"La Virgo María, madre del buen Criado"

I was re-reading Berceo's introduction to Milagros this morning. It's so beautiful. You think that he's just rambling about a beautiful prado where he rested under the shade of a tree. However, he is able to tie this beauty to Mary. He's thinking about how pilgrims love to find these meadows to rest. He then thinks about the devotion to Mary that these pilgrims, and really everyone, have. He talks about Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Saint Augustine, Gideon, David, and Aaron. They all were devoted to Mary. This veneration, obsession even, is nothing new.

I really must point out my favorite stanza. I will not translate it because I feel like I cannot truly capture the beauty of Berceo's writing.

Ella es dicha fuent     de qui todos bevemos,

ella nos dio el cevo     de qui todos comemos;

ella es dicha puerto     a qui todos corremos,

e puerta por la qual     entrada atendemos.

That stanza captures what Mary is to her children. Yes, Jesus saved mankind from Hell but he can feel so far away and too mighty for humans to be worthy of bothering him. Mary is humble, she is a mother. She is the font out of which sinners drink. She gives rest to the weary, possibly in a beautiful prado with perfumed flowers. She is the first step to God toward which people in medieval Spain went. They were comforted by the idea of such a perfect haven. Who wouldn't be? Berceo wrote these stories to continue a long standing tradition of telling tales of Mary and of attributing to her how simple men were able to survive the impossible. Sounds like a perfect reason to write if you ask me.