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

Abstract (English)

This paper 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 paper 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. At the end the contribution pays also attention to the interaction of traditional Mary-centric mode of religiosity in rural Romani communities with growing Neo-Protestant and Pentecostal movements operating in post-communist Slovakia, focusing their evangelical mission primarily on Roma communities spreading Anti-Marist discourse (i.e., discourse that negates the Virgin Mary).