The Beheading of John the Baptist in Tradition and Legend [REPOST]

(Andrea Solario)

From the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia:

The honour paid so early and in so many places to the relics of St. John the Baptist, the zeal with which many churches have maintained at all times their ill-founded claims to some of his relics, the numberless churches, abbeys, towns, and religious families placed under his patronage, the frequency of his name among Christian people, all attest the antiquity and widespread diffusion of the devotion to the Precursor. The commemoration of his Nativity is one of the oldest feasts, if not the oldest feast, introduced into both the Greek and Latin liturgies to honour a saint.... The celebration of the Decollation [Beheading] of John the Baptist, on 29 August, enjoys almost the same antiquity. (Charles Souvay)

Becoming of one of the greatest saints, the recipient of protodulia, John’s feasts are ancient and multiple. In older martyrologies, the Conception of the Forerunner is feasted on September 24 (the 23rd in the East). His Nativity is of course celebrated nine months later at Midsummer, June 24. The Orthodox also have more Johannine feasts for the transferring of various relics.

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St. Mark’s Gospel, strangely, has the longer account of St. John’s death:

Herod himself had sent and arrested John and put him in prison, in chains, for love of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married; because John had told Herod, “It is wrong for thee to take thy brother’s wife.” Herodias was always plotting against him, and would willingly have murdered him, but could not, because Herod was afraid of John, recognizing him for an upright and holy man; so that he kept him carefully, and followed his advice in many things, and was glad to listen to him.

And now came a fitting occasion, upon which Herod gave a birthday feast to his lords and officers, and to the chief men of Galilee. Herodias’ own daughter came in and danced, and gave such pleasure to Herod and his guests that the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever thou wilt, and thou shalt have it;” he even bound himself by an oath, “I will grant whatever request thou makest, though it were a half of my kingdom.” Thereupon she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” And she answered, “The head of John the Baptist.” With that, she hastened into the king’s presence and made her request; “My will is, she said, that thou shouldst give me the head of John the Baptist; give it me now, on a dish.” 

And the king was full of remorse, but out of respect to his oath and to those who sat with him at table, he would not disappoint her. So he sent one of his guard with orders that the head should be brought on a dish. This soldier cut off his head in the prison, and brought it on a dish, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. When John’s disciples heard of it, they came and carried off his body, and laid it in a tomb. (Knox trans.)

(Gustave Moreau)

The Golden Legend speaks of the divine retribution wrought by the head of John the Baptist:

And in like wise as Herod was punished that beheaded Saint John, and Julian the apostate that burnt his bones, so was Herodias which counselled her daughter to demand the head of Saint John. And the maid that required it died right ungraciously and evil, and some say that Herodias was condemned in exile, but she was not, ne she died not there, but when she held the head between her hands she was much joyful, but by the will of God the head blew in her visage, and she died forthwith. This is said of some, but that which is said tofore, that she was sent in exile with Herod, and miserably ended her life, thus say saints in their chronicles and it is to be holden. And as her daughter went upon the water she was drowned anon, and it is said in another chronicle that the earth swallowed her in, all quick, and may be understood as of the Egyptians that were drowned in the Red Sea, so the earth devoured her.

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There are multiple claimants to the relic of John’s skull, including San Silvestro in Rome (photographed above). The full collection of these skulls might fill a small closet shelf. The Legend again has many stories about the miraculous head throughout the ages. His bones were desecrated and burned by Julian the Apostate, but multiple pieces have survived to the modern day.

Mary, Quite Contrary [Repost]

[Unfortunately I have not had the leisure to study more deeply into the cult of the "Apostle to the Apostles" since writing this short overview last year. The uncertainty surrounding her identity—is St. Mary Magdalene the sister of Sts. Martha and Lazarus or another woman altogether?—does lead to devotional difficulties, not to mention minor ecumenical hardships. I tend to side with the Roman tradition on this matter, as on many others, but not nearly with the level of certainty I give to "Old" St. Joseph. The academic study of hagiography too quickly splits into schools of skepticism (the majority) and credulity (the clear but vocal minority), and Catholic intellectuals rarely approach these subjects with both thoughtfulness and reverence.]

The Quasi-Assumption of Mary (Giotto)

Last month Pope Francis promoted the commemoration of St. Mary Magdalen in the new kalendar to a feast, prompting a small flurry of discussion about the true identity of the Apostolorum Apostola. The western conflation of Magdalen with the sister of St. Martha has a long and noble tradition dating back at least to Pope Gregory the Dialogist, but in the east the Orthodox have long considered them to be distinct persons.

After finishing my Josephology series, I had considered writing a short series on the history of Mary Magdalen in liturgical history, but most of the books on the subject were written either from a neo-Gnostic or an egregiously feminist philosophical base. The few Orthodox sources I could find were polemically anti-occidental, so finding a sober consideration of this great saint was next to impossible. (Honestly, is it really so difficult to think that a woman from whom was cast seven devils might have been a great sinner?)

Personally, I find the scriptural argument for conflating the two Marys and the female “sinner” reasonable if not absolutely compelling. It would be strange if the women Luke and John describe as having anointed the feet of Christ with their hair were two separate people, and John’s Gospel suggests that Mary of Bethany indeed anointed his feet twice. “Mary who is called Magdalen” is named just after Luke’s narrative of the penitent prostitute, suggesting but not necessitating a connection. But it is reasonable that the Mary who had anointed Christ’s feet in preparation for his burial would also be the one to go out to the Holy Sepulchre to anoint his dead body.

Hugh Pope constructs this possible sequence of events for the “conflated” penitent and Marys:

In the view we have advocated the series of events forms a consistent whole; the “sinner” comes early in the ministry to seek for pardon; she is described immediately afterwards as Mary Magdalen “out of whom seven devils were gone forth”; shortly after, we find her “sitting at the Lord’s feet and hearing His words.” To the Catholic mind it all seems fitting and natural. At a later period Mary and Martha turn to “the Christ, the Son of the Living God”, and He restores to them their brother Lazarus; a short time afterwards they make Him a supper and Mary once more repeats the act she had performed when a penitent. At the Passion she stands near by; she sees Him laid in the tomb; and she is the first witness of His Resurrection—excepting always His Mother, to whom He must needs have appeared first, though the New Testament is silent on this point. In our view, then, there were two anointings of Christ’s feet—it should surely be no difficulty that St. Matthew and St. Mark speak of His head—the first (Luke 7) took place at a comparatively early date; the second, two days before the last Passover. But it was one and the same woman who performed this pious act on each occasion.

The Protestant separation of the Marys was not ubiquitous even among the heretics. Although John Calvin explicitly separated Mary of Bethany from Mary Magdalen in his Gospel commentaries, the Lutheran and Anglican sects retained the Gregorian hagiographical tradition.

I cannot agree with Fr. Erlenbush that the Latin tradition and the common post-Gregorian papal opinion of Marian conflation easily proves the Roman martyrology correct, as if the eastern tradition was not worthy of account. Perhaps someday a future Council will consider this topic worthy of dogmatic clarification, but for now we must live with some measure of uncertainty.

The Greeks say that the Myrrh-Bearer Magdalen lived with St. John and the Blessed Virgin in Ephesus for many years until her death. The Latin tradition has her being cast into the sea on a small boat with Martha and Lazarus until their ship found the coasts of France. From there, Mary made her retirement as a hermit until her death. The medieval Golden Legend describes her desert life:

In this meanwhile the blessed Mary Magdalene, desirous of sovereign contemplation, sought a right sharp desert, and took a place which was ordained by the angel of God, and abode there by the space of thirty years without knowledge of anybody. In which place she had no comfort of running water, nor solace of trees, nor of herbs. And that was because our Redeemer did do show it openly, that he had ordained for her refection celestial, and no bodily meats. And every day at every hour canonical she was lifted up in the air of angels, and heard the glorious song of the heavenly companies with her bodily ears. Of which she was fed and filled with right sweet meats, and then was brought again by the angels unto her proper place, in such wise as she had no need of corporal nourishing.

The head of Mary Magdalen is believed to be held in La Sainte-Baume, in the south of France.

Mary Magdalen, feminist icon, pray for us!

St. Gengulphus: Martyr for Marriage

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The cultus of St. Gengulphus (†AD 760) does not appear to have ever been especially large. He was one of the rare "secular" saints of the first millennium, being neither a cleric nor a religious, but rather a martyr of sorts. He lived in Burgundy, and many churches in France still bear his name (or some variant thereof), as do some German churches.

His hagiography is miraculous from its first recounting, and serves as an interesting counterpoint to later women saints who suffered greatly under their wicked husbands. Gengulphus suffered the indignity of a straying wife, who began an adulterous affair with a clerk of some unknown rank while her husband was away from home. When the nobleman was finally convinced of his wife's unfaithfulness, he advised her to repent and himself retired to a distant estate, rather than punish her. The two adulterers feared for their safety and plotted to kill the saintly husband, and one night the clerk slipped into his bedroom and dealt him a mortal blow. After returning to his mistress, the clerk quickly died in the manner of Arius and the wife was ironically cursed after replying to news of miracles performed at her husband's grave with, "If Gengulph can work miracles, then so can my arse." One day a week for the rest of her life, an ignoble sound erupted constantly from the part of the body she thus indicated.

The story of St. Gengulphus was not popular enough to warrant inclusion in the Golden Legend, and his mention in the martyrology of the Roman Breviary for May 11 is terse: Varennis, in Gallia, sancti Gangulphi Martyris. Nevertheless, many of his relics can still be found in the areas surrounding his original cult, as can the aforementioned churches named in his honor.

Some later legends claim that Gengulphus had retired from married life to become a hermit, but there is no such indication in the earliest hagiographies. He never divorced his wife nor sought to annul his marriage. In many ways he is the kind of saint needed in our troubles times. The culture of divorce and "easy outs" from bad marriages has permeated the Church herself. Gengulphus suffered greatly from a bad spouse, but did not use this injustice as an excuse to commit sin.

St. Nicholas the Kind-Hearted

(Gentile da Fabriano)

Nicholas, bishop of Myra, is one of the few saints revered by Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants, even those of the Evangelical variety. The story of his physical altercation with the arch-heretic Arius at the council of Nice has revived his popularity in recent years, even though earlier times focused on the greatness of his generosity and kind-heartedness for the downtrodden. The story of him redeeming three young sisters from the slavery of prostitution is retold in the Golden Legend thusly:

And it was so that one, his neighbour, had then three daughters, virgins, and he was a nobleman: but for the poverty of them together, they were constrained, and in very purpose to abandon them to the sin of lechery, so that by the gain and winning of their infamy they might be sustained. And when the holy man Nicholas knew hereof he had great horror of this villainy, and threw by night secretly into the house of the man a mass of gold wrapped in a cloth. And when the man arose in the morning, he found this mass of gold, and rendered to God therefor great thankings, and therewith he married his oldest daughter. And a little while after this holy servant of God threw in another mass of gold, which the man found, and thanked God, and purposed to wake, for to know him that so had aided him in his poverty. And after a few days Nicholas doubled the mass of gold, and cast it into the house of this man. He awoke by the sound of the gold, and followed Nicholas, which fled from him, and he said to him: “Sir, flee not away so but that I may see and know thee.” Then he ran after him more hastily, and knew that it was Nicholas; and anon he kneeled down, and would have kissed his feet, but the holy man would not, but required him not to tell nor discover this thing as long as he lived.

The holy bishop was also known for having raised to life three boys who had been butchered by an evil man and placed in a barrel. He also was said to have calmed a tempest at sea when asked to do so by troubled mariners, and has since been invoked against storms at sea. He accepted the bishopric of Myra only under the greatest protest, and the Legend briefly describes his character as bishop: "He woke in prayer and made his body lean, he eschewed company of women, he was humble in receiving all things, profitable in speaking, joyous in admonishing, and cruel in correcting."

One of the oriental akathist hymns declares his glory:

Through power given thee from on high
thou didst wipe away every tear from the face of those in cruel suffering,
O God-bearing Father Nicholas;
for thou wast shown to be a feeder of the hungry,
a superb pilot of those on the high seas,
a healer of the ailing,
and thou hast proved to be a helper to all that cry unto God:
Alleluia!

The popularizing of the holy bishop into various folk figures—Sinterklaas, Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, Father Frost, and so on—are fascinating in their own right, but clearly have little to do with the man himself. This writer is more forgiving of the folk appropriation of the saint than of the appropriations of corporations and governments (Coca-Cola's chubby cookie-eater and the Soviet Union's push of Ded Moroz as a non-religious winter figure come to mind). The revival of Santa Claus's dark mirror figure of Krampus in modern pop culture is also fascinating, but probably not indicative of a healthy folk revival.

The revival of St. Nicholas as a hammer of heretics is a good sign, even if it does tend to overlook his other fatherly qualities. We should only be so lucky as to deserve a bishop as great as Nicholas, today.

St. Nicholas, all-luminous lamp, beloved of all, pray for us!

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St. Joachim in Tradition and Art

Ambrosius Benson, 1530

In spite of his common popularity throughout the ages of Christendom, St. Joachim did not receive a general feast in the Roman Rite until the 1500s, when it was assigned to March 20 by P. Julius II. Previously it had been celebrated in various places on September 16 and December 9. In 1793, the feast was moved to the Sunday after the Assumption by P. Clement XII, then to August 16 by P. Pius X. Under the 1969 kalendar overhaul, Joachim's feast was merged with Anne's for a unified July 26 feast (the day of her dormition), but Catholics celebrating the Old Latin Mass will be venerating the grandfather of God today.

The name and story of Joachim are known to us primarily through the Proto-Gospel of James, a work much despised by hagiographical iconoclasts, and by St. Jerome. Some biblical commentators have discerned a mention of Joachim in the Heli of St. Luke's Gospel (via the variant Eliachim), although this is far from certain. His name is shared with the wicked Jehoiakim (Joakim), one of the last kings of Judah before the Babylonian captivity.

Albrecht Dürer, 1504

The Proto-Gospel portrays Joachim as a man wealthy in all things but children. Grieved by this lack, and shamed by his fellow countrymen, he impulsively retires into the desert with his flocks to fast for forty days. His wife Anne also prays and mourns, thinking herself a widow. When an angel finally appears to them both and promises them a great progeny, they meet at the city. "Anna stood by the gate, and saw Joachim coming, and she ran and hung upon his neck," writes Pseudo-James. This scene became a popular trope in art and iconography: Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate. Some commentators, like St. John Damascene, argued that the conception of the Blessed Virgin was effected without a hint of sexual concupiscence, but the amorous entanglements of the art argued otherwise.

Joachim and Anne's house in Jerusalem was converted into a church known as St. Anne's or the Holy Probatica, probably by St. Helena. In the ninth century it was converted into an Islamic school, but the crypt below was permitted to remain as a pilgrimage site by the Muslims. Pilgrims were forced to slide down a small chute in order to visit the crypt.

From the readings of Mattins, a selection from the sermon of St. Epiphanius:

These three, Joachim, Anne, and Mary, clearly offered up unto the Trinity a sacrifice of praise. For the name Joachim being interpreted, signifieth "the preparation of the Lord", and out of him was prepared the Temple of the Lord, namely, the Virgin. The name Anne signifieth grace, and she and Joachim did indeed receive a grace when, in answer to their prayers, they generated such an offspring, compassing the Holy Virgin. Joachim prayed upon the mountain and Anne in her garden.

Konrad Witz, 1435

Mary, Quite Contrary

The Quasi-Assumption of Mary (Giotto)

Last month Pope Francis promoted the commemoration of St. Mary Magdalen in the new kalendar to a feast, prompting a small flurry of discussion about the true identity of the Apostolorum Apostola. The western conflation of Magdalen with the sister of St. Martha has a long and noble tradition dating back at least to Pope Gregory the Dialogist, but in the east the Orthodox have long considered them to be distinct persons.

After finishing my Josephology series, I had considered writing a short series on the history of Mary Magdalen in liturgical history, but most of the books on the subject were written either from a neo-Gnostic or an egregiously feminist philosophical base. The few Orthodox sources I could find were polemically anti-occidental, so finding a sober consideration of this great saint was next to impossible. (Honestly, is it really so difficult to think that a woman from whom was cast seven devils might have been a great sinner?)

Personally, I find the scriptural argument for conflating the two Marys and the female “sinner” reasonable if not absolutely compelling. It would be strange if the women Luke and John describe as having anointed the feet of Christ with their hair were two separate people, and John’s Gospel suggests that Mary of Bethany indeed anointed his feet twice. “Mary who is called Magdalen” is named just after Luke’s narrative of the penitent prostitute, suggesting but not necessitating a connection. But it is reasonable that the Mary who had anointed Christ’s feet in preparation for his burial would also be the one to go out to the Holy Sepulchre to anoint his dead body.

Hugh Pope constructs this possible sequence of events for the “conflated” penitent and Marys:

In the view we have advocated the series of events forms a consistent whole; the “sinner” comes early in the ministry to seek for pardon; she is described immediately afterwards as Mary Magdalen “out of whom seven devils were gone forth”; shortly after, we find her “sitting at the Lord’s feet and hearing His words.” To the Catholic mind it all seems fitting and natural. At a later period Mary and Martha turn to “the Christ, the Son of the Living God”, and He restores to them their brother Lazarus; a short time afterwards they make Him a supper and Mary once more repeats the act she had performed when a penitent. At the Passion she stands near by; she sees Him laid in the tomb; and she is the first witness of His Resurrection—excepting always His Mother, to whom He must needs have appeared first, though the New Testament is silent on this point. In our view, then, there were two anointings of Christ’s feet—it should surely be no difficulty that St. Matthew and St. Mark speak of His head—the first (Luke 7) took place at a comparatively early date; the second, two days before the last Passover. But it was one and the same woman who performed this pious act on each occasion.

The Protestant separation of the Marys was not ubiquitous even among the heretics. Although John Calvin explicitly separated Mary of Bethany from Mary Magdalen in his Gospel commentaries, the Lutheran and Anglican sects retained the Gregorian hagiographical tradition.

I cannot agree with Fr. Erlenbush that the Latin tradition and the common post-Gregorian papal opinion of Marian conflation easily proves the Roman martyrology correct, as if the eastern tradition was not worthy of account. Perhaps someday a future Council will consider this topic worthy of dogmatic clarification, but for now we must live with some measure of uncertainty.

The Greeks say that the Myrrh-Bearer Magdalen lived with St. John and the Blessed Virgin in Ephesus for many years until her death. The Latin tradition has her being cast into the sea on a small boat with Martha and Lazarus until their ship found the coasts of France. From there, Mary made her retirement as a hermit until her death. The medieval Golden Legend describes her desert life:

In this meanwhile the blessed Mary Magdalene, desirous of sovereign contemplation, sought a right sharp desert, and took a place which was ordained by the angel of God, and abode there by the space of thirty years without knowledge of anybody. In which place she had no comfort of running water, nor solace of trees, nor of herbs. And that was because our Redeemer did do show it openly, that he had ordained for her refection celestial, and no bodily meats. And every day at every hour canonical she was lifted up in the air of angels, and heard the glorious song of the heavenly companies with her bodily ears. Of which she was fed and filled with right sweet meats, and then was brought again by the angels unto her proper place, in such wise as she had no need of corporal nourishing.

The head of Mary Magdalen is believed to be held in La Sainte-Baume, in the south of France.

Mary Magdalen, feminist icon, pray for us!

St. Agnes in Flames

(Ercole Ferrata)

From the Golden Legend:

Then the bishops of the idols made a great discord among the people, so that all they cried: "Take away this sorceress and witch that turned men’s minds and alieneth their wits." When the provost saw these marvels he would gladly have delivered Saint Agnes because she had raised his son, but he doubted to be banished, and set in his place a lieutenant named Aspasius for to satisfy the people, and because he could not deliver her he departed sorrowfully. This Aspasius did make a great fire among all the people and did cast Saint Agnes therein.

Anon as this was done the flame departed in two parts, and burnt them that made the discords, and she abode all whole without feeling the fire. The people weened that she had done all by enchantment. Then made Saint Agnes her orison to God thanking him that she was escaped from the peril to lose her virginity, and also from the burning of the flame. And when she had made her orison the fire lost all his heat, and quenched it. Aspasius, for the doubtance of the people, commanded to put a sword in her body, and so she was martyred.

Anon came the Christian men and the parents of Saint Agnes and buried the body, but the heathen defended it, and cast so stones at them, that scarcely they escaped.

The Resting Place of Sts. Simon and Jude

The relics of Sts. Simon and Jude are buried in St. Peter's Basilica, in the Left Transept beneath the Altar of St. Joseph. They were moved here from the old Basilica in 1605 by P. Paul V.

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The new artwork over the altar was commissioned by P. John XXIII. A 1961 painting of St. Joseph by the Cubo-Futurist Achille Funi was converted into the full-size mosaic installed in 1963. Prior to that, the altar had been decorated with a mosaic copy of Guido Reni's "Crucifixion of St. Peter" since 1822. This itself had replaced a 1630 painting of Sts. Simon and Jude by Agostino Ciampelli.

The two Apostles are now reduced to mosaic ovals on either side of the altar. While the new artwork is generally considered to be a failure, there is some pleasure in seeing Joseph installed over two of his sons.

The saints' porphyry sarcophagus, taken from the mausoleum of Santa Costanza in 1606.

The apostolic relics have presumably resided in Rome since the early centuries of the Church, having been translated from Syria as fellow-martyrs, and their bones commingled within their tomb. St. Jude is usually depicted with an axe or sword, and St. Simon with a saw—the instruments of their deaths.

Their entry in the Golden Legend is quite detailed.

For more about the liturgical and devotional celebrations of Sts. Simon and Jude, see His Traddiness' short post on the matter.

Josephology Part 15: A Proposed Hagiography

(Poussay Gospel Book)

Joseph of Nazareth matters because he was a great saint. As the Virgin’s Betrothed, and as one who lived at least a couple of decades in the immediate presence of the Incarnate Word, it is implausible that Joseph did not finally die as a holy and contemplative man. Since St. Joseph has been named Patron of the Universal Church, and since recent popes have called for a greater devotion to Joseph, let me propose a hagiographical alternative to the more common Josephite ways of thinking about his life.

The Life of Joseph

Born into the lineage of David, but one of a large and poor clan, Joseph’s royal heritage offered him little but a memory of Israel’s lost greatness. (I offer no solution here to the question of whether the lineages listed by Sts. Matthew and Luke are Joseph’s or Mary’s; even the Fathers could not decide on that.) He was a man of humble means, and had to work as a carpenter and builder for a living. His artisanship may not have been magnificent, but it was sturdy and solid.

He married at the normal age for a Jew of the time, and fathered a reasonably-sized family. He was a pious man, keeping all the Hebrew holy days, praying the psalms, and studying the Law as much as his state in life allowed. He was a just man, not known for dealing poorly with his neighbors or his patrons. His wife—possibly named Melcha, Escha, or Salome—died only after bearing him sons and daughters, maybe even after they had grown and married, themselves.

As he grew older and watched his family increase, he anticipated a venerable old age. As the Proverbs say, “Youth has strong arms to boast of, old age white hairs for a crown.” His sons gradually took over the family trade, with Joseph a frequent presence as mentor and occasional worker. He taught his sons how to deal justly in their business and in their family life.

And then one day he was called to Jerusalem with his unmarried kinsmen for some confused purpose. Suddenly the priest began casting lots, Joseph’s staff miraculously produced a dove, and he found himself as the caretaker of a young Temple virgin.

Much to his chagrin and to the chuckles of his kinsmen, he brought the girl and her companions home to Nazareth. He left her there while he went to oversee a building project, and returned to find her pregnant with a strange story about an angelic visitation. Perhaps he had heard rumor of the angel who came to visit the priest Zachary concerning his own aged wife’s miraculous pregnancy. He did not wish to think poorly of the girl, but still found her story hard to believe, and began weighing his options. Before he could decide on a quiet divorce, the angel appeared to him in a dream and told him that the Child was of God.

Suddenly he began living in a whirlwind of activity with which he could scarcely keep pace. He had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, from there to Egypt, and finally back to Nazareth. During those travels he witnessed numerous miracles of all kinds, and met men from many nations and walks of life. By the time he returned home with his young wife and her toddling Son, he had seen wonders beyond those shown to the greatest of prophets.

Then, there were the quiet years in which he returned to his life of work and prayer, perhaps still mentoring his sons and his grandsons in their carpentry. The Incarnate Word came along to the family carpentry shop and was the cause of some wonder to the rest of the clan—this strange young Boy who had vanished with Old Joseph for a few years into the south amid stories of Herodian terrors. Perhaps one day James Bar-Joseph was indeed healed from a viper’s attack by the Christ Child while working amongst the builders.

The enigmatic episode at the Boy’s twelfth Passover reminded Joseph that Jesus was destined for a messianic role, and perhaps he wondered if he would live to see its fruition. As Jesus matured into manhood, Joseph grew ill and felt death approaching. Confessing his sins to the Man all others believed to be his son, and begging the forgiveness of the wife whom he had doubted, he was given the grace to pass out of this life in the presence of the New Adam and the New Eve, the first-fruits of their spiritual union. His soul was carried by the Archangel Michael, guardian of Israel, to the limbus patrum.

Such was the life of old St. Joseph.

Symbolism & Typology

Joseph was in a sense the last patriarch—that most Hebrew of roles—and symbolized the bridge between the Old Covenant and the New. He lived almost uniquely through two eras, and served as a patriarch in the old sense (by the fathering of children) and in the new (by celibate spiritual fatherhood). He was both a sinner and a just man; even the just man falls seven times only to rise again.

The dream of the ancient Joseph might also be seen as a prophecy of the latter Joseph’s role: “In this dream of mine it seemed to me that the sun and the moon and eleven stars did reverence to me” (Gen. 37). The cosmic parallels to the Woman Clothed with the Sun are hard to ignore: “A woman that wore the sun for her mantle, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars about her head” (Apoc. 12). One also wonders about her wings—“there were given to the woman two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the desert”—and whether the assistance of St. Joseph during the Flight into Egypt might not here be figured.

As Israel of old confused his son Joseph by blessing the older Manasses with his left hand and the younger Ephraim with his right, so did the youngest “son” of the new Joseph exceed the elder brethren in blessing: “But this younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall grow into nations” (Gen. 48).

Just as Joshua (Jesus) of old escorted the bones of Joseph into Shechem of the Promised Land, so did the new Joshua escort the soul of his foster-father into Paradise along with the long train of blessed souls at the Ascension.

Iconographically, Joseph is most properly depicted with a pair of doves or a flowering staff rather than a carpentry square. Usually he is shown with Mary and the Christ Child, but physically distanced from her to symbolize their chaste relationship. Common themes are the Nativity, the Presentation, the Dream, and the Flight into Egypt.

Next time, we finally conclude our series on St. Joseph.

St. Joseph, dreamer of dreams, pray for us!

The Beheading of John the Baptist in Tradition and Legend

(Andrea Solario)

From the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia:

The honour paid so early and in so many places to the relics of St. John the Baptist, the zeal with which many churches have maintained at all times their ill-founded claims to some of his relics, the numberless churches, abbeys, towns, and religious families placed under his patronage, the frequency of his name among Christian people, all attest the antiquity and widespread diffusion of the devotion to the Precursor. The commemoration of his Nativity is one of the oldest feasts, if not the oldest feast, introduced into both the Greek and Latin liturgies to honour a saint.... The celebration of the Decollation [Beheading] of John the Baptist, on 29 August, enjoys almost the same antiquity. (Charles Souvay)

Becoming of one of the greatest saints, the recipient of protodulia, John’s feasts are ancient and multiple. In older martyrologies, the Conception of the Forerunner is feasted on September 24 (the 23rd in the East). His Nativity is of course celebrated nine months later at Midsummer, June 24. The Orthodox also have more Johannine feasts for the transferring of various relics.

(source)

St. Mark’s Gospel, strangely, has the longer account of St. John’s death:

Herod himself had sent and arrested John and put him in prison, in chains, for love of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married; because John had told Herod, “It is wrong for thee to take thy brother’s wife.” Herodias was always plotting against him, and would willingly have murdered him, but could not, because Herod was afraid of John, recognizing him for an upright and holy man; so that he kept him carefully, and followed his advice in many things, and was glad to listen to him.

And now came a fitting occasion, upon which Herod gave a birthday feast to his lords and officers, and to the chief men of Galilee. Herodias’ own daughter came in and danced, and gave such pleasure to Herod and his guests that the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever thou wilt, and thou shalt have it;” he even bound himself by an oath, “I will grant whatever request thou makest, though it were a half of my kingdom.” Thereupon she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” And she answered, “The head of John the Baptist.” With that, she hastened into the king’s presence and made her request; “My will is, she said, that thou shouldst give me the head of John the Baptist; give it me now, on a dish.” 

And the king was full of remorse, but out of respect to his oath and to those who sat with him at table, he would not disappoint her. So he sent one of his guard with orders that the head should be brought on a dish. This soldier cut off his head in the prison, and brought it on a dish, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. When John’s disciples heard of it, they came and carried off his body, and laid it in a tomb. (Knox trans.)

(Gustave Moreau)

The Golden Legend speaks of the divine retribution wrought by the head of John the Baptist:

And in like wise as Herod was punished that beheaded Saint John, and Julian the apostate that burnt his bones, so was Herodias which counselled her daughter to demand the head of Saint John. And the maid that required it died right ungraciously and evil, and some say that Herodias was condemned in exile, but she was not, ne she died not there, but when she held the head between her hands she was much joyful, but by the will of God the head blew in her visage, and she died forthwith. This is said of some, but that which is said tofore, that she was sent in exile with Herod, and miserably ended her life, thus say saints in their chronicles and it is to be holden. And as her daughter went upon the water she was drowned anon, and it is said in another chronicle that the earth swallowed her in, all quick, and may be understood as of the Egyptians that were drowned in the Red Sea, so the earth devoured her.

(source)

There are multiple claimants to the relic of John’s skull, including San Silvestro in Rome (photographed above). The full collection of these skulls might fill a small closet shelf. The Legend again has many stories about the miraculous head throughout the ages. His bones were desecrated and burned by Julian the Apostate, but multiple pieces have survived to the modern day.

St. Martha in Tradition

Last Wednesday marked the feast of St. Mary Magdalen the Penitent. Today is her sister Martha’s feast day, the woman known by most only for asking her apparently lazy sister to help her prepare a meal. A selection from the medieval Golden Legend of Bl. Jacobus de Voragine is in order for presenting a fuller picture of this saint.

Saint Martha, hostess of our Lord Jesu Christ, was born of a royal kindred. Her father was named Syro and her mother Encharia. The father of her was duke of Syria and places maritime, and Martha with her sister possessed by the heritage of their mother three places, that was, the castle Magdalen, and Bethany and a part of Jerusalem. It is nowhere read that Martha had ever any husband ne fellowship of man, but she as a noble hostess ministered and served our Lord, and would also that her sister should serve him and help her, for she thought that all the world was not sufficient to serve such a guest. After the ascension of our Lord, when the disciples were departed, she with her brother Lazarus and her sister Mary, also Saint Maximin which baptized them, and to whom they were committed of the Holy Ghost, and many others, were put into a ship without sail, oars, or rudder governail, of the paynims, which by the conduct of our Lord they came all to Marseilles, and after came to the territory of Aquense or Aix, and there converted the people to the faith. Martha was right facound of speech, and courteous and gracious to the sight of the people.

Lesser known in our age is the story of how St. Martha destroyed a dragon that was afflicting the French people:

There was that time upon the river of Rhone, in a certain wood between Arles and Avignon, a great dragon, half beast and half fish, greater than an ox, longer than an horse, having teeth sharp as a sword, and horned on either side, head like a lion, tail like a serpent, and defended him with two wings on either side, and could not be beaten with cast of stones ne with other armour, and was as strong as twelve lions or bears; which dragon lay hiding and lurking in the river, and perished them that passed by and drowned ships. He came thither by sea from Galicia, and was engendered of Leviathan, which is a serpent of the water and is much wood, and of a beast called Bonacho, that is engendered in Galicia. And when he is pursued he casts out of his belly behind, his ordure, the space of an acre of land on them that follow him, and it is bright as glass, and what it toucheth it burneth as fire. To whom Martha, at the prayer of the people, came into the wood, and found him eating a man. And she cast on him holy water, and showed to him the cross, which anon was overcome, and standing still as a sheep, she bound him with her own girdle, and then was slain with spears and glaives of the people. The dragon was called of them that dwelled in the country Tarasconus, whereof, in remembrance of him that place is called Tarasconus, which tofore was called Nerluc, and the Black Lake, because there be woods shadowous and black.

St. Martha, industrious housekeeper, traveler by sea, converter of the French, and destroyer of evil serpents, pray for us!