Mary of Montserrat
In 1993, the writers of the book series Heilig en Profaan [Sacred and Profane] attributed a medieval pilgrim badge to Tongre-Notre-Dame. Because of progressive insight this identification was corrected in Heilig en Profaan 4. The badge actually comes from the cult site of Montserrat in Spain.
The badge depicts a standing figure: it is the Virgin. She is crowned and carries a scepter in one hand. The infant Jesus is seated on on her left arm. The top of the badge is badly damaged, but parts of an inscription appear to the left and the right of the figures. In the first volume of Heilig en Profaan, Van Beuningen and Koldeweij read SAN …OCT: MARIA DE TVNG. As a result, they suggested Tongre-Notre-Dame as place of origin.
The provenance was questioned however when the badge was re-examined in 2018. The text does not begin to the right of the Virgin, as Van Beuningen and Koldeweij suggested before, but in the upper left according to standards. Furthermore, the correct reading is … EST MARIA DE MVNS SARA… From this, it becomes clear that a pilgrim took the badge away from the cult site of Montserrat. It was believed that a painting of the Virgin had miraculously appeared there in the ninth century. A convent was founded which today draws many tourists in addition to the large amounts of pilgrims that also visit Montserrat from the Middle Ages onwards.
Because of the identification as Montserrat the image needs re-examination as well. The grid behind the Virgin is not a fence, as suggested before, but a tension saw, as is depicted often on medieval and later badges from Montserrat. The attribute refers to the mountain range where the Marian cult started. As a result of centuries of erosion the mountains there have an unusual shape. The vertically worn ridges and rounded surfaces gave the mountain range its name: Montserrat comes from the Latin mons serratus meaning ‘sawn mountain’.
Summarizing, the badge of the Virgin and Child in front of the tension saw with serrated edge did not come from Tongre-Notre-Dame, but from Montserrat. The badge is not the only one from Montserrat found in the Low Countries, but it certainly is a unique one.
Literature: H.J.E. van Beuningen and A.M. Koldeweij, Heilig en profaan (1993), p. 227 and H.J.E. van Beuningen a.o., Heilig en profaan, vol. 4 (2018), p. 152. Image: Collection Van Beuningen family, 2180 (Kunera no. 00474)