Clarence Gagnon 1881-1942
Pope Benedict XVI and Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I arrive to lead Vespers at the St. Paul`s Basilica in Rome June 28, 2008.
At 6 pm Roman time at the Roman Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, Pope Benedict XVI, in the company of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I and representatives of other Christian denominations, arrived in procession to the atrium.
The procession continued to the presbytery of the Basilica, where Pope Benedict descended to the Apostle's tomb under the altar.
The Pope expressed his joy for the “ecumenical nature” of the opening ceremony of the Pauline year.
As reported by the Catholic News Agency, The Holy Father delivered a homily to mark the beginning of the Year:
"“Who was this Saint Paul?” asked the Pope. He described him using the saint's own words: “Teacher of the people, apostle and herald of Jesus Christ, this is how he portrays himself in a retrospective look on the course of his life. But his gaze looks not only to the past. His phrase “teacher of the people” is opento the future, to all the peoples and all generations.
“Paul is not simply a figure of the past, who we remember with veneration. He is also a teacher, apostle and herald of Jesus Christ for us as well.”
The Pope then explained that “we are therefore gathered not to reflect on a past history,” because “Paul wants to talk to us today. That is why I have desired to convoke this Pauline Year: to listen to him and to learn from him today, as our teacher, 'the faith and the truth' in which are rooted the reasons for the unity of the disciples of Christ.”
...
He then quoted the letter of the Apostle To the Galatians: “I live in the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me” (Gal 2:20).
“Everything that Paul does starts from this core. His faith is the experience of being loved by Jesus Christ in a completely personal manner. His faith is the recognition of the fact that Christ has confronted death not for someone unknown, but for love of him, Paul, and that, since He is Risen, He loves him still,” Pope Benedict explained.
The Holy Father also explained that in his life, Paul “never looked for a superficial harmony.”
“The truth was for him too great to be sacrificed for an external success. The truth he had experienced in the encounter with the Risen Christ very much deserved the struggle, the persecution, the suffering.”
“But what most deeply motivated him,” Pope Benedict continued, “was the fact of being loved by Jesus Christ and the desire to transmit to others this love. Paul was someone capable of loving, and all his laboring and suffering is explained only from this core.”
The Holy Father then explained what he said was one of Saint Paul's key words: Freedom.
“The experience of being loved to the core by Christ opened his eyes to the truth and to the way of human existence. It was an experience that totally embraced him. Paul was free as a man loved by God, a man who, by virtue of God, was capable of loving with Him. This love is now 'the law' of his life and therefore the freedom of his life.”
“Freedom and responsibility are here united in an inseparable way. Because there is responsibility in love, he is free; because he is someone who loves, he lives completely in the responsibility of this love and does not take freedom as a pretext for arbitrariness or selfishness.”
Pope Benedict then explained that, in the conversion experience of St. Paul, when God tells Paul that he is persecuting God Himself by persecuting Christians, “Jesus identifies Himself with the Church as one single object.
It is this revelation of the Risen Christ that transformed Paul's life, and in which is contained all of the teachings about the Church as the body of Christ... The Church is not an organization that wants to promote a certain cause. In her, it is not about a cause. It is about the person of Jesus Christ, who, even though He is Risen, has remained 'flesh'”
This, Pope Benedict said, “becomes today an urgent request: it brings us back together from all divisions. It is still a reality today: here is one bread, therefore we, though many, are one single body.”
Finally, the Holy Father explained that “the call to become the teacher of the people is at the same time also intrinsically a call to suffering in the communion of Christ, who has redeemed us through His Passion. In a world where falsehood is so powerful, the truth is redeemed through suffering.
Whoever wants to avoid and keep away suffering keeps away life itself and its greatness; he cannot be a servant of the truth and therefore a servant of the faith. There is no love without suffering, without the suffering of self-renunciation, transformation and purification of the self by the real truth. Wherever there is nothing worthy of suffering for, life itself loses its value.” "
Theophanes the Greek (late 14th-early 15th century)
"Francisco de Goya's arresting image of a brooding giant rising above a stampede of terrified people and animals has held pride of place for decades in Madrid's Prado museum.
But in an announcement set to raise a storm in the art world, the museum said yesterday that the celebrated El Coloso was not by the Spanish master after all, and was probably painted by a pupil in his studio.
In a devastating critique, the museum's chief Goya specialist said the painting, made during Napoleon's occupation of Spain after 1808 and long seen as one of the artist's most dramatic portrayals of the horrors of war, was "a pastiche".
"Stylistically, it is completely alien to Goya," said Manuela Mena, the Prado's senior Goya specialist who has studied El Coloso and doubts over its attribution for nearly 20 years. She also revealed doubts over at least three other Goyas held by the Prado.
The admission comes two months after The Independent broke the news of the polemic surrounding the iconic painting on the eve of the Prado's blockbuster Goya exhibition.
Yesterday Ms Mena, presenting the conclusions of a meeting of international specialists in Madrid, described El Coloso as photogenic, attractive and influenced by Goya. But she said it could not have been his work.
"The person who painted the bulls in El Coloso knew nothing about the anatomy of a bull – which Goya knew everything about," Ms Mena said. "The donkey looks like a furry toy, nothing like Goya's perfectly executed donkeys of the same period. None of the details correspond to the Goya we know."
The British art historian Nigel Glendinning has long argued that Goya painted El Coloso, because of the strength of the composition, its audacious centrifugal dynamism. "I have no objection to authenticity being challenged, but we need arguments backed up by facts," Professor Glendinning said. "I look forward to studying the findings in detail." "
Mosaic and Shrine to St Paul at Veria, Greece "This evening we turn our gaze to St Paul, whose relics are preserved with deep veneration in this Basilica.
At the beginning of the Letter to the Romans, as we have just heard, St Paul greeted the community of Rome, introducing himself as "a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle" (1: 1). He uses the term "servant", in Greek, doulos, to indicate a relationship of total and unconditional belonging to the Lord Jesus; moreover, it is a translation of the
Hebrew, 'ebed, thus alluding to the great servants whom God chose and called for an important and specific mission.
Paul knew he was "called to be an apostle", that is, that he had not presented himself as a candidate, nor was his a human appointment, but solely by a divine call and election.
The Apostle to the Gentiles repeats several times in his Letters that his whole life is a fruit of God's freely given and merciful grace (cf. I Cor 15: 9-10; II Cor 4: 1; Gal 1: 15).
He was chosen to proclaim "the Gospel of God" (Rom 1: 1), to disseminate the announcement of divine Grace which in Christ reconciles man with God, himself and others.
From his Letters, we know that Paul was far from being a good speaker; on the contrary, he shared with Moses and Jeremiah a lack of oratory skill. "His bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account" (II Cor 10: 10), his adversaries said of him.
The extraordinary apostolic results that he was able to achieve cannot, therefore, be attributed to brilliant rhetoric or refined apologetic and missionary strategies.
The success of his apostolate depended above all on his personal involvement in proclaiming the Gospel with total dedication to Christ; a dedication that feared neither risk, difficulty nor persecution.
"Neither death, nor life", he wrote to the Romans, "nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (8: 38-39).
From this we can draw a particularly important lesson for every Christian. The Church's action is credible and effective only to the extent to which those who belong to her are prepared to pay in person for their fidelity to Christ in every circumstance.
When this readiness is lacking, the crucial argument of truth on which the Church herself depends is also absent.
Dear brothers and sisters, as in early times, today too Christ needs apostles ready to sacrifice themselves. He needs witnesses and martyrs like St Paul. Paul, a former violent persecutor of Christians, when he fell to the ground dazzled by the divine light on the road to Damascus, did not hesitate to change sides to the Crucified One and followed him without second thoughts. He lived and worked for Christ, for him he suffered and died. How timely his example is today!
And for this very reason I am pleased to announce officially that we shall be dedicating a special Jubilee Year to the Apostle Paul from 28 June 2008 to 29 June 2009, on the occasion of the bimillennium of his birth, which historians have placed between the years 7 and 10 A.D.
It will be possible to celebrate this "Pauline Year" in a privileged way in Rome where the sarcophagus which, by the unanimous opinion of experts and an undisputed tradition, preserves the remains of the Apostle Paul, has been preserved beneath the Papal Altar of this Basilica for 20 centuries.
It will thus be possible to have a series of liturgical, cultural and ecumenical events taking place at the Papal Basilica and at the adjacent Benedictine Abbey, as well as various pastoral and social initiatives, all inspired by Pauline spirituality.
In addition, special attention will be given to penitential pilgrimages that will be organized to the Apostle's tomb to find in it spiritual benefit. Study conventions and special publications on Pauline texts will also be promoted in order to make ever more widely known the immense wealth of the teaching they contain, a true patrimony of humanity redeemed by Christ.
Furthermore, in every part of the world, similar initiatives will be implemented in the dioceses, shrines and places of worship, by Religious and by the educational institutions and social-assistance centres which are named after St Paul or inspired by him and his teaching.
Lastly, there is one particular aspect to which special attention must be paid during the celebration of the various moments of the 2,000th Pauline anniversary: I am referring to the ecumenical dimension.
The Apostle to the Gentiles, who was especially committed to taking the Good News to all peoples, left no stones unturned for unity and harmony among all Christians.
May he deign to guide and protect us in this bimillenial celebration, helping us to progress in the humble and sincere search for the full unity of all the members of Christ's Mystical Body. Amen."
Caravaggio, (Michelangelo Merisi) (b. 1571, Caravaggio, d. 1610, Porto Ercole)
"Miserere mei, Deus, secundum misericordiam tuam.
These words which I pronounced at the moment in which with trepidation I accepted election as Supreme Pontiff, I now repeat at a time in which knowledge of the deficiencies, of the failures, of the sins committed during so long a pontificate and in so grave an epoch has made more clear to my mind my insufficiency and unworthiness . . .
I pray those whose affair it is not to bother to erect any monuments to my memory: sufficient it is that my poor mortal remains should be laid simply in a sacred place . .."
Pope Pius XII (1876-1958): Last Will and Testament
"Monsignor Salvatore Fisichella, rector of the Lateran University, which is co-hosting the commemorations, said the aim was to "clarify the complexity" of his career. Monsignor Fisichella, who replaced Monsignor Elio Sgreccia as head of the Pontifical Academy for Life and was promoted to archbishop, said the image of Pius XII as indifferent to Jewish persecution by the Nazis persisted "depite the evidence" because of "collective inertia".
Monsignor Walter Brandmuller, head of the pontifical historical committee, said Pius XII's career was "too often seen in terms of politics rather than his Petrine ministry".
Giovanni Maria Vian, editor of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, said he hoped a "more rounded" picture of Pius XII would emerge.
The Pius XII conference in November, organised by the Lateran and Gregorian Pontifical Universities, will focus on the pontiff's 43 encyclicals and his spiritual and doctrinal teachings, or Magisterium, rather than his wartime role.
Vatican officials said that the emphasis will be on the "continuity" between his thought and the reforms of the Second Vatican Council convened by his successor, Pope John XXII."
Jean Fouquet or Jehan Fouquet (1420 - 1481)At morn- at noon- at twilight dim-
Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!
In joy and woe- in good and ill-
Mother of God, be with me still!
When the hours flew brightly by,
And not a cloud obscured the sky,
My soul, lest it should truant be,
Thy grace did guide to thine and thee.
Now, when storms of Fate o'ercast
Darkly my Present and my Past,
Let my Future radiant shine
With sweet hopes of thee and thine!
Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849)
Prato, North of Florence, 1945 "During the Italian campaign in the Second World War the Allied forces lost over 300,000 men, the Germans perhaps half a million.
Probably over a million Italians were killed or wounded, to say nothing of the destruction inflicted on virtually every town and village between Sicily and the Po Valley.
No battlefield could have been worse chosen. For nearly two years the Allied armies had to fight for mountain after mountain, hill after hill, in a theatre that might have been specifically designed for defensive war.
The decision to invade the Italian mainland was taken at only six weeks’ notice, and had to be carried out by armies neither equipped nor trained for the mountain warfare that lay ahead of them.
Likewise, the decision to defend the peninsula was made only after the campaign had begun, when the German commander on the spot, Albert Kesselring, persuaded Hitler to abandon the original intention to pull back to the Apennines and allow him to defend the mountains south of Rome.
The result was two years of fighting in a theatre at best secondary, and one in which the Allies always found themselves at a disadvantage. Was it worth it? ...
James Holland’s ["ITALY’S SORROW: A year of war, 1944–1945"] gives full value to the Italian dimension of the campaign, and as his title suggests, this was not a happy one.
In parallel with the conflict between the Allied and German armies that was ravaging their country, the Italians were fighting their own civil war.
South of Rome they could do little but keep their heads down and survive as best they could – survival at a very marginal level, and, in Naples, in an environment of ruin, starvation, criminality and disease. But further north a Fascist government of a kind survived, if only as a mask for German Occupation – and a government often supported, as Holland makes clear, by many Italians who thought it dishonourable to betray their allies. But there also existed a resistance movement that grew in strength as the Allies advanced further north and as German conscription of labour drove more young men into the maquis.
It was a movement that the Allies supported inadequately and tentatively, and the Germans suppressed with an efficient brutality learned on the Eastern Front. Holland is very fair also to the Germans: apart from explicit orders emanating from Hitler, which they disobeyed at their peril, they could hardly fight while their communications were being harassed by francs-tireurs.
But the methods they used turned Italian dislike into detestation, while the failure of the Allies to provide more help resulted in an abiding mistrust that the Communist Parties were able effectively to exploit after the war."
"At an inter-faith meeting in religious freedom organised in Amman, the capital of Jordan, by the Venice-based Oasis Centre, Cardinal Angelo Scola, the Patriarch of Venice said that no-one, "not even Muslims", had the right to impose "the identity of community" to the point where it "violates the human freedom of the individual, included the freedom to convert".
Oasis was founded by Cardinal Scola five years ago to create an international network promoting inter-faith dialogue.
Speaking at the conference, attended by over 80 delegates from 20 countries, he said that "in our globalised society, tension between religious freedom and the traditional identity of a people is becoming more and more troubling."
This was not in itself new, as "the rich history of Venice and its millenial relationships with the Muslim Levant" showed. ...
Vatican officials said that Cardinal Scola had met Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan during the conference to pave the way for the first Catholic-Muslim Forum, convened by Pope Benedict and to be held in October in Rome.
Hasan Abû Ni'mah, head of the Jordanian Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, said that dialogue between the world's great faiths based on common moral and human values was the only alternative to a "clash of civilisations" involving "war, death, violence and terrorism". "
Icon of Sts Athanasius the Great and Cyril of Alexandria ,"1. St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, glory of the Eastern Church and celebrated champion of the Virgin Mother of God, has always been held by the Church in the highest esteem, and We welcome the opportunity of recalling his merits in this brief Letter, now that fifteen centuries have passed since he happily exchanged this earthly exile for his heavenly home.
2. Our Predecessor St. Celestine I hailed him as 'good defender of the Catholic faith, 'as 'excellent priest,' as 'apostolic man.' The ecumenical Council of Chalcedon not only used his doctrine for the detecting and refuting of the latest errors, but went so far as to compare it with the learning of St. Leo the Great; and in fact the latter praised and commended the writings of this great Doctor because of their perfect agreement with the faith of the holy Fathers.
The fifth ecumenical Council, held at Constantinople, treated St. Cyril's authority with similar reverence and many years later, during the controversy about the two wills in Christ, his teaching was rightly and triumphantly vindicated, both in the first Lateran Council and in the sixth ecumenical Council, against the false charge of being tainted with the error of Monothelitism. He was, as Our saintly Predecessor Agatho proclaimed, 'a defender of the truth' and 'a consistent teacher of the orthodox faith.' ...
6. The faithful of the Eastern rite not only count St. Cyril among the 'ecumenical Fathers,' but also honor him with the deepest veneration in their liturgical prayers. Thus the Greeks chant in the Menaia of the 9th June:
Enlightened in mind by the flames of the Holy Spirit, thou hast uttered oracles even as the sun sends forth its rays. To the ends of the earth and to all the faithful thy teaching has gone forth, O most blessed Saint, illuminating all sorts and conditions of men, and dispelling darkness of heresy by the power and strength of that Light who was born of the Virgin.
7. And the sons of the Eastern Church have every right to rejoice and take pride in this holy Father as one who is peculiarly and especially their own.
For he is above all pre-eminent in those three qualities which have so greatly distinguished the other Fathers of the East:
an outstanding sanctity of life, marked by a specially ardent devotion to the august Mother of God;
exceptional learning, such that the Sacred Congregation of Rites, by a decree of the 28th July, 1882, declared him a Doctor of the Universal Church;
and finally an energetic zeal in fearlessly repelling the attacks of heretics, in asserting the Catholic faith, and in defending and spreading the Gospel to the full extent of his power .
8. But our great joy in the deep veneration which all the Christian peoples of the East have for St. Cyril is mingled with an equal regret that not all of them have come together into that desired unity of which he was the ardent lover and promoter.
And especially do We deplore that this should be so at the present time, when it is above all necessary that all Christ's faithful ones should labor together in heart and endeavor for union in the one Church of Jesus Christ, so that they may present a common, serried, united, and unyielding front to the daily growing attacks of the enemies of religion.
9. For this to be brought about it is absolutely necessary that all should take St. Cyril as their model in striving for a true harmony of souls, a harmony established by that triple bond which Christ Jesus, the Founder of the Church, willed to be the supernatural and unbreakable link provided by Him for binding and holding together:
the bond of one faith, of one charity towards God and all men, and of one obedience and rightful submission to the hierarchy established by the Divine Redeemer Himself.
As you know full well, Venerable Brethren, these three bonds are so necessary that, if any one of them be lacking, true unity and harmony in the Church of Christ is unthinkable.
10. Throughout the troubled times of his life on earth the Patriarch of Alexandria taught all men, both by word and by conspicuous example, how this true harmony is to be achieved and steadfastly maintained - and We would have him do this also today."
Ignaz Franz Platzer 1717 -1787" Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today too, continuing our journey following the traces left by the Fathers of the Church, we meet an important figure: St Cyril of Alexandria.
... Cyril was later defined as "the guardian of exactitude" - to be understood as guardian of the true faith - and even the "seal of the Fathers". These ancient descriptions express clearly a characteristic feature of Cyril: the Bishop of Alexandria's constant reference to earlier ecclesiastical authors (including, in particular, Athanasius), for the purpose of showing the continuity with tradition of theology itself.
He deliberately, explicitly inserted himself into the Church's tradition, which he recognized as guaranteeing continuity with the Apostles and with Christ himself.
Venerated as a Saint in both East and West, in 1882 St Cyril was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII, who at the same time also attributed this title to another important exponent of Greek Patristics, St Cyril of Jerusalem.
...In the second of Cyril's letters to Nestorius (PG 77, 44-49), written in February 430, we read a clear affirmation of the duty of Pastors to preserve the faith of the People of God.
This was his criterion, moreover, still valid today: the faith of the People of God is an expression of tradition, it is a guarantee of sound doctrine.
This is what he wrote to Nestorius:
"It is essential to explain the teaching and interpretation of the faith to the people in the most irreproachable way, and to remember that those who cause scandal even to only one of the little ones who believe in Christ will be subjected to an unbearable punishment"....Cyril's writings - truly numerous and already widely disseminated in various Latin and Eastern translations in his own lifetime, attested to by their instant success - are of the utmost importance for the history of Christianity.
His commentaries on many of the New and Old Testament Books are important, including those on the entire Pentateuch, Isaiah, the Psalms and the Gospels of John and Luke. Also important are his many doctrinal works, in which the defence of the Trinitarian faith against the Arian and Nestorian theses recurs.
...The Christian faith is first and foremost the encounter with Jesus, "a Person, which gives life a new horizon" (Deus Caritas Est, n. 1). St Cyril of Alexandria was an unflagging, staunch witness of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, emphasizing above all his unity, as he repeats in 433 in his first letter (PG 77, 228-237) to Bishop Succensus:
"Only one is the Son, only one the Lord Jesus Christ, both before the Incarnation and after the Incarnation. Indeed, the Logos born of God the Father was not one Son and the one born of the Blessed Virgin another; but we believe that the very One who was born before the ages was also born according to the flesh and of a woman".
Over and above its doctrinal meaning, this assertion shows that faith in Jesus the Logos born of the Father is firmly rooted in history because, as St Cyril affirms, this same Jesus came in time with his birth from Mary, the Theotò-kos, and in accordance with his promise will always be with us.
And this is important: God is eternal, he is born of a woman, and he stays with us every day. In this trust we live, in this trust we find the way for our life. "
Mordecai Ardon 1896-1992
Mordecai Ardon 1896-1992
Design for St. Agnes Church, Manhattan, New York by Architects Dino Marcantonio and Riccardo Vicenzino see marcantonio website ""Today more than ever, the Church needs to proclaim to the world the beauty of God that shines in the works of art that the faith has generated," Father Lang affirmed.
"Great masterpieces of sacred art and music have been born in the Church, which have the power to raise our hearts and lead us beyond ourselves to God, who is beauty itself."
Father Lang, who authored "Turning Towards the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical Prayer" (Ignatius Press, 2005), said, "Sacred art is directed to the praise and glory of God and, at the same time, is popular, because it must and can be understood and touch the hearts of the faithful, also of the simple faithful."
Referring to the importance that the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church gives to sacred art and to the use of the many works of art as a vehicle of the mysteries of the faith, Father Lang stressed that "today more than ever, in the civilization of image, the sacred image can express much more than the word itself, given that its dynamism of communication and transmission of the Gospel message is exceedingly effective."
However, Father Lang lamented, sacred art is in crisis: "a crisis of the deepest roots, a crisis that has swept away, even before art, beauty itself, of which it should be the bearer. The very concept of 'fine arts,' of which the conciliar Constitution on Sacred Liturgy speaks, is debated."
Quoting Hans Urs von Balthasar, Father Lang stressed that "together with the loss of the beautiful, the good and the true have also been lost."
"On one hand," he said, "there is a false kind of beauty that does not raise us to God and his Kingdom, but instead drags us down and awakens disordered desires." And on the other there is a need to oppose what Remo Bodei has called "the apotheosis of the ugly," which affirms that "everything that is beautiful is deceitful and that only the representation of what is raw is the truth."
"This cult to the ugly does no less damage to the Catholic faith than false beauty," Father Lang observed.
Recalling the words of Fyodor Dostoevsky, according to whom "the world will be saved by beauty," the priest specified that the author did not refer to just any beauty but instead to "the redeeming beauty of Christ."
Leonardo da Vinci, (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519)
Unfinished Miniature Representing The Commentary On Revelation 12:17-18, in 'The Abingdon Apocalypse' Manuscript MS 42555, f.38r
Unfinished Miniature Representing The Commentary On Revelation, in 'The Abingdon Apocalypse' Manuscript MS 42555,
The Second Horseman Of The Apocalypse, In A Glossed Apocalypse
The Fourth Horseman Of The Apocalypse, In A Glossed Apocalypse"In the middle of this scene is a bishop at an altar, with Christ above. To one side in the Virgin and Child and the Adoration of the Magi, to the other kings are being driven into a hell-mouth. Apparently the artist responsible for the green and brown hell-mouth also coloured the dog chasing a hare in the lower margin."Of the second image, The British Library website says:
"St. John the Evangelist stands to the left of this image, watching the seven-headed dragon gives a sceptre to another seven-headed beast. "Of the third and fourth images, the second and the fourth of the Four Riders of the Apocalypse are represented (Revelation 6:4). Of the fourth image above, the British Library website states:
"The fourth horse and rider witnessed by St. John were 'a pale horse: and he that sat upon him, his name was Death. And hell followed him' (Revelation 6:8). The artist has depicted Hell as a monster, with tormented human souls visible in its two mouths. "
Detail of The Second Seal.+(B.+N.,+MS.+Latin+8878)+++folio+109.jpg)
The Second Seal
The Fourth Trumpet
Satan and the dragon conquered"With childlike simplicity, the early miniaturists of the west tried to give a literal interpretation to passages from the Apocalypse. Of the two schools which seem to have worked at this subject the first is the Spanish school, which from the ninth to the twelfth century illuminated with crude colours the rude drawings accompanying the Commentary on the Apocalypse of Beatus, abbot of Liebana. M. Leopold Delisle has indicated the principal manuscripts of this group (manuscripts from Silos, Girone, Urgel, La Cogalla, &c.), of which the most beautiful the Apocalypse of Saint-Sever, is in the Bibliotheque Nationale.
All these manuscripts appear to derive from one original of the eighth or ninth century. The Spanish monks of Catalonia, Aragon or Navarre may have had the honour of being pioneers in the west of the illustration of the text of the Apocalypse. There was perhaps a certain harmony between the sombre poem and the Spanish temperament.
Their work though often rough is never crude. The figures in the Apocalypse of Saint-Sever stand out against a background of red or yellow like a fiery sunset, or sometimes against a band of quiet purple like a beautiful sky at night. Here and there are pages of considerable power, as for example the illustration of the eagle which flies in the midst of the stars crying, " Woe, woe, misery, misery," or the huge serpent covered with scales which is cast by an angel into the abyss.
By sheer force of simplicity the artist reached the sublimity of his text : " And I saw when the Lamb," says St. John, "opened one of the seals, and I heard as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, ' Come and see/ I saw and beheld a horse." The Spanish monk represents the winged lion flying towards St. John, taking his hand in his paw in a friendly way, and showing him a rider on a black horse.
Another school also attempted to illustrate the Apocalypse. Though its origin is somewhat obscure it certainly had its rise in England, for in a typical work of the school the manuscript is written in a French in which various Anglo-Norman idioms are used. We are far from the many coloured Apocalypses of Spain, for these miniatures are the work of artists with no real sense of colour. The backgrounds are white, and the drawing is merely covered with a slight wash. But each passage is literally rendered ; never were miniaturists more accurate or more loyal to their text. It is true that mystery vanishes, that the illimitable takes on a definite contour, and that the gigantic shrinks to human proportions, for their work though so estimable in other respects, is lacking in any element of the arresting, the rugged, the unexpected....
The [Anglo-Norman school] artist who first conceived these vigorous scenes [of the Apocalypse] , and drew them with a nervous pencil, worked for the future, for almost all works of art of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries devoted to the Apocalypse, whether miniatures, glass, or bas-reliefs, are indebted to him in greater or less degree.
No such far-reaching influence was exerted by the Spanish school, for the illustrated Apocalypses of northern Spain hardly went beyond the Pyrenees, and never imposed their sway on the artists' imagination. The Anglo-Norman Apocalypse on the contrary, after inspiring the painters and sculptors of the Middle Ages, was a source of inspiration to the wood-engravers of the fifteenth century....
The vitality of the work of the Anglo-Norman miniaturists is remarkable. If it were within our province, we should like to point out how the old forms were perpetuated in art until the end of the fifteenth century, and how inspiration was sought in the originals up to the time when Albrecht Dürer created a new apocalyptic type."Émile Mâle , The Gothic Image: Religious Art of the Thirteenth Century in France - A Study in Mediaeval Iconography and its Sources of Inspiration (3rd edition, publ. 1913) (translated by Dora Nussey) (1958), pages 358-360 and 363
The Commentary on the Apocalypse (Commentaria In Apocalypsin) was originally an eighth century work by the Asturian monk and theologian Beatus of Liébana. Saint Beatus of Liébana (c. 730 - c. 800) was a monk, theologian and geographer from the Kingdom of Asturias, in northern Spain, who worked and lived in the Picos de Europa mountains of the region of Liébana, in what is now Cantabria.
Twenty six illuminated copies of the Commentary have survived. Well-known copies include the Morgan, the Saint-Sever, the Osma and the Madrid (Vitr 14-1) Beatus.
The Beatus have been the subject of extensive scholarly and antiquarian enquiry.
After 711 A.D., Spanish Christians found themselves being persecuted by Muslims. They could no longer practice their religion openly. Bells and processions were forbidden. Churches and monasteries were destroyed and were unable to be reconstructed. Persecutions often led to bloody outcomes.
The Apocalypse became a support for the Christian resistance. The symbolism in it took on a whole new meaning for them. The Beast, which had previously been believed to represent the Roman empire, now became the Califate, and Babylon was no longer Rome, but Córdoba.
The Apocalypse, which before had been interpreted as a prophecy of the end of Roman persecution, became the cry for Reconquista and a promise of deliverance and punishment.
The manuscript Beatus de Saint-Sever in the Bibliothèque nationale de France was made during the time that Grégoire de Montaner was Abbot of Saint-Sever (from 1028 to 1072). One of the scribes (and perhaps one of the painters) was Stephanius Garsia. It is likely,however, that there were several scribes and painters.
The pages measure 365 x 280 mm. The style is French Roman but some experts have seen influence also from Ireland.
Gustave Moreau (born 6 April 1826 - died 18 April 1898)"From what has been said it is evident that mediaeval art was before all things a symbolic art, in which form is used merely as the vehicle of spiritual meaning.
Such are the general characteristics of the iconography of the Middle Ages. Art was at once a script, a calculus and a symbolic code. The result was a deep and perfect harmony. ...
Some attempt must be made to understand the mediaeval view of the world and of nature. What is the visible world ? What is the meaning of the myriad forms of life ? What did the monk dreaming in his cell, or the doctor meditating in the cathedral cloister before the hour of his lecture think of it all ? Is it merely appearance or is it reality ?
The Middle Ages were unanimous in their reply: the world is a symbol.
As the idea of his work is in the mind of the artist, so the universe was in the thought of God from the beginning. God created, but He created through His Word, that is, through His Son.
The thought of the Father was realised in the Son through whom it passed from potentiality to act, and thus the Son is the true creator. The artists of the Middle Ages, imbued with this doctrine, almost invariably represent the Creator in the likeness of Jesus Christ. The absence in the churches of any likeness of God the Father filled Didron with needless amazement and Michelet with mistaken indignation.
For, according to the theologians, God the Father created in principle, which is to say in verbo, that is by His Son.
Jesus Christ is at once Creator and Redeemer.
The world therefore may be defined as " a thought of God realised through the Word." If this be so then in each being is hidden a divine thought ; the world is a book written by the hand of God in which every creature is a word charged with meaning.
The ignorant see the forms the mysterious letters understanding nothing of their meaning, but the wise pass from the visible to the invisible, and in reading nature read the thoughts of God.
True knowledge, then, consists not in the study of things in themselves the outward forms but in penetrating to the inner meaning intended by God for our instruction, for in the words of Honorius of Autun, "every creature is a shadow of truth and life."
All being holds in its depths the reflection of the sacrifice of Christ, the image of the Church and of the virtues and vices.
The material and the spiritual worlds are one."
Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921)
Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921)
Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921)"That Night, at San Gregorio...
by Guido Innocenzo Gargano
[...] The adoption of the vernacular in the celebration of the Divine Office came to the community like an explosion.
The chanting of the Divine Office in the vernacular signified an irreparable break with one of our most sacred traditions, observed for centuries by all of Western Latin monasticism: Gregorian chant. [...]
It was all insinuated into the Camaldolese community by the intense debate in the council hall between the defenders of Latin and the proponents of the vernacular. [...] The youngest monks had not only openly campaigned for the introduction of Italian into the liturgy; they were so impatient that they didn´t even want to wait until the new permissions, which had already been approved in the council hall, were confirmed through official publication. Once it was recognized that Latin was absurd, it was time to change! [...]
The young monks began to feel themselves entitled to take the first steps in the monastery´s attic, like conspirators. It was not just a matter of translating the liturgical prayers from Latin into Italian, but also of experimenting with different musical forms. And given the intimate connection between Latin and Gregorian chant, the young monks decided, without asking anyone, that the sublime Gregorian chant must also be set aside, at least for the moment.
So, unknown to the superiors, a veritable orchestra was soon installed in the attic of the monastery of San Gregorio al Celio. The musical instruments were poorly chosen, but they were good enough for the task at hand.
After testing and retesting, among endless explosions of anger from the directors of a completely improvised choir, it was decided that, by Quinquagesima Sunday, the group would be prepared to make its debut in a semi-official liturgy complete with guitars, drums, and new songs written in Italian.
The chosen venue was the Salviati chapel, on the left side of the church. The celebrant was to be a priest studying at the Anselmianum liturgical institute, who was staying at the adjoining Hospitum Gregorianum.
It all took place with the greatest seriousness and to the satisfaction of all. But no one noticed that, during the celebration that Sunday, a man came into the chapel on a tourist visit, and came out again in a state of shock. This stranger ran straight to the vicariate and denounced the scandal.
[Angelo] Cardinal Dell´Acqua, His Holiness´ vicar for the diocese of Rome at the time, moved into action. To the unknowing [prior general] Fr. Benedetto [Calati], it came like lightning from the blue: in a single moment, he discovered both what his young monks had done and what were the consequences to be feared.
Fully riled, Fr. Benedetto convened the conventual chapter. [...] The monks received the reprimand in silence, their eyes lowered, but not at all convinced of having committed some vile misdeed. And when Fr. Benedetto compelled each of them, one by one, to take a public position on the crime committed, he was jolted in place by the determination, of each and of all, to defend the group of "scapigliati" ["bohemians"] - that´s what the rascals secretly called themselves - insinuating their fear of the
lassitude that held their superiors immobile in their chairs, preventing them from following the path already clearly signalled by the wonderful debates of the conciliar assemblies.
At this point, Fr. Benedetto abandoned everyone and holed himself up in his cell. No one moved. We were all embarrassed, silent.
That evening, not seeing him at the table, nor at Compline, they sent me as a scout to see what mediation could be made.
The response was so unexpected it didn´t seem real.
"All right," replied Fr. Benedetto, "we will do everything as you have said. Starting tomorrow, we will celebrate the Mass and the entire Office in Italian."
Then we went from words to actions. One monk suddenly discovered he was a poet, another a translator; all of us became matchless connoisseurs of songs and musical scores.
Fr. Benedetto, for his part, wanted to show everyone a great sign of his courage by permitting the altar to be removed and another constructed, facing the people. The die had been cast. [...]
[From Guido Innocenzo Gargano, The Camaldolese in 20th Century Italian Spirituality, volume II, Edizioni Dehoniane, Bologna, 2001, pages 112-115]"
Ernst Fuchs b.1930"On the left edge of the painting stands the Angel of the Annunciation. Mary, blessed with child, walks across the sickle of the moon, which has been turned upside down and which also represents the mountain range Mary has to cross on her way to Elizabeth.
With her hands in sacrificial position she offers her child to the Lord, like in the Temple.
The child she has given birth to resembles the Prague Child of Jesus - also wearing a crown - and he blesses the world. One halo envelops the divine child and his mother. They are both clothed with the sun.
From among the joyful mysteries only one is missing: the finding of Jesus in the Temple.
Instead the artist has included the vision from the 12th chapter of the Apocalypse: the hellish dragon with the symbols of his power ( the 7 heads and crowns, the 10 horns and the tail which sweeps down one third of the stars from heaven) rebels against the woman and her child.
But the Angel defeats him by thrusting an amethyst rod into his spine. The amethyst is known as an ancient cure against drunkenness, in this case against Satan’s drunken overbearance.
We must not be surprised by the angel’s three hands, they simply symbolise God’s manifold power which is revealed through his angel. In reality the angel has no hands at all.
The grave features of the Holy Virgin on a painting of the joyful mysteries can be explained by the danger which threatens her and her child at all times."
Ernst Fuchs b.1930
Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1945)
Pasqualino Rossi (Vicenza 1639 - Roma 1722)"Down the centuries the [Basilica of St. Apollinaire in Classe] and its adjacent monastery became, in fact, an active centre of evangelization, thanks to the labours of authentic witnesses of Christ, including the monk St Romuald.
In April 1001 he took part in the great assembly of Bishops and dignitaries which Pope Sylvester II held precisely at this church in Classe and which was also attended by Emperor Otto III. It was at that meeting that the evangelizing mission to the Slavs was planned and organized, in continuity with all that St Adalbert had accomplished.
For this mission three of Romuald's monks were chosen, Bruno, Benedict and John. Sealing their service to the Gospel with martyrdom, they are now venerated as heavenly protectors in both Ravenna and Poland."
"We can understand, then, how the Psalms came to be adopted from the earliest
centuries as the prayer of the People of God. If in some historical periods there was a tendency to prefer other prayers, it is to the monks' great credit that they held the Psalter's torch aloft in the Church.
One of them, St Romuald, founder of Camaldoli, at the dawn of the second Christian millennium, even maintained, as his biographer Bruno of Querfurt says, that the Psalms are the only way to experience truly deep prayer: "Una via in psalmis" (Passio sanctorum Benedicti et Johannis ac sociorum eorundem: MPH VI, 1893, 427).
With this assertion, which seems excessive at first sight, he actually remained anchored to the best tradition of the first Christian centuries, when the Psalter became the book of Church prayer par excellence. This was the winning choice in view of the heretical tendencies that continuously threatened the unity of faith and communion. "
Pope John Paul II : General Audience- Wednesday 28 March 2001
For more about St Romuald and the order he founded see the website of San Giorgio Hermitage (Bardolino, Verona)
