This work examines why over 400 of the world's images for the Madonna are black or dark and why they are so little known. It focuses on these pagan goddesses of sexuality, the underworld and earth-wisdom, the other aspect of the traditional Madonna's maidenhood or tender maternity. They personify the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant in a quest for lost feminine wisdom. The book investigates the pagan origins of the phenomenon as well as the heretical Gnostic-Christian underground stream which flowed West with the cult of Mary Magdalene and resurfaced in Catharism at the time of the Crusades. The comprehensive gazetteer enables the reader to locate the sites where black virgins can be found and provides information about their origins.