The way Pietro Gagliardi's depicts the figure of the Virgin Mary in his freshly-restored Annunciation titular painting, adorning the parish church of Tarxien, brings to my mind an episode Carlo Carretto (1910-1988), writes about in his book about Mary entitled, Blessed Are You Who Believed (London, Burns & Oates, 1982).
When Carretto, an Italian writer and mystic, was living in the desert, he heard from some Tuareg friends of his that a young girl in the encampment had been betrothed to a young man but she had not gone to live with him as she was too young.
Carretto associated this fact with what the Evangelist Luke said of the Virgin Mary in his account of the Annunciation: "The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary."
Two years later, finding himself in the same encampment, Carretto asked about the girl. He noticed a certain embarrassment among his communicators. Shortly, one of them secretly approached him and made a sign to him: he held his hand to his throat in the characteristic gesture of the Arabs when they want to say, "Her throat has been slit".
Carletto quickly learned that once it was revealed the girl was with child before marriage, her death became deemed necessary to preserve the honour of the family. Carretto wrote that this is how he came to understand Mary's faith and led him to choose her as his travelling companion and the teacher of his faith.
Whenever I find myself thinking on the way Pietro Gagliardi portrays the Virgin Mary in the painting of the Annunciation, which has just been restored and returned to where it has been for the past 150 years, this episode in Carretto's life quickly springs to mind, because Mary's posture in the painting reflects full faith in God.
Gagliardi shows the Angel Gabriel revealing to Mary that she had found favour with God and that she would conceive in her womb and bear a son, whom she shall name Jesus.
Luke writes that Mary said to the angel, "how can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" The angel then said to her in reply, "the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God".
At that critical moment, Mary's mind likely raced, contemplating the harsh stares and harsh judgments the people of Nazareth would surely reserve for her once they discovered her mysterious pregnancy and the grave risks such a situation would bring upon her young life. In her fragile humanity, she imaginably had to wrestle with a lot of worries. Nonetheless, she said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word".
Gagliardi portrays Mary kneeling down with a lowered head and closed eyes, in total solitude, believing, leaving herself fully in the hands of God and accepting His will, while also holding close to her chest two lilies that represent her intact virginity.
Of course, Mary still needed God's grace to be able to gather enough courage to say yes to her mystic call. Gagliardi shows this power of the Holy Spirit descending upon her through the presence of a white dove sending a warm and pleasant light towards her. This power propelled Mary's daily fidelity in goodness to help her allow God's gift to enter and grow within her.
Prior to the Annunciation, the Gospel says nothing about Mary. She is presented as a simple girl, apparently the same as many others who were living in her village. A young girl who, precisely because of her simplicity, kept pure an immaculate heart with which, by God's grace, she was to be conceived. This is precisely the Mary one sees in Gagliardi's Annunciation painting in Tarxien.
The Gagliardi painting was restored by PrevArti Ltd - Art Conservation & Restoration. The initiative to have it restored was led by Rev. Archpriest Christopher Ellul. The project was financed by Bank of Valletta.
The church in Tarxien will be commemorating the inauguration of the restored titular painting with a celebration to be held at the parish church this evening at 7.30pm.