More than 500 statues and paintings of the Black Madonna can be found in European churches, with concentrations in France, Spain, Italy and Belgium, and further afield in the Americas and Philippines. Some scholars believe the apparent ‘black skin’ of such images arose accidentally, through the materials and pigments used (ageing); others that there is a religious significance, perhaps linked to legends that the Mother of Christ, or Mary Magdalene - the madonnas could represent either - was darker-skinned than her Palestinian contemporaries, perhaps Egyptian. The madonnas tend to be miraculous, and their sites tend to be visited by large numbers of pilgrims. Black madonnas have exerted cultural influences far wider than their own locations. Two examples: The Black Madonna of Czestochowa (Poland) is a warrior, the protector of women and children, and was transferred to Cuba by Polish workers, where she fused with ERZULIE. The cult of the Virgin of Candelaria, patron saint of the Canary Islands, was transferred to the Americas and the Caribbean, where she fused with that of the Yoruba goddesses IANSAN, OYA (Cuba) and OSHUN (Brazil). In the guanche mythology of the Canary Islands she fuses with CHAXIRAXI and her son CHIJORAJI
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