Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

Many years ago a party of Palestinian refugees landed on the south coast at a Celtic site sacred to he threefold water goddess, Oppidum Priscum Ra. Most moved on, to find jobs further north, but two of them, Marie-Salome and Marie-Jacobe, remained, to become in time, objects of veneration to the local people.
Even more important locally is the third statue of Sara-la-Kali, whose origin and identity are quite mysterious. The gypsies that throng to worship her each May believe Sara to have been a powerful local queen who welcomed the tired travelers from the Holy Land, while other sources suggest she may have been an ancient pagan goddess or a black Egyptian woman who was the servant of Christ's mother Mary. Whatever the explanation, the three female statues are the subject of the fascinating Pelerinage des Gitans, or 'Pilgrimage of the Gypsies', held each year on May 24 and 25. Czytaj więcej