The plaque is carved out of a mother-of-pearl shell depicting the Virgin Mary as the Divine Shepherdess. She wears a floppy hat, carries a shepherd’s staff on one hand and holds a sheep with the other resting on her lap. Many sheep surrounding the Divine Shepherdess were blended into the rich vegetation and hilly landscape. A medieval city with fortress wall is seen at the background. The inscription at the top reads sub tuum bresidium confugimus s’ dei genitrix which means “Under thy protection we seek refuge, Holy Mother of God.” It is an old hymn attributed to the Virgin Mary. Another inscription at the bottom reads la divina pastora (the Divine Shepherdess). The devotion of this manifestation of the Virgin Mary was made popular in Spain by a Capuchin saint Isidore of Seville in the early 1700s. It gained popularity and spread widely in the 18th century. It is still popular today in Spain, Portugal, South America and the Philippines.
