Black Sarah

Every May 24th some 10,000 gypsies fill the small French town of Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer to honor and celebrate their patron saint, Black Sarah.

Historically, the Catholic Church often used the process of inculturation, or the adaptation of indigenous pagan beliefs into traditional Church teachings. Black Sarah is also referenced in many places as the Virgin Mary herself, or as the Black Madonna.

While the gypsy pilgrimage, or Pelegrinage Gitane, to Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer has been ostensibly a Catholic celebration for many centuries, the roots of the religious belief may stretch much farther east. Black Sarah is also known as Sarah-Kali, and may be a more modern representation of the earth goddess Kali.

According to Katharina Woodworth, “The Gypsies also worship a Black Goddess, which they call Sara, and which most scholars believe to be an incarnation of Kali. The Gypsies are most likely from a band of 12,000 musicians and dancers given to the Shah of Persia between 420 and 438 A.D. from a prince in India. The Sha banished them because their sheer numbers overwhelmed his court. Although the Rom (Gypsy) language is derivative of Hindi, Gypsies have long forgotten their origins and have subsituted colorful tales and legends. “