Quick Specs
- Type: Holy water font with Madonna and Child figure
- Height: 6 1/2 inches
- Width: 4 1/2 inches
- Material: Hand-painted resin
- Finish: Blue and red robes, gold-toned ringed cross, aged-copper basin
- Display: Wall-hung or standing on a table or dresser
Mary and the Child Before a Ringed Cross
This is a Madonna in the Christian sense of the word: an image of Mary, here with the infant Jesus held on her arm. Pictures and statues of Mary with the Child are central to Catholic and Orthodox churches alike, and the standing figure with the Child is a type common in church sculpture, from carved doorposts to painted plaster statues. Mary wears a blue mantle over a red gown, her head bent toward the Child, who is dressed in white and rests against her. Her hands steady the Child at his chest and hip, and his bare feet hang below the hem of his gown, small details painted in warm flesh tones. Behind them rises a ringed cross, a Latin cross with a circle at its crossing, the form usually called a Celtic cross. Its three visible arms are gold-toned panels worked with scrolling leaves and small hearts against a dark ground, and the ring is studded with small round dots. The strong blue and red of the robes stand out against the metallic cross and the aged-copper look of the basin below.
A holy water font is a small vessel for holy water, set near the entrance of a church, where worshippers touch the water and make the sign of the cross as they enter. The font descends from the cantharus, a courtyard fountain where early Christians washed their hands and feet before entering a church, and households have kept fonts too. The Catholic Encyclopedia describes private fonts as generally smaller than church ones and says they eventually took the form of a small round basin hung from a plate fastened to the wall, which is why they were called applied fonts. This piece follows that pattern: the basin projects from a vertical plate, and here the plate is a cross, with the flat back edge of the bowl resting against it. The basin is a plain half-bowl for still water, so it takes only the water you pour in, and the figure and cross above it give the whole piece a devotional line that reads as an image first and a container second.
Practical Devotional Applications
Hang the font beside the front door, where you can touch the water as you leave and come home, or by a bedroom door for the end of the day. It also works on a prayer table or home altar, next to a candle, a rosary, or a small Bible, with the Madonna as the visual center. When the basin is empty, a rosary can rest in it, which keeps the beads together and the image in view. A font also makes a considered gift for a new home or a first apartment, since fonts have a long place in household devotion. Pair it with other Marian and devotional figures from my angels and saints collection, or let it stand alone on a wall where a single image is enough.
How to Hang and Fill the Madonna and Child Font
Three steps from the wall to a font you can use every day.
- Choose the Spot and Hang It
Pick a wall near a doorway, at a height where you can reach the basin without stretching, or choose a steady table or dresser. Look at the back of the piece to see how it hangs, and match the nail or hook to your wall. Test the hook with the font empty first, since the basin will weigh more once it holds water, and keep the basin level.
- Fill the Basin
Use holy water from your parish, and pour in a small amount, no more than a few spoonfuls, so it can't spill when someone touches it or the wall is bumped. If you don't have any yet, the basin can hold a rosary until you do.
- Use It and Keep It Clean
Touch the water with your fingertips and make the sign of the cross as you pass, the way you would at a church door. Change the water every so often, wipe the basin dry with a soft cloth, and dust the figure and cross with a soft brush. Skip cleaning sprays and soaking, which can dull a painted finish.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I stock this font for Catholic households that want a Marian image and a place for holy water in a single piece. The Madonna and Child is part of a living faith, and the font is meant to be used the way the faith uses it, as an aid to prayer. It sits alongside your parish, the sacraments, and a priest’s guidance, and your parish is the right place to ask about holy water and household blessings. Browse my statues collection for more figures to build a prayer corner around.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The Catechism of the Catholic Church places it among the sacramentals, which are sacred signs that resemble the sacraments and always include a prayer. Sacramentals don't confer the grace of the Holy Spirit the way the sacraments do; the Church's prayer prepares you to receive grace and to cooperate with it. The Catechism names the sprinkling of holy water among these signs and says it recalls Baptism. General references add that Catholics, Eastern Christians, and some Protestants also use it as a sacramental for protection against evil.
Madonna comes from the Old Italian ma donna, “my lady”, from the Latin domina. It began as a courtesy title and came to mean the Virgin Mary in particular, and by the 1640s English was using it for a picture or statue of her. In art, a Madonna is an image of Mary alone or with the Child, and the word is most often used for Western works. Orthodox churches call comparable images Theotokos, “God-bearer”.
Holy water is blessed by a priest or a deacon, so a parish church is the place to ask. Carrying it home is an old practice: directions attributed to the ninth-century archbishop Hincmar of Reims say that people who wish may take blessed water away from church in clean vessels to sprinkle their houses. The Catechism notes that lay people may preside at certain blessings, but the more a blessing concerns the Church and its sacraments, the more it is reserved to ordained ministers.
A baptismal font holds the water used in the rite of baptism, the Christian rite of initiation, and it stays in the church, often at or near the entrance of the nave. A holy water font is a small vessel of blessed water, kept in churches and in homes, that people touch as they pass. The first is where baptism takes place; the second serves as a reminder of baptism.
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