's new wife but was refused because the new wife was devoted to the Virgin Mary (*required)

A woman who was prevented from fasting by her husband and temporarily received her treasure on earth instead of heaven (required)

A husband broke his vow to live celibately with his wife and the wife cursed him by saying any resulting child would belong to Satan (required)

A man who out of jealousy burned down the house of a former wife who had abandoned him (required)

A man who suspected a former wife of having burned down his house (required)

Dabra Zamaddo's Abbot Abuna Yohanne's persuades a husband to give up his second wife and be reconciled to his first (required)

Untranslated as of April 2024

Christina, the wife of Aaron, an Egyptian official, goes to heaven.

Qawestos, the husband of Akroseya, becomes a disciple of Saint Clement

Arabic: The woman, Euphemia, who cut off her lips to prevent herself from being married 

Arabic: The husband who won't go to confession and so is scorched by hellfire 

A man who borrowed for a wedding a silken garment from the church of the Virgin Mary 

The punishment of an Ethiopian woman who swore falsely that she had not committed adultery with another woman's husband 

Paraleya from Iyyoram, who was beaten by her husband because she was childless 

pricenton ethiopian eritrean & egyptian miracles of marry project

The Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project is a comprehensive resource for the 1,000+ miracle stories written about and the 2,500+ images painted of the Virgin Mary in these African countries, and preserved in Geʿez between 1300 and the present.

Princeton Department of Comparative Literature 133 East Pyne, Princeton, NJ 08540

Princeton Department of African American Studies Morrison Hall, Princeton, NJ 08540

pemm@princeton.edu

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