English:
Gypsy Pilgrims honour their Patroness,
Saint Sarah.
Français:
Pèlerinage gitan en l’honneur
de leur patronne Sarah la Noire.
Photo: 24 May 2000.
Source: https://www.flickr.com/
Author: Fiore S. Barbato
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Saint Sarah (Sara), also known as Sara-la-Kâli (“Sara the Black”; Romani (Romany): Sara e Kali), is the Patron Saint of the Romani (Romany) people.
The centre of her Veneration is Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a place of Pilgrimage for the Roma people in the Camargue, in Southern France.
Legend identifies her as the servant of one of the Three Marys, with whom she is said to have arrived in the Camargue.[1]
According to various legends, during a persecution of Christians, commonly placed in the year 42 A.D., Lazarus, his sisters Mary and Martha, Mary Salome (the mother of the Apostles John and James), Mary Jacobe and Maximin, sailed from their homeland.
Saint Sarah.
Sainte Sara.
Available on YouTube
They arrived safely on the Southern shore of Gaul (France) at the place later called Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Sarah, a native of Berenice Troglodytica, Egypt, appears as the Black Indo-Egyptian maid of one of the Three Marys, usually Mary Jacobe.[3] (The natives of Berenice Troglodytica had ancestors who once came from the Malabar Coast, through Indo-Roman trade relations, and settled in Egypt (Roman province) and intermarried with Egyptians.)
Though the tradition of the Three Marys arriving in France stems from the High Middle Ages, appearing for instance in the 13th-Century Golden Legend, Saint Sarah makes her first appearance in Vincent Philippon’s book “The Legend of the Saintes-Maries” (1521), where she is portrayed as “a charitable woman that helped people by collecting alms, which led to the popular belief that she was a Gypsy.” Subsequently, Sarah was adopted by the Romani people as their Saint.[4]
Though the tradition of the Three Marys arriving in France stems from the High Middle Ages, appearing for instance in the 13th-Century Golden Legend, Saint Sarah makes her first appearance in Vincent Philippon’s book “The Legend of the Saintes-Maries” (1521), where she is portrayed as “a charitable woman that helped people by collecting alms, which led to the popular belief that she was a Gypsy.” Subsequently, Sarah was adopted by the Romani people as their Saint.[4]
Another account has Sarah welcoming The Three Marys into Gaul. Franz de Ville (1956) writes:
“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 Roma at that period practised 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, Sara floated towards the Saints and helped them reach land by Praying”.[5]
The day of the Pilgrimage honouring Sarah is 24 May; her statue is carried down to the sea on this day to re-enact her arrival in France.
