Sensus fidei fidelium

Attributed to the Workshop of the Maître de l'Epître d'Othéa

The Immaculate Conception

c. 1400 - 1457

From Pèlerinage de Jésus-Christ

Miniature

Paris - Bibl. de l'Institut de France - ms. 0009, f. 011

Bibl. de l'Institut de France, Paris

Attributed to Germain Hardouyn

The Immaculate Conception

From Hours according to the Roman Rite

1533

Avignon - BM - rés. 203, f. I 5

Municipal Library, Avignon

Lombard school

The Immaculate Conception with Saints Anne and Joachim

1700 - 1724

Oil on canvas

120 x 175 cm

The Province of Sondrio, Italy

Clayton, The Cult of Mary, pp. 42 - 50 provides detailed evidence of the introduction of the Byzantine feasts of the Conception and Presentation of Mary at the Temple or at Winchester in England in c. 1030.

In medieval times the Immaculate Conception of Mary was depicted in delicate terms in the Meeting of Saints Anne and Joachim at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem

Master of Moulins (Jean Hey) (active 1483 or earlier - about 1500) 

Charlemagne, and the Meeting of Saints Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate (detail)

c 1500 

Oil on oak 

72 x 59 cm

The National Gallery, London

The popularity of this particular apocryphal theme is clearly reflected in French religious art of the 13th century

Émile Mâle in Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century (2000: 140) points out that the story of Joachim and Anna was carved in full on the capitals of the west porch at Chartres, and later even carved in the north porch as well. 

He also notes that the legend is also represented in Notre-Dame de Paris, on the lower lintel of the Portail Sainte-Anne, where the illustrated scene  continued round the arches to the right showing Joachim among the shepherds and the meeting at the Golden Gate 

The story is also represented in a window in the chapel of the Virgin at Le Mans 

The idea of an Immaculate Conception for Mary was opposed by most of the eminent theologians of the day, among them Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter Lombard, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas, who argued instead that Mary had been freed from original sin after her conception but before her birth —  a doctrine referred to as the Maculate Conception

But the proponents of the Doctrine were not cowed.

They took a relatively simple view of the matter and one which seems to have eventually carried the day

Abbot Anselm  and Osbert of Clare corresponded  on the topic. In his letter to Abbot Anselm, as in his Sermo de Conceptione, Osbert expressed his reasons for believing in the Immaculate Conception. It  was the beginning of the Redemption. 

In Epistola ad Anselmum, Osbert writes that God ' so thoroughly purified and illumined it [Mary] that He left no impurity in that flesh from which the flesh of our Redemption was destined to be taken.' as quoted and translated in Balic  The Mediaeval Controversy over the Immaculate Conception in O' Connor, ed., The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, 161 - 212 (p. 176)

Eventually of course there was a defiinition of the dogma by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1854

It was an example par excellence of the sensus fidei fidelium

The International Theological Commission has recently published a text on “Sensus fidei in the Life of the Church” (June 2014)

In it the Commission says of the development of the doctrine of sensus fidei fidelium and Ineffabilis Deus

"34. The 19th century was a decisive period for the doctrine of the sensus fidei fidelium.  

It saw, in the Catholic Church, partly in response to criticism from representatives of modern culture and from Christians of other traditions, and partly from an inner maturation, the rise of historical consciousness, a revival of interest in the Fathers of the Church and in medieval theologians, and a renewed exploration of the mystery of the Church. 

In this context, Catholic theologians such as Johann Adam Möhler (1796-1838), Giovanni Perrone (1794-1876), and John Henry Newman gave new attention to the sensus fidei fidelium as a locus theologicus in order to explain how the Holy Spirit maintains the whole Church in truth and to justify developments in the Church’s doctrine.  

Theologians highlighted the active role of the whole Church, especially the contribution of the lay faithful, in preserving and transmitting the Church’s faith; and the magisterium implicitly confirmed this insight in the process leading to the definition of the Immaculate Conception (1854). 

35. To defend the Catholic faith against Rationalism, the Tübingen scholar, Johann Adam Möhler, sought to portray the Church as a living organism and to grasp the principles that governed the development of doctrine.  

In his view, it is the Holy Spirit who animates, guides, and unites the faithful as a community in Christ, bringing about in them an ecclesial ‘consciousness’ of the faith (Gemeingeist or Gesamtsinn), something akin to a Volksgeist or national spirit. 

This sensus fidei, which is the subjective dimension of Tradition, necessarily includes an objective element, the Church’s teaching, for the Christian ‘sense’ of the faithful, which lives in their hearts and is virtually equivalent to Tradition, is never divorced from its content. 

36. John Henry Newman initially investigated the sensus fidei fidelium to resolve his difficulty concerning the development of doctrine.  

He was the first to publish an entire treatise on the latter topic, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845), and to spell out the characteristics of faithful development. To distinguish between true and false developments, he adopted Augustine’s norm - the general consent of the whole Church, ‘Securus judicat orbis terrarum’ – but he saw that an infallible authority is necessary to maintain the Church in the truth. 

37. Using insights from Möhler and Newman, Perrone retrieved the patristic understanding of the sensus fidelium in order to respond to a widespread desire for a papal definition of Mary’s Immaculate Conception; he found in the unanimous consent, or conspiratio, of the faithful and their pastors a warrant for the apostolic origin of this doctrine.  

He maintained that the most distinguished theologians attributed probative force to the sensus fidelium, and that the strength of one ‘instrument of tradition’ can make up for the deficit of another, e.g., ‘the silence of the Fathers’. 

38. The influence of Perrone’s research on Pope Pius IX’s decision to proceed with the definition of the Immaculate Conception is evident from the fact that before he defined it the Pope asked the bishops of the world to report to him in writing regarding the devotion of their clergy and faithful people to the conception of the Immaculate Virgin.  

In the apostolic constitution containing the definition, Ineffabilis Deus (1854), Pope Pius IX said that although he already knew the mind of the bishops on this matter, he had particularly asked the bishops to inform him of the piety and devotion of their faithful in this regard, and he concluded that ‘Holy Scripture, venerable Tradition, the constant mind of the Church [perpetuus Ecclesiae sensus], the remarkable agreement of Catholic bishops and the faithful [singularis catholicorum Antistitum ac fidelium conspiratio], and the memorable Acts and Constitutions of our predecessors’ all wonderfully illustrated and proclaimed the doctrine. 

He thus used the language of Perrone’s treatise to describe the combined testimony of the bishops and the faithful.  

Newman highlighted the word, conspiratio, and commented: ‘the two, the Church teaching and the Church taught, are put together, as one twofold testimony, illustrating each other, and never to be divided’. 

39. When Newman later wrote On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine (1859), it was to demonstrate that the faithful (as distinct from their pastors) have their own, active role to play in conserving and transmitting the faith.  

‘[T]he tradition of the Apostles’ is ‘committed to the whole Church in its various constituents and functions per modum unius’, but the bishops and the lay faithful bear witness to it in diverse ways.  

The tradition, he says, ‘manifests itself variously at various times: sometimes by the mouth of the episcopacy, sometimes by the doctors, sometimes by the people, sometimes by liturgies, rites, ceremonies, and customs, by events, disputes, movements, and all those other phenomena which are comprised under the name of history’. 

For Newman, ‘there is something in the “pastorum et fidelium conspiratio” which is not in the pastors alone’.  

In this work, Newman quoted at length from the arguments proposed over a decade earlier by Giovanni Perrone in favor of the definition of the Immaculate Conception."

Los defensores de la Eucaristía

Peter  Paul Rubens 1577 – 1640

Los defensores de la Eucaristía

The Defenders of the Eucharist

1625

Oil on canvas

65,5 cm x 68 cm

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Rubens  was one of the leading voices of the Catholic Counter-Reformation style of painting

In September 1609 Rubens was appointed as court painter by Albert VII, Archduke of Austria and Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, sovereigns of the Low Countries.

Rubens was twice knighted: by Philip IV of Spain in 1624, and then by Charles I of England in 1630. 

He was also awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Cambridge University in 1629

In  1625  the Infanta commissioned Rubens to design a series of seventeen tapestries destined for the Monasterio de las Descalzas in  Madrid

Painted panels were needed for the tapenstries

Six of these panels are in the Prado and this is one of them - the tenth in the series

Each panel is a triumphant procession

This is no exception

One can almost hear the accompanying music

In this procession, St Clare of Assisi holds the monstrance

Her face has the face of the Infanta. Rubens was of course a consummate diplomat

St Clare  had a special devotion to the Holy Eucharist

In art St Clare always carries a ciborium or a monstrance from the legend that in 1234, she repelled attackers from the army of Frederick II who were engaged on  an assault upon Assisi, by taking the ciborium from the little chapel adjoining her cell, proceeded to face the invaders at an open window against which they had already placed a ladder and then raised the Sacrament on high

Beside the figure of St Clare is St Thomas Aquinas, the author of Lauda Sion Salvatorem, the sequence for the Mass of Corpus Christi around 1264, at the request of Pope Urban IV for the new Mass of  the  Feast

Dies enim solemnis agitur

In qua mensæ prima recolitur

Hujus institutio.

("For on this solemn day is again celebrated the first institution of the Supper")

He is of course also author of Pange lingua, Sacris solemniis, Adoro te devote, and Verbum supernum prodiens, which are used in the Divine Office. 

Also present are the four great Doctors of the Church. At the end of the procession is St Jerome

Leading the procession are Saints Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory the Great

Completing the procession is St Norbert of Xanten (c. 1080 – 6 June 1134), also known as Norbert Gennep,  founder of the Premonstratensian order of canons regular at Prémontré in the Diocese of Laon in France

He was known as the "Apostle of Antwerp" and therefore is an apt saint for a commissioner and artist from Antwerp

The saint was also noted for his defence of the Eucharist

Indeed he was called the “Apostle of the Blessed Sacrament”

In the iconography of Norbert he stands holding a monstrance or some Eucharistic symbol, perhaps a chalice or ciborium, or kneeling in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.

He preached against the eucharistic heresy of Tanchelm in Antwerp which is perhaps why the Infanta and Rubens thought his inclusion in the tapestry most appropriate

His cult was revived during the Counter-Reformation and he was canonised by Gregory XIII in 1582 (at the same time as that of St. Romuald and St. Bruno)

Here we see the finished tapestry in the Salón de Tapices in the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales in Madrid. It is 500 x 492 cm and made from wool and silk. It was manufactured by Jan II Raes, Hans Vervoert, and Jacques Fobert in Brussels 1627-1632

Apart from the mirror image, one important change is the prominent position given to the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is not the dove but the bird seen by St Teresa of Avila in her vision of the Holy Spirit

Rubens was more than familiar with the Vision of St Teresa on the Vigil of Pentecost 1569. See Vision of the Dove

St  Teresa described her vision in this way:

"One day-it was the vigil of Pentecost-I went, after Mass, to a very solitary spot, where I used often to say my prayers, and began to read about this festival in the Carthusian's Life of Christ. 

As I read about the signs by which beginners, proficients, and the perfect may know if the Holy Spirit is with them, it seemed to me, when I had read about these three states, that by the goodness of God, and so far as I could understand, He was certainly with me then....  

While I was meditating in this way a strong impulse seized me without my realising why.   

It seemed as if my soul were about to leave my body, because it could no longer contain itself and was incapable of waiting for so great a blessing....   

I had to seek some physical support, for so completely did my natural strength fail me that I could not even remain seated.  

While in this condition, I saw a dove over my head, very different from those we see on earth, for it had not feathers like theirs but its wings were made of little shells which emitted a great brilliance.   

It was larger than a dove; I seemed to hear the rustling of its wings. It must have been fluttering like this for the space of an Ave Maria.   

But my soul was in such a state that, as it became lost to itself, it also lost sight of the dove."

Saint Albert of Sicily (Trapani)

Antonio de Pereda y Salgado 1611 - 1678

San Alberto de Sicilia (Saint Albert of Sicily or Trapani)

1670

Oil on canvas

116 cm x 78 cm

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

On the death of his patron Crescenzi, Pereda was expelled from the Royal Spanish Court in 1635

He was then commissioned by religious institutions to carry out religious works or with a religious theme

This work was commissioned for the Carmelite (Discalced) convent of Saint Damasus in Madrid


The Carmelite saint was born in Trapani, about 1240, and became provincial of his order in the island of Sicily

He died in Messina in 1307

He is considered another patron and protector, or ‘Father of the Order’

There is often confusion between Saint Albert of Jerusalem – lawgiver of Carmel – and  Saint Albert of  Trapani – father of the Order – which has caused the latter to be somewhat overlooked.

Albert of Trapani  was distinguished for his preaching, working miracles, and his desire for prayer.

From the 16th century pictures of Albert were in practically all the convents and monasteries of the Order

In particular among  the many with a devotion to this saint were Saint Teresa of Jesus (Teresa of Avila) and Saint Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi.

St Teresa asked the Dominican Diego de Yanguas to write a biography of St Albert which he did. She asked Don Teutonio to publish it. She wanted this book published with her Way of Perfection

The books were published in February 1583, four months after Teresa’s death.

He is shown picured holding a lily, a book, or a crucifix

In the late 15th century Sforza Book of Hours we see him preaching and healing

Giovan Pietro Birago (active 1471 - 1513)

St Albert of Trapani

c. 1490-1494

Add MS 34294, f 204

The Sforza Book of Hours Volume 3

Miniature

130 x 95 mm

The British Library, London

In the Cathedral at Prato in Italy, his image occupies a prominent place  on the end wall of the choir beside the cycle on the lives of Sts Stephen and John the Baptist. The work is also by Fra Filippo Lippi and was composed while he was in safety in Prato from 1452-1465

Lippi was also a Carmelite

Fra Filippo di Tommaso Lippi (1406 circa – 1469)

St Alberto of Trapani

1452-65

Fresco

The Duomo, Prato

Here we see him depicted  in a print by the Carmelite artist Giovanni Maria da Brescia (active 1500 - 1512).

He is second from the right at the bottom pictured along side other saints

Giovanni Maria da Brescia (active 1500 - 1512)

The Virgin and Christ Child appearing to five saints, from left John the Baptist, Angelus, Cyril of Constantinople, Albert of Sicily and St Jerome

1512

Engraving

331  x 231 mm

The British Museum, London

And in this print from about  1615 by Hieronymus Wierix we  see the adoration of God and veneration of Mary by St Albert and his "companion saint", St Angelus, Martyr

Hieronymus Wierix (1553 - 1619)

The Adoration of God and Veneration of the Virgin by Saints Albert of Trapani and Angelus, Martyr

c. 1615

Engraving

92 mm x 60 mm

The British Museum, London 

Depictions of the Trinity

Bartolo di Fredi (also known as Bartolo Battiloro)(1330-1410)

Detail of The Trinity

1396

Tempera on wood panel

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Chambéry

The Gothic and the Renaissance periods were not separate discrete periods or movements

The terms are artificial distinctions used by art historians to impose order on what might otherwise be a series of discrete  events and circumstances happening in different places at different times in vastly different circumstances

Artists did  not wake up one day and say - enough of the Gothic, on with the Renaissance

Styles existed side by side

Artists trained in one style would learn or discover new techniques and combine these into their own methods

As distinct from the "supply" side, customer demand would favour new fashions or approaches

Certain cities like Siena were slower than others in Tuscany to take on board the new fashions all the rage in Florence. But they did see what was happening and did adapt their existing styles

And we see this here in di Fredi

Here he adheres to the Gothic  tradition: the  balanced and symmetrical composition, the use of gold, the use of hieratic characters and in his colours. But we also see the search for depth and perspective 

The epitome of the "new style" in the depiction of The Trinity can be seen in Masaccio`s celebrated Trinity in Santa Maria Novella in Florence, thus:

Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone (Masaccio) (1401 – 1428)

The Trinity

1425

Fresco

667 cm × 317 cm 

Santa Maria Novella, Florence

But in looking at these great depictions one is apt to overlook the substance of what is being conveyed

There is a commonality but there are also differences

Both artists  in their different ways are conveying different aspects of that mystery which we call the Trinity, the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life.

In di Fredi we see an image of the Father who bears a resemblance to the Son

On either side of the Son and beneath Him are the closest members of his human family: Mary and St John

Mary is, apart from Christ, is the only human who ever got the closest to God without being God: the Immaculate Conception; the Annunciation; the Nativity; the Marriage Feast at Cana; the Crucifixion; the Resurrection; the Ascension; the Pentecost; the Assumption

Mary, in both pictures, is the one who faces the viewer and presents the viewer to her Son and thence the Trinity

John is the one to whom Christ entrusted his mother

It is in his Gospel and Letters that we see the exposition of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit especially in John 17: the Farewell Discourse or the High Priestly Prayer

"22 And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, 

23 I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. 

24 Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 

25 Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. 

26 I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them."

The same elements are present in Masaccio

In this version of The Trinity in the London Rothschild Hours or the Hours of Joanna I of Castile we see a version of The Trinity in its barest essentials

The workshop of the Maximilian Master (active at Ghent c 1475 - 85)

The Trinity

From The Suffrage of the Saints in the London Rothschild Hours or the Hours of Joanna I of Castile 

Parchment

235 x 165 mm

f.210v, Add MS 35313

The British Library, London

The Trinity is One: one God in three persons

Each of them is God whole and entire but wholly distinct from one another

Each is in relation to each other

God is eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light as well as  Love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property. 

Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, "one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paras 232 - 267)

Miniatures of Pentecost

Jean Bourdichon (1457 - 1521)

Pentecost

c. 1490- c. 1500

From Book of Hours, Use of Tours

F 45v, Harley 2877

Illuminated manuscript

95 x 60 mm

The British Library, London

This Miniature of Pentecost by the great French artist Jean Bourdichon is  at the beginning of the Hours of the Holy Spirit. 

In the early 1480s, Jean Bourdichon succeeded Jean Fouquet as peintre du roi and valet de chambre. He  retained these positions under four successive French kings: Louis XI, Charles VIII, Louis XII, and François I.

This image is probably part of the Book of Hours commissioned for Louis XII (reigned 1498-1515) to celebrate the king’s coronation in 1498.

He employs dramatic close-ups with volumetric half-figures occupying the foreground

The inscription is: "Domine labia mea aperies Et os meum annunciabit laudem tuam." (Thou O Lord wilt open my lips And my mouth shall declare thy praise) (Psalm 51:15)

Mary is at the centre of the work. In the foreground are John and Peter

As to Pentecost we remember the words of Jesus before the Crucifixion as reported in John`s Gospel. He talked about the coming of the Advocate in Chapter 16

12 “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.

13 But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.

14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.

15 Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.

16 “A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.”

17 So some of his disciples said to one another, “What does this mean that he is saying to us, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”

18 So they said, “What is this ‘little while’ [of which he speaks]? We do not know what he means.”

19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing with one another what I said, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’?

20 Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.

21 When a woman is in labour, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

22 So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

23 On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.

24 Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete."

Miniature of the Pentecost

From The Augsburg Sacramentary

Harley 2908   f. 69v 

2nd or 3rd quarter of the 11th century

Parchment codex

210 x 165 mm

The British Library, London

The sacramentary was made for made for the cathedral church of St. Ulrich and Afra in Augsburg in the 11th century

We know that one of the illuminators of this work was a monk called Ulrich

The rest of his life is known only to God

The Miniatures reflect the important events of the Church`s  liturgical life: the Crucifixion, the Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds, the Holy Women at the Tomb, the Ascension, Pentecost, and the Assumption 

In Sacrosanctum Concilium (1963), we read:

"102. Holy Mother Church is conscious that she must celebrate the saving work of her divine Spouse by devoutly recalling it on certain days throughout the course of the year. Every week, on the day which she has called the Lord's day, she keeps the memory of the Lord's resurrection, which she also celebrates once in the year, together with His blessed passion, in the most solemn festival of Easter. 

Within the cycle of a year, moreover, she unfolds the whole mystery of Christ, from the incarnation and birth until the ascension, the day of Pentecost, and the expectation of blessed hope and of the coming of the Lord. 

Recalling thus the mysteries of redemption, the Church opens to the faithful the riches of her Lord's powers and merits, so that these are in some way made present for all time, and the faithful are enabled to lay hold upon them and become filled with saving grace."

In Select Questions on the Theology of the Redeemer (1995), the International Theological Commission wrote:

"5. Through the incarnation of the Word the Redeemer's uniqueness becomes discernible to us already in its redeeming force. In the paschal mystery the Redeemer has made salvation available to all: 

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (Jn 12:32). 

The gift of Pentecost enabled his apostles and disciples finally to recognize who and what Jesus was as in the fellowship of the Church—the teaching, the breaking of bread, the prayers (Acts 2:42)—they became aware of what Jesus had done for them, what he had taught and commanded. This is precisely the function of the Holy Spirit in Johannine theology (cf. Jn 16:13-15). 

6. Hence we as human beings can come to know who the Redeemer is, but only within the community of the Church and through it. Christ cannot be isolated from the Church"

Maître François (active 1462 - 1480)

Miniature of the Pentecost

f. 178v, Egerton 2045

From Hours, Use of Rome

c. 1460 - c. 1470

Parchment codex

45 x 25 mm

The British Library, London

Maître François is the soubriquet of an artist belonging to a workshop of Parisian illuminators whose primary artist  is designated as the Master of Jean Rolin

He depicts the attendees of the first Pentecost as clothed in white

In the account of Pentecost and its aftermath in Acts 2 we read that the Apostle Peter stood up with the eleven and proclaimed to the crowd. He called on them to repent and be baptised

Then they that received his word were baptised: and the same day there were added to their group about three thousand souls.

From the early days of Western Christianity, Pentecost became one of the days set aside to celebrate Baptism

The term Whit Sunday derives from the custom of the newly baptised wearing white clothing, and from the white vestments worn by the clergy in some jurisdictions

In International Theological Commission Theology Today: Perspectives, Principles and Criteria (2011) the Commission wrote:

"25. The Acts of the Apostles describes the life of the early Christian community in a way that is fundamental for the Church of all times: ‘They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers’ (Acts 2:42; cf. Rev 1:3). This succinct description, at the end of the account of the feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit opened the mouths of the apostles to preach and brought many of those who heard them to faith, highlights various essential aspects of the Spirit’s ongoing work in the Church. There is already an anticipatory outline of the Church’s teaching and sacramental life, of its spirituality and commitment to charity. All of these began in the apostolic community, and the handing on of this integral way of life in the Spirit is Apostolic Tradition. Lex orandi (the rule of prayer), lex credendi (the rule of belief) and lex vivendi (the rule of life) are all essential aspects of this Tradition. Paul refers to the Tradition into which as an apostle he has been incorporated when he speaks of ‘handing on’ what he himself ‘received’ (1Cor 15:1-11, cf. also 1 Cor 11:23-26)."

To finish  here is a rendition of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, O ignis Spiritus Paracliti

O ignis spiritus paracliti, / vita vite omnis creature, / sanctus es vivificando formas

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Andrea Previtali ( "il Cordeliaghi") (c. 1480  – 1528)

Pentecoste

1523 - 1525

Oil on canvas

145 cm x 206 cm

Accademia Carrara, Bergamo

This is one of the foundational works of the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo. 

It was in the possession of the founder. Carrara acquired it from a church in the small town of Alzano Lombardo, an ancient mountain town in the Valle Seriana

It came under the rule of Venice

It is a town crammed full of religious art but appears relatively unknown

Previtali was a pupil of Giovanni Bellini in Venice, and later on his return to Bergamo of Lorenzo Lotto in 1513–1525

This is a work of the mature artist

Like the Venetian and Bergamesque artists of his generation he makes real the entirely different orders of reality, one supernatural, the other earthly

The Holy Spirit  is not just a figment of religious imagination but a metaphysically real being who comes to those who earnestly pray

The Holy Spirit acts corporeally. He does not only act subjectively or "spiritually".

The setting is that mysterious Upper Room in Jerusalem: the setting of the Last Supper, the appearance of Christ to the Apostles after the Resurrection  and of the first Pentecost

Recently Pope Francis gave a homily in the Upper Room in that  Upper Room (Jerusalem) on Monday, 26 May 2014 during his visit to the Holy Land

He said:

"Here, where Jesus shared the Last Supper with the apostles; where, after his resurrection, he appeared in their midst; where the Holy Spirit descended with power upon Mary and the disciples, here the Church was born, and she was born to go forth. 

From here she set out, with the broken bread in her hands, the wounds of Christ before her eyes, and the Spirit of love in her heart. 

In the Upper Room, the risen Jesus, sent by the Father, bestowed upon the apostles his own Spirit and with his power he sent them forth to renew the face of the earth (cf. Ps 104:30)."

Previtali follows the tradition of Leonardo`s The Last Supper and of other artists in the Renaissance.

This is no first century Palestinian house. 

This is a contemporary 16th century Italian villa or palazzo built according to the principles of Classical architecture as rediscovered in the Italian Renaissance

Mary is the centre of the composition as Christ is the centre of the composition in The Last Supper. She stands on a golden pedestal surrounded by the Apostles

The two Apostles who flank her are Saints Peter and St John the Evangelist, the same two who were instructed by Jesus to find the Upper Room and make the preparations for The Last Supper

Rather incongruously is also depicted St Paul - who was of course not there at the first Pentecost

Perhaps not so incongruous

Saint John Paul II ended his homily in the Upper Room in Jerusalem (23 March 2000) thus:

"Celebrating this Eucharist in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, we are united with the Church of every time and place. 

United with the Head, we are in communion with Peter and the Apostles and their Successors down the ages. 

In union with Mary, the Saints and Martyrs, and all the baptized who have lived in the grace of the Holy Spirit, we cry out: Marana tha! “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Cf. Rev 22:17). Bring us, and all your chosen ones, to the fullness of grace in your eternal Kingdom. Amen."

And is St Paul not the author of one of the kerygma in Acts, one of the fruits of Pentecost ? (1 Corinthians 15) ?

The event depicted is described by Luke in Acts 2

"The Coming of the Spirit. 

1 When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.

2 And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.

3 Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.

4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim."

The Holy Father recently completed a series of catecheses on the gifts of the Holy Spirit

In the first, he said this about the Holy Spirit:

"You know that the Holy Spirit constitutes the soul, the life blood of the Church and of every individual Christian: 

He is the Love of God who makes of our hearts his dwelling place and enters into communion with us. The Holy Spirit abides with us always, he is always within us, in our hearts. 

The Spirit himself is “the gift of God” par excellence (cf. Jn 4:10), he is a gift of God, and he in turn communicates various spiritual gifts to those who receive him. 

The Church identifies seven, a number which symbolically speaks of fullness, completeness; they are those we learn about when we prepare for the Sacrament of Confirmation and which we invoke in the ancient prayer called the “Sequence of the Holy Spirit”. 

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord."

Wolsey`s Angels

Benedetto da Rovezzano (1474-1554)

Bronze candle-bearing angels

"The Wolsey Angels"

C. 1524-9

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is trying to raise £ 5 million to buy and keep together a set of 4 bronze angels called "The Wolsey Angels"

They were commissioned by Cardinal Wolsey as ornaments for his tomb

Wolsey (1473– 29 November 1530) statesman and Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor fell out of favour in 1530 and died shortly thereafter

His disgrace and downfall came because he could not secure a Papal divorce for his master

The angels never did adorn his tomb. 

He has no memorial and his efforts at securing eternal fame and remembrance were set at naught.

The bronze angels were then seized by Henry VIII for his tomb

The king`s own tomb was never completed and the angels were dispersed

Benedetto da Rovezzano was one of the greatest sculptors of his age

Most of his great remaining works can now only be seen in Tuscany and Rome

His sculptures are exquisite and his works were highly prized and in demand in his day

Tomb decoration seems to have been a lucrative source for commissions for Benedetto among the elite of his day in that perpetual and elusive desire for immortality after death

Often the commissioner was at the height of his power and on the way down such as his work for the tomb of Pier Soderini

St. Thomas More was also a servant and Lord Chancellor of King Henry VIII

But although he was the king's good servant, he was  God's better servant.  He was the king's good servant because he was God's better.

Bronze angels did not adorn his tomb either. His body and tomb were hidden

But he was a witness to the belief that all earthly power is ultimately from God, that his Kingdom is our first and lasting concern and that obedience to his laws is more important than any other obligation or loyalty.

By his death he earned the martyr`s crown, the reward of the Kingdom  and our undying admiration and remembrance.

The trial of St Thomas More for treason took place in Westminster Hall on July 1, 1535

Angels have decorated the ceiling of the Hall. They still do

Four hundred and seventy five years after the Trial, a German born Pope stood in the same Hall to deliver a lecture to the British Parliament. He said:

"As I speak to you in this historic setting, I think of the countless men and women down the centuries who have played their part in the momentous events that have taken place within these walls and have shaped the lives of many generations of Britons, and others besides. 

In particular, I recall the figure of Saint Thomas More, the great English scholar and statesman, who is admired by believers and non-believers alike for the integrity with which he followed his conscience, even at the cost of displeasing the sovereign whose “good servant” he was, because he chose to serve God first. 

The dilemma which faced More in those difficult times, the perennial question of the relationship between what is owed to Caesar and what is owed to God, allows me the opportunity to reflect with you briefly on the proper place of religious belief within the political process. ... 

And yet the fundamental questions at stake in Thomas More’s trial continue to present themselves in ever-changing terms as new social conditions emerge. 

Each generation, as it seeks to advance the common good, must ask anew: what are the requirements that governments may reasonably impose upon citizens, and how far do they extend? By appeal to what authority can moral dilemmas be resolved? 

These questions take us directly to the ethical foundations of civil discourse. If the moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus, then the fragility of the process becomes all too evident - herein lies the real challenge for democracy.... 

The angels looking down on us from the magnificent ceiling of this ancient Hall remind us of the long tradition from which British Parliamentary democracy has evolved. 

They remind us that God is constantly watching over us to guide and protect us. 

And they summon us to acknowledge the vital contribution that religious belief has made and can continue to make to the life of the nation."

Saint Boniface, the English Apostle

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833‑1898)

St Boniface

From Cartoons for a Window at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Speldhurst, Kent

1875

Charcoal and graphite on paper

731 x 400 mm

Tate Britain, London

This is one of the six British saints in a window in the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Speldhurst, Kent. 

The designs were executed in 1875 and the glass was in place the following year by  The Morris Company

The other saints were: St Alban, St Aidan, St Helena, St Oswold and St Walburga. 

It is conscious medievalism, Gothic. It attempts  to summon up a time that probably never existed. But it was and is an inspiration

Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich 1712 -1774

Saint Boniface Felling the Sacred Oak

Oil on canvas

74.4 x 104.5 cm

Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

The Christian saint and martyr Boniface was born Winifrid and probably in England

He was Archbishop of Mainz, 744-54. 

He was a Scholar and missionary among Germanic peoples, the "Apostle of the German peoples"

Martyred, he was buried at Fulda and is still widely venerated in Germany and Holland

According to the 8th century Vita Bonifatii auctore Willibaldi, Boniface felled the Donar Oak, ("Jupiter's oak" ) near the present-day town of Fritzlar in northern Hesse. 

Boniface started to chop the oak down, when suddenly a great wind blew the ancient oak over. 

When the pagan god did not strike him down, the people were amazed and converted to Christianity. 

He built a chapel dedicated to Saint Peter from its wood at the site. The chapel was the beginning of the monastery in Fritzlar.

Fritzlar was the birthplace of the German Empire which lasted from the 10th century until the Napoleonic Wars in the 19th century

In 1741 Dietrich was appointed court painter to Augustus III at Dresden (He was also King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1734 until 1763, as well as Elector of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire from 1733 until 1763)

Thus the painting depicting the Apostle of Germany has  more political meaning than religious

Edward Dujardin (1817 - 1889)

Saint Boniface kneeling on the ground being blessed by Saint Willibrord

1853

Pen lithograph

113 millimetres  x 83 millimetres

The British Museum, London

Edward Du Jardin was a Belgian painter based in Antwerp. He painted many religious works including Stations of the Cross

A political Flemish extremist, this work of his is religious and bears no political message

Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical Officio Sanctissimo (22nd December 1887) extolled St Boniface when talking about the Church in Bavaria thus:

" But he to whom beyond others praise is certainly due, in that he nourished and cherished the faith in Bavaria, is St. Boniface, the Archbishop of Mayence, who also is celebrated in an undying and most trustworthy account as the father of Christian Germany, its Apostle and Martyr.  

He fulfilled the office of legate to the Roman Pontiffs Gregory the Second and Third, and Zachary, in whose favour he stood high, and in their name and by their authority he divided the country of Bavaria into dioceses, and thus, having constituted a regular hierarchy, handed on the faith which had been planted there to future generations.  

St. Gregory II, writing to Boniface himself, says: 

"The field of the Lord, which was lying waste, and had grown unfruitful through infidelity with the thorns of thistles, being tilled by the ploughshare of Thy doctrine, has received the seed of the word and brought forth an abundant harvest of faithfulness." (Ep. xiii. ad Bonifacium - cfr. Labbeurm Collect. Conc. v., viii.) 

From that time the religion of the Bavarians remained safe and sure through all changes in civil affairs, although in course of time very sharply tried. For indeed there ensued those broils and contentions of the empire against the priesthood which were so bitter, enduring, and destructive; in these, however, there was more to rejoice than to sadden the Church in Bavaria."

These were words written just after Bismarck`s Kulturkampf

More recently on the 1250th anniversary of the Martyrdom of St Boniface, Saint John Paul II recalled in 2004 that

"St Boniface was discouraged neither by the difficulties caused by the obstacles he encountered nor by failure and defeats.  

He bequeathed to others for their guidance his own experience of life:   

"Let us stand firm in the fight on the day of the Lord, for days of affliction and misery are here.... We are not dogs that cannot speak, nor silent observers, nor mercenaries fleeing from wolves! Instead, we are hard-working Pastors who watch over Christ's flock, who proclaim God's will to people whether important or ordinary, rich or poor... in season and out of season" (Boniface to Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the year 747)."

Marcellinus and Peter, Martyrs

Master of the San Lucchese Altarpiece (Florentine, active mid 14th century)

A Martyrdom

c 1350

Tempera and gold on panel

18.6 x 29.6 cm

Scottish National Gallery, The Mound, Edinburgh

Monday is the memorial for the Roman Martyrs Saints Marcellinus and Peter who died AD 304

Marcellinus was a priest, and Peter an exorcist, both of the clergy of Rome

They perished in the persecution of Domitian

Their tomb was in the now named Catacombs of Saints Marcellino and Pietro Ad Duas Lauros (at the two laurel trees)

The Catacombs have just recently reopened after restoration

Here is a 12th century representation of the deaths of the martyrs by a Ad Duas Lauros, an illuminator

Fr. Ruffilus

The executions of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, Martyrs of Rome

Passio ss. Marcellini et Petri BHL 5231. >Incipit passio sanctorum martyrum Marcellini et Petri< Benignitas saluatoris nostri martyrum perseuerantia 

From The Lives of the Saints

In The Passionary of Weissenau made in the Premonstratensian monastery of Weissenau, Germany (Diocese of Constance)

12th century

Parchment

Cod. Bodmer 127, f 73

Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cologny

Their cult was among those martyrs whose cult was promoted by Passionary of Weissenau (366-84)

The pope composed an epigram or epitaph for their tomb in the Catacombs

"XXII. 

Marcelline tuos pariter Petre nosse triumphos 

percussor retulit Damaso mihi, cum puer essem. 

haec sibi carnificem rabidum mandata dedisse: 

sentibus in mediis vestra ut tunc colla secaret, 

ne tumulum vestrum quisquam cognoscere posset; 

vos alacres vestris manibus mundasse sepulcra 

candidule, occulto postquam iacuisse sub antro, 

postea commonitam vestra pietate Lucillam, 

hic placuisse magis sanctissima condere membra"

Of the martyrs Pope Benedict XVI once said of St Stephen protomartyr and the martyrs in general 16th December 2009

"The witness borne by Stephen, like that of the Christian martyrs, shows our contemporaries, who are often distracted and uncertain, in whom they should place their trust in order to give meaning to their lives. 

The martyr, in fact, is one who dies knowing with certainty that he is loved by God, who puts nothing before love of Christ, knowing that he has chosen the better part. 

The martyr is configured fully to the death of Christ, aware of being a fertile seed of life and of opening up paths of peace and hope in the world"