Tracing Sacred Intercession in Childbirth Across Byzantine Tradition and Its Western Reception, from the Virgin’s Girdle to Saints Julitta and Kerykos

This article explores devotional responses to childbirth in Byzantine and medieval Western Christianity, focusing on the interplay between maternal experience, sacred objects, and saintly intercession. It begins by examining how the Virgin Mary was revered as a powerful intercessor in matters of fertility and childbirth. Drawing on literary, liturgical, and visual sources, the study also highlights vernacular practices such as the use of ritual girdles and protective garments. It then traces how these traditions migrated to Western Europe, where Mary’s girdle became a widespread devotional object, particularly in Italy and England. Later in the study, special attention is given to the cult of Saints Julitta and Kerykos, known in the West as Quiricus/Cyricus and Julitta, a mother-and-child martyr pair whose veneration in the Latin West gained renewed significance in the late Middle Ages, particularly through its symbolic parallels with Marian devotion in childbirth-related contexts. While Byzantine traditions emphasized theological regulation and elite contexts, Western Christianity fostered more accessible, embodied, and affective forms of devotional practice. The article concludes that childbirth devotion, variably expressed across regions, formed a significant part of Christian spirituality, shaped by institutional authority, local needs, and ritual acts grounded in bodily experience and articulated through images, objects, and gesture.