Marian Devotion among the Roma in Slovakia: A Post-Modern Religious Response to Marginality

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

The last decades have seen a boom of scholarship on the Romani Pentecostalism in Eastern Europe, a trend growing since the 1990s.1 Charting different aspects of the “new religiosity,” these studies generally agree on the driving force behind it: the post-Socialist transformation that has placed many Roma at the margins of their societies.Few works have, nevertheless, asked about those Roma who have remained within “mainstream” Christianity: What were their religious responses to poverty and marginalization? Tatiana Podolinská, an established expert in the field, tackles this question with a fascinating account of popular religious practices among Catholic Roma in Slovakia. Podolinská demonstrates how Marian devotion, part of the Romani cultural tradition, has seen a revival after the fall of socialism. She argues that by choosing the Virgin Mary as their patroness, Roma seek to overcome marginality and move toward a center—symbolical and social. To support this argument, Podolinská draws on her long-term ethnographic research in Slovakia, including interviews, participant observation, field notes, and unique photographs of family altars and religious decorations in Roma homes.Podolinská approaches the topic from different angles. She starts her analysis from the history of Marian devotion in Europe, thus situating a Romani religious practice in a broader European context. The Virgin Mary always gathered the weak and the marginalized around her, argues Podolinská. Chapter 2, “Romani Christianity in Slovakia: Religiosity of Those on the Periphery,” offers an outline of traditional Romani Christianity that overlaps with pre-Christian beliefs. Podolinská pays attention to different aspects of the history and ethnography of Romani groups in Slovakia, their relations with the non-Roma population, and the ways in which these relations have shaped Romani religiosity. Thus, she portrays Roma as a silent and invisible minority: “ Invisibility and silence as a minority group strategy and as a tool of survival within the surrounding mainstream society can hardly overcome negative stereotyping and prejudicing. This is especially true in the case of the Roma in Slovakia, a minority with an ascribed, historically rooted negative track record” (p. 46).Chapter 3, “Marian Devotion among the Roma in Slovakia: Ethnicised and Enculturated Mary,” illuminates how Marian devotion is embedded in the Romani ethnic context, including their system of values and community life. Podolinská discusses the processes of ethnicization and enculturation in which the “White” Virgin Mary is ethnically “transcribed” and culturally “translated”: “The Mary that raises her voice against the unwritten Romani system of values and rules (i.e., Romahood) can hardly respond to the needs of the Roma people” (p. 117). Likewise, the author came across paintings and statuettes of the dark-skinned Mary or the “Chocolate Mary,” as named by her interlocutors. Podolinská interprets the Chocolate Mary as a “protest against the lack of respect for the ethnic and cultural rights of the Roma in Slovakia, including the right of cultural diversity, which is based on a traditional system of unwritten rules, and the right to be treated as an ethnic and minority group with respect and dignity” (p. 117).Chapter 4, “Marian Apparitions among the Roma: From the Periphery to the Centre,” focuses on Marian apparitions among the Roma in Slovakia. Here, Podolinská returns to the topic of a silent and invisible minority. Thus, she discusses the issue of nonrecognition of the “Romani” apparitions by church officials and the mainstream society. The book gives us an excellent example of how social exclusion translates into religious context and, in fact, prevents the movement of Roma from the periphery to the center. Although not explicitly stated by the author, this rejection likely turns Roma toward the neo-Protestant and Pentecostal movements. The evangelical missions of these movements explicitly welcome Romani converts, even if agitating against their cultural norms and values. Podolinská shows that the Virgin Mary is the first to fall under attack. Further, she briefly outlines competing philosophies of the “traditional” and “new” Romahood, as propagated by the Romani Pentecostal movement. Eventually, the author outlines two potential scenarios for the religion-based mobilization of Roma in Slovakia: a Catholic one, under the flag of an ethnicized and enculturated Chocolate Mary, and a Pentecostal one, which marginalizes both Mary and the Romani tradition.The second part of the book is written in an engaging and personal way. The photographs of Mary statuettes, family altars, and paintings testify to the creativity of local artists and Roma families. Podolinská describes the situations from her fieldwork and does not hesitate to put herself in the narrative, recounting her conversations with religious Roma. She skillfully uses metaphorical language to engage with the reader, for instance: “Kristína made Mary central within her single life. In her small shack full of children and flies, Kristína offered Mary the most precious place she had—her heart” (p. 141).Overall, Marian Devotion among the Roma in Slovakia makes a novel and valuable contribution to the studies of Romani religiosity. The book connects the religious and the social, interpreting Romani religiosity in a broader sociopolitical context. Podolinská advances our understanding of Romani religiosity, which is conservative and ultra-modern at the same time: “It verbalises private themes; it practices religiosity outside official structures; it is acephalous; it does not require a temple, special time, place, or mediator; it is tailor-made and personal, and believes in miracles and the possibility of direct transcendental interventions” (p. 125).Therefore, Marian Devotion among the Roma in Slovakia can be recommended to scholars and students interested in Romani studies, the anthropology of religion, and the multiethnic culture of Slovakia. Nevertheless, the reader who is unfamiliar with Romani culture may find some parts of the book quite dense. More fieldwork examples and a somewhat broader analysis of ethnographic material would help the author extend her narrative. Gender would be another useful analytical lens. Although Podolinská writes about her encounters and conversations with Romani women, she does not articulate the gender dimension of Marian devotion. Would the (potential) Romani emancipation under the flag of the Virgin Mary mean female emancipation as well? Would it be led by women, or is the feminine nature of Marian devotion its main weakness?As an intrigued reader, I will wait for the continuation of the story.