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A Fitting Place for Joachim and Anne

By Ann Zlotnik

A common way for families to list the names of their ancestors is by creating a family tree. In the Mexican Catholic tradition of the Mano Poderosa — which translates to “most powerful hand” or “the mighty hand” — the Holy Family’s genealogy is mightily displayed on the right hand of God. 

In striking symbolism, the hand of God is depicted with the palm facing out, the stigmata from the crucifixion visible in the center of the palm. Figurines of Sts. Joachim and Anne — Mary’s parents — and Sts. Joseph and Mary are attached in that order to the tips of the four fingers. The thumb is the pedestal for the Christ child.

In his book God Still Comes: From the Manger to the Heart, Father Johann Roten, S.M., comments on “The Mighty Hand,” by Aurelio Lorenzo Quiñones, housed in the Marian Library Crèche Collection:

“This unusual ‘Nativity Set’ conveys a rich and poignant message. Incarnation and redemption, life and death are in the hand of God. The hand of God is a very ancient iconographical motif. The invisible God manifests his active presence in this world through his visible hand, as can be seen in many icons. In a special way, God's hand is the hand marked by the stigma of the Passion of Christ, the redeeming hand. It is also a hand that does not work in solitude. Each one of the fingers of this hand is topped and crowned by one of five saintly figures. The Mighty Hand, a typically Hispanic tradition, is a genealogical tree. It shows, from left to right, Joachim and Anne, Mary's parents, and Joseph and Mary with Jesus. The Mighty Hand has the meaning of an abbreviated Tree of Jesse, signaling that God is a God of history and human generation."

Read more about the Mano Poderosa tradition on the Marian Library’s All About Mary website. God Still Comes: From the Manger to the Heart is available for purchase from the Marian Library.

— Ann Zlotnik designs print, digital and exhibit materials across the University Libraries while managing marketing, communication and websites specific to the Marian Library.

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