May is a time traditionally devoted to the Virgin Mary. I have five Marian images from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection to show this month, adding more diversity to the already varied mix of works by international artists on The Magnificat page in The Coming of Christ gallery of The Life of Christ section. These new art offerings for May all depict the Mother of Christ as a woman of color. Sister Mary Agnes LaHote from the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary created an abstract variation of traditional West European Black Madonna imagery in the 1960s in a style similar to the modernist serigraphs of her noted co-religionist and probable mentor, Sister Mary Corita Kent. An unknown artisan from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church offers us a regional variation of the Virgin Mary Enthroned from the Horn of Africa. Haitian Painter Saincilus Ismael shows an elaborately bejeweled Virgin Mary and Christ Child from Hispaniola in the style of icons of The Virgin Who Shows the Way, while African-American Artist Brenda Joysmith presents an unadorned and compellingly real Black Madonna (above) in her color lithograph. The final image in the series by Vermont-based Feminist Artist Janet McKenzie celebrates all women of color in a racially inclusive painting of Mary and the Baby Jesus. (John Kohan)