Three Legends of the Virgin Mary: Maria Stein

Translation: Copyright FairyTaleChannel.org
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In the Swiss canton of Basel high above the village of Ettlingen there once stood mighty castle called Fuerstenstein. At the time, one of the most upright and decent men of that name lived there, the Knight Hans von Rothberg. He was known throughout the land for his good and noble deeds.

One day the knight rode out to the city of Basel to visit friends. Before he left he devoutly commended both his wife and children to the protection of God.

Because it was a beautiful day, the lady of the castle left the peace and quietude of the castle and took her little daughter for a little walk around the castle walls. Wandering a bit with the child on the green meadow, the two had a good view of the heights surrounding them. When the mother found a bit of shade under tall trees, she sat down amongst some ferns, a bit tired and sleepy from the thousand different aromas emanating from the woods and fields. With sinking eyes she gazed upon the zig-zagging flight of the butterflies. The humming of bees and chirping of crickets had a calming effect and the lady found herself nodding off from time to time. This was punctuated by the laughter of the girl when she brought a basket full of alpine flowers to show her mother. In her search for flowers, the girl was drawn farther and farther away and climbed into some brush that stood at the far end of the field.

All at once the mother sat up abruptly. A terrible cry came from the direction of the brush. The lady rushed toward the sound and fell to her knees. Not a trace of her daughter was seen. She must have fallen through the brush and down the cliff. But the mother gathered her strength and called her child’s name a hundred times. But it was all for naught, there was no reply.

She hurried as fast her feet could carry her to the path leading into the valley. Breathless and with her hair flowing wildly around her shoulders, she arrived below.

But suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks. What did she see but her child, whom she believed had been smashed to bits from the fall. The girl ran toward her beaming and her little basket was full of strawberries. She called “Mother, Mother, here I am!” But the mother was speechless. With her heart beating wildly, she pressed the child to her breast. She looked up at the jagged rock and could not believe that her daughter had survived the horrible fall. She tried to regain her composure as the child told her what had happened. As the mother slept, she ventured out too far because she could not see through the brush how precarious the spot was. All at once the ground vanished under her feet and she fell. Suddenly a beautiful woman appeared, took her in her arms and gently brought her to the valley below. Afterward they picked the strawberries that were now in her basket, which they would now bring to father.

Now the mother knew that it was the Virgin Mary who had saved her daughter. They went home and the rejoicing mother told the returning father what had transpired. The father was so moved by this miracle that he had a chapel built at the site. Later they built the convent Maria Stein.

In this saga, the Virgin Mary shows the best way to protect oneself against a snake.

Grimm’s Saga No. 10 The hazel branch

One afternoon the Christ Child lay down in his cradle and when he was asleep, his mother come and watched him full of joy. She spoke “Have you fallen asleep, my child? Sleep softly, I want to go into the forest and pick a handful of strawberries for you; I know you will enjoy them when you wake up.” Outside in the wood she found a place with the most beautiful strawberries. When she bent over to pick them, an adder jumped up out of the grass. She was startled, left the berries and hurried away. The adder shot after her, but the Mother of God, as you can well imagine, knew what to do and hid behind a hazel bush and stayed there until the adder had slithered away. She then went back to collect the berries and when she was on her way home, she spoke “As the hazel bush has been my protection now, so shall it protect others in the future.” For this reason since ancient times a green hazel branch is the most certain protection against adders, snakes, vipers and everything else that creeps on the earth.