Sara La Kali

[Guest guest]

Though the tradition of the Marys and company coming to France is quite old

(it appears in the 13th century Golden Legend, for instance), Sarah first

appears in The Legend of the Saintes-Maries (1521) by Vincent Philippon.

However, there are many different opinions as to who Saint Sarah is. In some,

she is tied with the Maries as an Egyptian servant; in others, with the Roma.

She is called Sarah-la-Kali (Black Sarah), a moniker that brings together two

strands of this tradition. When the Maries' boat arrived at the shore where the

village now stands, she taunted the three saints in the boat, and one of the

Maries climbed out of the boat and stood on the rough waters, inviting Sarah

to walk out to her. Sarah attempted this but floundered and nearly drowned.

One of the Maries lifted her up and carried her to safety.

 

Droit explains that Sarah and the two Maries stayed to found a Christian

community, building an altar to the Virgin themselves, which was excavated in

1448 on the orders of King René of Provence (Droit, 1961, 19)

 

Records of Saint Sarah's veneration are not found before 1800s.

 

 

[edit] Possible influences

 

It is interesting to note that Sarah-la-Kali (Black Sarah) is identified with

the

Indian goddess Kali (aka Bhadrakali, Uma, Durga, and Syama " ) (Fonseca,

1995, 106-107). Though it was traditionally believed that the Roma came from

Egypt, it is now believed that they came from India around the 9th century.

According to Lee:

 

 

if we compare the ceremonies with those performed in France at the shrine of

Sainte Sara (called Sara e Kali in Romani), we become aware that the

worship of Kali/Durga/Sara has been transferred to a Christian figure... in

France, to a non-existent " sainte " called Sara, who is actually part of the

Kali/Durga/Sara worship among certain groups in India. (Lee, 2001, 210)

 

 

That is, Saint Sarah is local and Christianized manifestation of Kali. Weyrauch

notes that:

 

 

The ceremony in Saintes-Maries closely parallels the annual processions in

India, the country in which the Romani originated, when statues of the Indian

goddess Durga, also named Kali, are immersed into water. Durga, the consort

of Shiva, usually represented with a black face, is the goddess of creation,

sickness and death. (Weyrauch, 2001, 262)

 

 

According to Franz de Ville (Tziganes, Brussels 1956), Sarah was Roma:

 

 

One of our people who received the first Revelation was Sara the Kali. She

was of noble birth and was chief of her tribe on the banks of the Rhône. She

knew the secrets that had been transmitted to her....The Rom at that period

practiced a polytheistic religion, and once a year they took out on their

shoulders the statue of Ishtari (Astarte) and went into the sea to receive

benediction there. One day Sara had visions which informed her that the

Saints who had been present at the death of Jesus would come, and that she

must help them. Sara saw them arrive in a boat. The sea was rough, and the

boat threatened to founder. Mary Salome threw her cloak on the waves and,

using it as a raft, Sarah floated towards the Saints and helped them reach

land by praying.

 

 

* Droit, Michel. (1963). Carmague. Ernest and Adair Heimann (trans.).

London: George Allen and Unwin

* Fonseca, Isabel. (1996). Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey.

New York: Knopf.

* Kinsley, David R. (1988). Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine

in the Hindu Religious Tradition.' Berkeley: University of California Press.

* Lee, Ronald. (2001). " The Rom-Vlach Gypsies and the Kris-Romani. " In

Walter O. Weyrauch (ed.) Gypsy Law: Romani Legal Traditions and Culture.

Berkeley: University of California Press.

* McDowell, Bart. (1970). Gypsies: Wanderers of the World.' Washington:

National Geographic Society.

* Weyrauch, Walter. (2001). " Oral Legal Traditions of Gypsies. " In Walter O.

Weyrauch (ed.) Gypsy Law: Romani Legal Traditions and Culture. Berkeley:

University of California Press.

 

 

 

[edit] External links

 

* The Gypsy Pilgrimage at Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

* Queen of the Gypsies is a dead link; use the Internet Archive link here

instead

* Shrine of Sainte Sara la Kali

* http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintm73.htm

* http://www.catholic-forum.com/SAINTS/saints1k.htm

* http://www.stpatricksguild.com/browse.cfm/4,8547.htm

* http://www.catholic-forum.com/SAINTS/saints1k.htm

* http://www.copticchurch.net/synaxarium/8_25.html

*

http://www.stathanasius.miss.on.coptorthodox.ca/Saints_Stories/St_Sarah_N

un.htm

* http://www.armchairfrance.com/armchairuzesMarch2004.htm

* http://www.st-mary-magdalene.org/newpage4.htm

* http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saints0n.htm

* http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0309697/

* http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107376/

* http://romove.radio.cz/en/clanek/18906

* http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienS/Sara-la-Kali.html

 

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