The Gender of the Church: the Female Image of Ecclesia in the Middle Ages
| Autor: | Jo Spreadbury |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1998 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Studies in Church History. 34:93-103 |
| ISSN: | 2059-0644 0424-2084 |
| Popis: | In a famous eucharistic vision, recorded in the Scivias, Hildegard of Bingen saw what she calls the ‘image of a woman’ (‘muliebris imago’) approaching the Cross so that she was sprinkled by the blood from Christ’s side. In the Eibingen miniature which accompanies this vision, the woman is shown not only sprinkled with Christ’s blood but catching it in a chalice. Below the Cross an altar bearing a chalice is shown and the same woman stands beside it, her arms outstretched in prayer. Hildegard says in the text that the woman ‘frequently approached’ the altar and there ‘devotedly offers her dowry, which is the body and blood of the Son of God’. The illustration shows nothing of the vested priest who is described in the text approaching the altar after the woman to celebrate the divine mysteries; but it appears that the woman herself is celebrating the mysteries of Christ’s passion which are recalled in the Eucharist and pictured around the altar. The interpretation of this vision says that the woman is Ecclesia, the Church, the Bride of Christ. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|