Mountain Mary: Contemporary Visions of the Sainted Healer

A Virtual Exhibition of Old and New Artistic Works and Artifacts at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center, Kutztown University.

Block printed banner of Mountain Mary, with vingettes of her life and farm.

Maria Jung as a child gathering herbs in the mountains.

1880 Engraving of Mountain Mary in the wilderness, and cover of German chapbook "Die Berg Maria."

Mountain Mary’s bake oven and spring directed down the mountain through bark pipes.

Redware charger with sgraffito image of Mountain Mary in the wilderness, flanked by birds and flowers.

Early chapbook with woodcut of St. Genovefa of Brabant in the wilderness.

Newspaper illustration of Mountain Mary alone in the wilderness with an ax, looking up to the sky.

Mountain Mary laying her hands upon the head of a sick man by the light of an early Pennsylvania fat-lamp.

Mountain Mary’s Cemetery enclosed by stone wall, with a juniper tree in the center.

German-Language signature of Anna Maria Jungin, 1813

Mountain Mary in historical garb strolls by the barn at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center.

Mountain Mary carrying her butter and cheese along the mountain paths near her home with the assistance of two canes.

Mountain Mary is seated upon an early Pennsylvania Brettschtuhl (plank chair) with her hands folded on her lap, silently engaging the viewer with her gaze, perhaps awaiting the opportunity to share her story.

German-language manuscript of Mountain Mary's Obituary from 1819.

ere the veiled image of Mountain Mary stands at the base of a sacred mountain, crowned with a garland of lily of the valley, mugwort, and elderberry, bearing the horns of a stag. From her right hand flows milk, as if from stigmata, into the opening on the bee keeper’s skep. A symbol of healing, the serpent winds from her left hand, as the physician’s rod of Asklepios. With echoes of both healing saint and earth goddess, Mountain Mary is at once the archetypal vision of the celestial healer and the patroness of Braucherei.

Mary gazes through a wreath of local plants, and her open hands usher forth the flower of life.

Heilige Maria by Jourdain Ramlau Kinnander

Mountain Mary: Contemporary Visions of the Sainted Healer

A Virtual Exhibition of Old and New Artistic Works and Artifacts at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center, Kutztown University.

Venerated as the sainted healer of the Oley Valley, Mountain Mary, or Anna Maria Jung (1744–1819), has become one of the preeminent legendary figures of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Enshrined in works of art and immortalized in poetry, Mountain Mary embodies the spirit of the region’s folk culture even two centuries after her death.

From her humble beginning as a young German-speaking immigrant from war-torn Europe, to her journey of more than 40 years living in the wilderness as a revered hermit, Mary rose to the level of a folk hero among the Pennsylvania Dutch for her legacy of healing, generosity, and kindness. Establishing herself as a skilled healer, productive farmer, and leader in her community, Mountain Mary’s story is a quintessential American pioneer narrative of virtue, cooperation, and humility in the face of war, illness and adversity.

For generations, Mountain Mary has inspired pilgrimages and spiritual reflection among the people of the region who continue to retell her legend, sing ballads of her heroism, and portray her at cultural festivals. Young Pennsylvanians, eager to experience their cultural roots in the region, look to Mary’s healing traditions and connection to the land as a means to explore alternative spiritual modalities. Mary’s colorful and often contradictory legend continues to embody the traditions and positive values which sustain the region’s folk culture.