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For the purposes of the new edition, every poem has been assigned a unique short title. The original short titles, taken eclectically from a number of sources, are retained as alternative short titles.
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For epigraphs and layout information click on the appropriate manuscript location.
For information on Latin and vernacular sources of miracle stories follow the links to Miracles and collections. Follow the links to the appropriate pages of Todd McComb and Pierre Roberge's online discography, to the BITAGAP archive, and to linked entries in the Bibliography.
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CSM Number : 184
Short name: The Baby who was Born through a Wound in his Mother’s Side Alternative: Miraculous birth of murdered woman's child
Incipit: A Madre de Deus / tant’ á en si gran vertude
Refrain: A Madre de Deus/ tant’ á en si gran vertude/ per que aos seus/ acorre e dá saude.
Summary of narrative
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Setting: the land of Santiago Protagonist(s): a pregnant woman

There was a woman who was often pregnant.

She had no children, however, because all of them died soon after they were born.

When she became pregnant again, she asked the Virgin to protect her.

Her husband got into a brawl with some other men who wounded him in the chest.

When the woman saw her husband mortally wounded, she threw herself on him and was struck in the side.

She died instantly, but her baby survived and came out through the wound. The knife that killed his mother cut the baby’s cheek. The baby grew up and became a man devoted to the Virgin. She caused the scar on his cheek to be visible always as proof of the miracle.

Metrical data
Stanza: 15' 15' 15' 15' Refrain: 5 7' 5 7'
No. of Stanzas: 7
Rhyme scheme: ABAB | cccb Zejel: Yes
MS locations:
T184, E184
Poncelet reference
None
Keywords
brawl, caesarean, childbirth, children, knife, murder, pregnancy, scar, stabbing, wound
Discography
Click HERE for a list of recordings of this poem
BITAGAP ID
3935
Bibliography
Cancioneiriño de Compostela
Filgueira Valverde, José
Afonso X e Galicia, e unha escolma de cantigas
Filgueira Valverde, José
Compostela y los trovadores
García-Sabell Tormo, Teresa
Afonso X e as Cantigas de Santa Maria localizadas en Galicia
Negri, Manuel
Valor de la música de las Cantigas
Ribera y Tarragó, Julián
The Virgin as Midwife: Verbalization and Visualization in Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria
Scarborough, Connie, L.
A Selected and Annotated Discography of Recordings of Music from the Middle Ages in Spain
Tinnell, Roger D.