Church in St. Niklaus today from Wikipedia. Orally transmitted from #Oberwallis, or #Valais. There was a small stone statue of Mary stands high up on a rough rock wall of the Rätiberg behind St. Niklaus in Visperthal. Her eyes are barely visible. Once it stood at the bottom of the road in a chapel that the passersby could pray before. The chapel is now empty. But once it happened that a profane man, whose desires had been unheard of, took dung and pelted that at the holy image. The image began shedding tears. But when the man repeated the sacrilege again, the image hurried away from the access of people. It went high up in the wall and did not want to go down to pay heed to people’s prayers. Climbing the rock and retrieving it was completely impossible. Rather, the people thought that they could take it down from the top of the summit. They scaled the mountain, entwined a man with strong knots of a rope so that he can float downwards till he come before the image and safely take it down. But while descending, the rope which held him up was getting thinner and thinner towards the bottom. By the time he reached before the image, it became as thin as hair. The situation terrified the people waiting. The man called them to tell that they should pull him for God’s sake, so that he could survive. So the people standing on the summit pulled him again and the ropes became stronger, keeping him safe. Henceforth, people had to stand at the feet of the image of the Holy Mother and never reach her again. *Story of #miracle. #Rätiberg behind St. Niklaus valley in #Swiss Alps is a rocky area. St. Niklaus, now a famous trekking destination has a population of around 2100, most of whom are Roman Catholic. The valley is also well known for being the home of famous Swiss mountain-guide families. The way people try to scale the high mountain in the story, shows us the practice of mountaineering in this region. The story must have evolved after the spread of #Christianity here, but when? That is difficult to define. #folktale #belief #mothermary #holymother #mothergoddess #romancatholic #switzerland #sagen #grimms #sin #punishment #rockclimbers #regionalhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd7H-rjrj-y/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
