Among the most impressive and the most interesting votive gifts is a gift that was given to the Our Lady of the Rocks Church by Jacinta Kunic from Perast. Jacinta had been waiting 25 years for her husband, who was a sailor, to return from his distant travels.
When her husband left, she started embroidering a tapestry. She worked with a needle and used seven different materials. The thread was a special type of Japanese silk, which was interwoven with gold and silver filaments and colorful Chinese silk. The canvas she used was damask, which was highly regarded at the time. She also used colorful pearls and for the heads of the angels, the Madonna and Jesus, she used strands of her own hair.
When she first started working on the picture her hair was dark but after 25 years her hair turned white. What is interesting is that this is not a classical tapestry, she had her own design; a projection of the altar with the image of Our Lady. She worked with a needle under a magnifying glass and in some places there are approximately 650 stitches per square centimeter. She used a double slanted running stitch which is referred to in Italian as “punto pitura”.
For those 25 years, using gold and silver threads and strands of her hair, Jacinta embroidered a picture showing the upper part of the main altar of the church with a picture of the Virgin Mary covered with silver adornments.
Unfortunately, after so many years of dedicated work Jacinta became almost blind and this can be seen by the small mistakes on the picture. According to the signature on the tapestry, she finished it in 1828.
Her story is proof of true love, and representative of the many women who during that time were waiting for their husbands to return home, and continued to wait regardless of how much time had passed.
The tapestry was given to the Our Lady of the Rocks in gratitude for protecting people and sailors from illnesses and storms.
Sadly, there is no evidence that Jacinta’s husband ever returned from the long trip that he undertook while she was waiting for him, for all that time.