Illustrating Miracles: The Hole in the Roof

Master of the Registrum Gregorii, Jesus Heals the Paralytic
From the Codex Egberti
German (Reichenau), c. 977-993.
Trier, Stadtbibliothek
MS StB Hs 24, Unknown folio

“When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days,

it became known that he was at home.
Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them,
not even around the door,
and he preached the word to them.
They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd,
they opened up the roof above him.
After they had broken through,
they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,
"Child, your sins are forgiven."
Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,
"Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming.
Who but God alone can forgive sins?"
Jesus immediately knew in his mind
what they were thinking to themselves,
so he said, "Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic,
'Your sins are forgiven,'
or to say, 'Rise, pick up your mat and walk?'
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth"
-he said to the paralytic,
"I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home."
He rose, picked up his mat at once,
and went away in the sight of everyone.
They were all astounded
and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."

Mark 2:1-12

Gospel for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B*

When I was a small child, somewhere around age 4 or 5, my then parish church, located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, sponsored a campaign to encourage parishioners to read the Bible. As part of that campaign, several Douay-Rheims translations of the Bible,1 in various price ranges, were made available. My parents opted for the deluxe offering, a beautiful volume, bound in leather, with gilt-edged pages and red lettering for the statements of Jesus. 2  It also came with several sections that included maps and descriptions of biblical history, explanations of the Rosary and the Mass, plus a glossary and footnotes and a section for recording important family events. For me, however, the best feature of all was the illustrations. It was elegantly illustrated with both series of biblical illustrations by James Tissot. Unbeknownst to me at the time, both series have a New York connection. The Old Testament illustrations are now in the Jewish Museum, a few blocks from my current residence; while the New Testament scenes are in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, just across the East River.

At the time this volume entered our house I was too small to be able to read. So, like our illiterate ancestors in ages past, I looked at the pictures. They were fascinating. I knew some of the stories because I had listened at Mass to the Gospel readings (at that time the only portion of the Mass that was in English). As I learned to read, I read the captions and eventually proceeded to being able to connect the captions to the biblical passages from which they derived. Although I now own a variety of Bibles in several translations and editions, I still treasure this book and its pictures.

Among the illustrations that most fascinated me as a child was the scene described in the text of the Gospel for this Sunday. In this Gospel citizens of Capernaum bring their paralyzed family member or friend to Jesus, confident that He will heal their friend, IF they can reach Him. Blocked by the crowds surrounding Jesus, they climb onto the roof of the house where He is staying, tear a hole in it and lower their friend down into His presence. Tissot’s depiction, based on careful research gained from extended trips to the Middle East, seems very real and immediate. The strong composition, in which the downward motion of the descending paralytic, his arms spread wide, is met by the upward moving gestures of those who have risen to support him, leads down in a descending curve to the true focus of the picture, the seated Jesus, raising His arms in welcome and blessing. The picture is a dynamic, realistic product of a century of realism.

James Tissot, Healing of the Paralytic
French, c. 1886-1894
New York, Brooklyn Museum

Earlier depictions were less so. Lacking both the ability and the interest to create a realistic vision, early depictions seem to have an almost fairytale quality. For example, a mosaic of the subject, composed around the year 500 for the Arian church of Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna shows Jesus, depicted in larger-than-life-size (to underline His divine status), standing with a slightly smaller disciple, while the friends of the paralytic lower him from the roof of a building. The paralytic and his friends are represented as extremely small figures, indicating their simple human status.  Moreover, the imprecise perspective in which the building is depicted makes it difficult to tell whether the paralyzed man is being lowered to the inside of the building or to the outside.

Jesus Healing the Paralytic
Byzantine, c. 500
Ravenna, Sant' Apollinare Nuovo

A very similar scene is found in a 12th-century pictorial Bible from the Abbey of St. Bertin in France. Again we see a cut-away view of the house, in which a giant-sized Jesus sits, addressing a crowd of smaller figure. Through the hole in the roof, which resembles a chimney, two men lower the paralytic. But the two men are so nearly obscured by what appear to be towers that the overall first impression makes it seem as if the paralytic is descending from above without assistance.

Christ Healing the Paralytic
From a Pictorial Bible
France (St. Omer), c. 1190-1200
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 F 5, fol. 14r (detail)

In the mosaics decorating the cathedral of Monreale in Sicily, executed around 1200, the hole in the roof has completely disappeared and the friends appear to lower the invalid, on his bed, from the edge of the roof, almost as if the building had a Roman-style atrium.  Also of note is the fact that Jesus no longer appears to be as big as the house.  He has assumed more human dimensions.

 

Christ Healing the Paralytic
Sicilian, c. 1200
Monreale, Cathedral

This demonstrates that, although we often think of Byzantine influence as being anti-naturalistic, more abstract and symbolic, here the later Byzantine style brings a greater naturalism than we see in the nearly contemporary work from the Abbey of St. Bertin.

A later, 15th century work, the Meditationes vitae Christi, illustrated by the Master of the Harvard Hannibal, and made for King Henry V of England around 1420, places the hole in the roof, but sets the descent, somewhat illogically, outside the house. This represents a period in which the artist appears to be struggling with the correct use of perspective.

Mast of the Harvard Hannibal, Christ Healing the Paralytic
From Meditationes vitae Christ by Pseudo-Bonaventure
French (Paris), c. 1420
London, British Library
MS Royal 20 B IV, fol.v59v

By the turn of the 17th century perspective difficulties had been overcome and the indoor location of the event could be presented properly. This can be illustrated by the work of two Flemish artists, Marten de Vos and Anton Wierix, done for Catholic editions of the Bible around 1600.3   Typical of the style prevalent at the time, the compositions are crowded and somewhat difficult to read, particularly the de Vos. But it is clearly obvious that the invalid has been lowered from the opening in the roof.

Anton Wierix, Christ Healing the Paralytic
From Evangelicae historiae imagines byJerome Nadal
Flemish, c. 1593-1595
London, Trustees of the British Museum

Marten de Vos, Christ Healing the Paralytic
Flemish, c. 1600
Bolton (England), Bolton Museum

It remained for the late 19th-century painter, Tissot, to present us with a dramatic, readable and realistic image.

© M. Duffy, 2012
_______________________________
*  Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

1.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douay%E2%80%93Rheims_Bible.  For a discussion of how the Douay-Rheims translation was influential in the Authorized Version (known as the King James Bible) see Nicolson, Adam.  God's Secretaries:  The Making of the King James Bible, New York, HarperCollins, 2003.

2.  The Holy Bible, The Catholic Press, Inc., 1950.

3.  http://catholic-resources.org/Art/Nadal.htm

The Saint of Romance?

Jeanne de Montbaston, Saint Valentine of Terni

From a Lives of the Saints

French (Paris), c. 1325-1350

Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France

MS Francais 183, fol. 210r

Each year, Christmas decorations and Christmas cards have barely been discounted when a new series of cards and decorative items begin to appear in stores. Store windows suddenly seem to feature nothing but items in reds and pinks. Red seems to be everywhere – on candy shelves, cards, wrapping paper, in florist’s windows, on textiles, you name it. So, we know that Valentine’s Day is upon us. Most people have a dim idea that somewhere back in history there was a Saint Valentine and that he had something to do with love. But what and when?

To begin with Valentine is a Roman name (Valentinus) and Valentine is a Roman saint, or at least one of the Valentines from the early Christian centuries about whom we have some sketchy information was described as a Roman priest. Another, contemporary Valentine was the bishop of what is now the city of Terni in Umbria. Since these two Valentines seem to have been martyred in Rome within the same timeframe and are commemorated on the same day, February 14, and both were reported to be buried off the Via Flaminia it is just possible that they may be one and the same person. A third Valentine was martyred in North Africa and is definitely a different person.1

 

 

The Queen Mary Master, The Martyrdom of Saint Valentine
From the Queen Mary Psalter
English (London), c. 1310-1320
London, British Library
MS Royal 2 B VII, fol. 243r

 

Beyond those bare statements we have no real information, merely legends. According to one legend, Valentine (whether the priest or the bishop) was arrested during a persecution under the Emperor Claudius II Gothicus (268-270), severely beaten and then beheaded.2

The Martyrdom of Saint Valentine

From a Speculum historiale of Vincentius Bellovacensis

French (Paris), c. 1335

Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France

MS Arsenal 5080, fol. 197r

 

Pope Julius I (337-352) constructed the basilica of San Valentino in the vicinity of the present day Piazza del Popolo. (This well-known piazza is the site of the original Porta Flaminiana, where the Via Flaminia entered the walls of Rome and became the Via Lata, the present day Via del Corso).3 This church was one of those frequently included among the churches visited by medieval pilgrims to Rome. 4

 

Jan van Haelbeck, The Martyrdoms of Saints Marius and His Wife Martha and Their Sons, of Saint Cyprianus and of Saint Valentine
From Ecclesiae Militantis Triumphi, plate 19
Flemish, c. 1600-1620
London, Trustees of the British Museum

 

Valentine’s association with romantic love comes from later, embroidered, tales of his martyrdom and from the date of his feast day. According to some stories Valentine was accused of performing Christian marriages during a period of persecution when the practice of Christianity was considered a crime. This, combined with a later, medieval development, cemented his association with romantic love.

The medieval development is recorded in Chaucer’s Parliament of Foules (Parliament of Birds).

For this was on seynt Valentynes day,

Whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make,

Of every kinde, that men thenke may;5

This is in recognition of the observation that it is in the middle of February, around Valentine’s feast day of February 14th, that birds begin their courtship in preparation for the new generation. (As a neophyte birdwatcher, I can attest that birds haven’t changed and that this is still true today. Here in Manhattan a couple of our resident hawks whose partners died during the year (Washington Square and Riverside Park nests) have paired up with new mates, the famous Fifth Avenue hawk pair of Palemale and Lima* are sprucing up their nest and the ducks are cavorting on the lakes doing their amusing courtship dances.)


Visually, Saint Valentine has mostly retained his original significance as a martyr. Throughout the Middle Ages he was depicted either as the bishop or as the martyr.

 

Hans Burgkmair, Saints Valentine, Stephen and Maximilian, Patron Saints of Passau
German, c. 1503-1505
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

The martyrdom scenes sometimes involved discussions with the Emperor Claudius II, as described in the Golden Legend. 6

Richard de Montbason, The Martyrdom of Saint Valentine
From a Legenda aurea by Jacobus de Voragine
French (Paris), 1348
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 241, fol. 69r
 

 

 

In the late sixteenth century the artist Jacopo Bassano painted an altarpiece of Saint Valentine Baptizing Saint Lucilla, a subject for which I have been unable to find any literary source.

Jacopo Bassano, Saint Valentine Baptising Saint Lucilla
Italian, c.1575
Bassano del Grappa, Museo Civico

I could not find anything in the visual record that appears to refer to Valentine as the saint of romance. We appear to owe this identification entirely to Chaucer’s connection of courting birds with the date of February 14th. Nevertheless, this is the identification that has stuck and that has entered the modern secular world.

However, one reference to the real Valentine has also entered that world – the color red. Red is the color of the heart, to be sure, but its main identification is as the color of blood and, hence, the color of martyrdom. That is why priests wear red vestments when saying Mass on the feast days of martyrs. It is also why the cardinals of the Catholic Church “receive the red hat” and why cardinals and the Pope himself wear red as part of their clothing.

So, when you buy those red roses or that red box of chocolates for your beloved, remember that you are also commemorating the blood shed by a martyr over 1,700 years ago. Happy Saint Valentine’s Day!

Saint Valentine
Wood carving, German, c. 1500
Oppenheim, Parish Church of Saint Bartholemew

 

© M. Duffy, 2012

Addendum:
Traveling home up Madison Avenue on Valentine's Day, following an afternoon spent at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, I couldn't help but notice that, even before the end of the day, many store windows had already switched the dominant color of their displays from red to green -- the color associated with Saint Patrick's Day.  Another day, another color, another saint, another story. 
_______________________

*  Palemale and all his wives have died.  When he died he was well over 30 years old!  He and his successive mates (for red-tailed hawks mate for life) have given New York generations of young hawks who now populate several areas of the city.

1. Thurston, Herbert. "Saint Valentine." The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 15., New York, Robert Appleton Company, 1912. Can be accessed at: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15254a.htm.

2. Butler, Rev. Alban, Lives of the Saints, New York, Benziger Brothers, 1894, pp. 73-74.

3. Krautheimer, Richard. Rome, Profile of a City, 312-1308, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 54.

4. Birch, Debra J. Pilgrimage to Rome in the Middle Ages, Rochester, Boydell and Brewer, Inc. 1998, p. 94.

5. Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Parliament of Foules, lines 309-311 at: http://omacl.org/Parliament/. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parlement_of_Foules

6. The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints. Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275. First Edition Published 1470. Englished by William Caxton, First Edition 1483, Edited by F.S. Ellis, Temple Classics, 1900 (Reprinted 1922, 1931.), Vol. III at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/goldenlegend/GoldenLegend-Volume3.asp#Valentine. For Claudius Gothicus see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudius_Gothicus

“The Eve of Saint Agnes”: A Poet, Some Painters, a Roman Princess and a Saint

William Holman Hunt, The Escape of Madeline and Porphyro

English, 1848

Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery

“ST. AGNES’ Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold”


This is the opening stanza of “The Eve of Saint Agnes” by the English Romantic poet, John Keats. The complete poem tells the tale of a young girl who elopes from her home with a young man.1 

The poem begins with this evocation of a freezing January night and with references to the old superstition that on the night of January 20/21, if certain rules were fulfilled, a girl would dream of the man she would marry. 

John Everett Millais, The Eve of Saint Agnes

English, 1863

Windsor, Royal Collection Trust

The remainder of the poem tells a story (reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet) of a young man from an “enemy” family, who secretes himself in the girl’s room, spies on her as she prepares for bed and goes to sleep. After a time he wakes her and urges her to elope with him, which she does. Their escape is made easier because everyone in her family home had caroused late into the night and was in no condition to challenge them. 

Arthur Hughes, The Eve of Saint Agnes
English, 1856
London, Tate Britain

 

Keats’ poem was the inspiration for the work of several of the Pre-Raphaelite painters, among them John Everett Millais, Arthur Hughes and William Holman Hunt. The poem’s mélange of sub-textual sexuality, detailed observation of the natural world and romanticized Medievalism exactly matched the guiding philosophy of the Pre-Raphaelites. 2

However, all this is very far from the Catholic view of Saint Agnes. 

So, Who Is Agnes?

Agnes has one of the best known saint’s names in Catholicism. She is one of the early martyrs of the city of Rome, those who are memorialized in the intercession prayer of the traditional “Roman” canon of the Mass (now Eucharistic Prayer #1), along with other female saints like Cecilia, Agatha, Felicity, Perpetua and Anastasia, as well as the early Popes and male martyrs like Saint Lawrence.3   According to the traditional belief, she was a young teenage Christian girl, tortured for her refusal to sacrifice to the Roman gods and for her desire to remain a virgin because of her commitment to Christ. Eventually, she was murdered for her faith and her refusal to capitulate. 

Procession of Female Martyrs
Byzantine, Second Half of 6th Century
Ravenna, Church of Sant' Appolinare Nuovo
Saint Agnes is easily identified on the far left because of the lamb associated with her.

Agnes Has a Lamb

Because of the close relationship between her name, “Agnes”, and the Latin word for lamb; “agnus”, her symbol has traditionally been a lamb. A popular saint in medieval and Renaissance art, she is easily identified by the proximity of the lamb (which, of course, is also a symbol for Christ, the Lamb of God.)

Saints Agnes and Barbara
From the Livre d’images du Christ et les saincts
Flemish (Hainaut), c. 1275-1300
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Nouvelle acquisition francaise 16251, fol. 96r

Saint Agnes, Stained Glass Window
Austrian, c. 1340-1350
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection

Master of the Brussels Initials and Workshop, Saint Agnes
From the Hours of Charles the Noble, King of Navarre
French (Paris), c. 1405
Cleveland, Museum of Art
MS 1964.40, fol. 2

Donato de' Bardi, Right Wing From the Triptych of the Madonna and Child with Saints Philip and Agnes
Italian, c. 1425-1430
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Saint Agnes
From a Book of Hours
French (Anjou), 1440
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 157, fol. 200v

Saint Agnes from February Calendar Page
From the Hours of Louis of Savoy
French (Savoy), c. 1445-1460
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 9473, fol. 3v 

ean le Tavernier and Follower, Saint Agnes
From the Hours of Philip of Burgundy
Flemish (Oudenaarde), c. 1450-1460
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 F 2, fol. 275v

Anonymous, Geertruy Haeck Kneeling Before Saint Agnes
Dutch, c. 1465
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

Adriaen van Wesel, Saint Agnes
Dutch, c. 1470-1480
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

Neri di Bicci, Saints Agnes and Clare of Assisi
Italian, c. Mid-1470
Philadelphia, Museum of Art

Hieronymous Bosch, Agneese de Gramme Protected by Saint Agnes
Right Wing of the Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi
Dutch, c. 1494
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Bernhard Strigel, Saint Agnes, Wing of a Triptych
German, c. 1510
Marburg, Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der Philipps-Universität Marburg

Master of the Saint Marein Triptych, Saint Agnes
German, c. 1510-1530
Detroit, Institute of Arts

Diego de Tiedra, Saint Agnes
Spanish, c. 1550
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bowl with Saint Agnes and Her Lamb
French (Limoges), 17th Century
Paris, Musée  du Louvre, Département  des Objets d'art du Moyen Age, de la Renaissance et des temps modernes

Dominichino, Saint Agnes
Italian, c. 1620
London, Royal Collection Trust, Kensington Palace

Vicente Carducho, Saint Agnes
Spanish, 1637
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

More concretely, on her feast day two lambs are presented to the Pope during Mass. For the occasion they are bedded down in a basket each and decorated with red flowers, a reminder that they are symbolic of a martyr saint.  When they are shorn, several months later, their wool is sent to the cloistered convent attached to the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. There it is woven into the strips of woolen cloth from which are made the pallia (symbolic collars) that are presented by the Pope to newly elevated archbishops. 

The presentation of the lambs blessed by Pope Francis on the feast of Saint Agnes, Jan. 21, 2016. 
Credit: L'Osservatore Romano

Saint Agnes -- Buried Outside the Walls, But Never Out of Memory

Following her death at the hands of the executioners, the body of Agnes was buried in a catacomb outside the walls of Rome, on the via Nomentana. 4 

In the 4th century, shortly after the issue of the Edict of Milan and contemporary with the construction of the major basilicas of St. John Lateran and St. Peter’s (the first purpose-built Christian churches), several extremely large basilican-type buildings were constructed in the outskirts of Rome, beyond the walls.*

These basilica-like buildings were not intended as churches, like St. John’s or St. Peter’s, but as covered cemeteries. 5   They were constructed near the graves of martyrs who were remembered by Roman Christians as having been important.  Excavations have found that their floors were literally paved with graves and their walls also bore stacked rows of sarcophagi.  One was built on the via Nomentana, near the grave of Agnes.

Plan showing the layout of the site off via Nomentana.

The Constantinian era cemetery basilica (parts of which still exist) is the largest structure.

The circular structure is Santa Costanza, the still existing mausoleum of Constantine's daughter.

The small basilica at the right (down a flight of steps) is the 7th century church of Sant' Agnese fuori le mura, built over the catacomb in which Agnes was buried, and that still exists.

Above the nearby catacomb a smaller basilican church was also built on top of her grave in the 7th century. Called Sant'Agnese fuori le mura (Saint Agnes outside-the-walls), it still stands.

Interior, Church of Sant' Agnese fuori le mura
Roman, 7th century
Rome

Church of Sant' Agnese fuori le mura, Floor level view
Roman, 7th century
Rome

Saint Agnes with Popes Symmachus and Honorius
Late Antique Apse Mosaic, 7th Century
Rome, Church of Saint'Agnese fuori le Mura

One feature of these large basilican cemeteries was that they were often the locations at which wealthy Christians chose to build their own tombs. Helena, Constantine’s mother, built her tomb adjacent to the cemetery basilica which adjoined the catacomb containing the graves of the martyrs Marcellinus and Peter off the via Labicana.6

Her granddaughter, Constantine’s daughter Constantina, built her mausoleum next to the cemetery basilica of Agnes (coemeterium Agnetis).7   It still stands next to the via Nomentana, although the adjoining cemetery basilica is now in ruins. Now called Santa Constanza (and converted into a church), it preserves some of the earliest mosaic decorations which incorporate Christianized classical images.

Exterior view of Santa Costanza showing remains of the 4th century cemetery basilica walls
Roman, 4th century
Rome, Church of Santa Costanza 

The vaulting famously includes images of classical putti (what today we would call “cherubs”) cavorting amid entwining grape vines during a grape harvest, a possible Eucharistic reference.

Vault Mosaic Showing Putti Harvesting Grapes

Roman, 4th Century

Rome, Church of Santa Costanza

Also decorating the vaults are images of birds, flowers, fruits and serving vessels.  Again these are open to Christian interpretations, or they may simply be a continuation of Roman decorative wall paintings and mosaics.

Vault Decoration
Roman, 4th Century
Rome, Church of Santa Costanza

In the two small apses are mosaics depicting the Tradito Legis and Christ as Pantocrator Giving the Keys to Saint Peter (Traditio Clavum).

Traditio Legis Mosaic

Roman, 4th century

Rome, Church of Santa Costanza

Traditio Clavum Mosaic

Roman, 4th century

Rome, Church of Santa Costanza

The nearby cemetery basilica of Saint Agnes is still partially standing as well.  

All this for a young, but tenacious, teenager who could neither be dissuaded nor bullied into abandoning her faith.

© M. Duffy, 2012, pictures updated and new material added 2023, restructured with updated and new images 2024.

_________________________________________

1. Published in 1819. The full text can be read at http://www.bartleby.com/126/39.html

2. For the Pre-Raphaelites see, http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/prb/1.html

3. The text of Eucharistic Prayer #1 can be accessed at http://old.usccb.org/romanmissal/samples-priest-prayer1.shtml

4. Butler, Rev. Alban. Lives of the Saints, New York, Benziger Brothers, 1894, pp. 43-44.

5. Krautheimer, Richard. “Mensa-Coemeterium-Martyrium” in Studies in Early Christian, Medieval and Renaissance Art, New York, New York University Press, 1969, pages 35-58. and Rome, Profile of a City, 312-1308, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 24-25.  In ancient Rome (from pagan times onwards) no burials were allowed inside the walls.

6. Krautheimer, op cit.

7. Krautheimer, op cit.

*  The basilica is a type of building we still have with us, though its purpose has been modified.  Originally, basilicas were all-purpose civil buildings (as opposed to temples).  They were basically plain structures on the outside, though they could be elaborate on the inside.  They followed a basic plan, with usually a straight entrance wall, straight side walls and a rounded end, called an apse.  They could serve various functions, often used as law courts, with the judges seated at the apsidal end.  In the German city of Trier the basilica that was used as a throne room by the Roman Emperors when Trier was the second capital of the Empire in the West still survives, converted to a church.  When Christians were able to build churches for the first time, the basilica offered a ready made plan that had no unwelcome associations with the temples of the pagan or even of the Jewish world.  And it had the Imperial backing of Constantine, who ordered the construction of the first two great basilican churches, Saint John Lateran and Saint Peter on Vatican hill.

Circumcision of Jesus

Fra Angelico, Circumcision of Jesus
Italian, 1451-1452
Florence, Museum of San Marco
Angelico's picture of the Circumcision leaves no doubt
about what's happening!

"When eight days were completed for his circumcision,

he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel

before he was conceived in the womb."

(Luke 2:21) Gospel for January 1, 2012, Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Before the revision of the calendar that followed Vatican II, January 1st was the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord.  This is still the text of the Gospel for January 1, even though the feast is now that of the Theotokos, the Holy Mother of God.

The event of the Circumcision makes manifest that Jesus is a real human being, a real little Jewish boy baby.  It marks him as a Jew according to the law of Moses.  It is also His first experience of human pain and the first shedding of His Blood. 

So, while the secular world celebrates the beginning of a new year, full of new possibilities and new hopes for the future, the Church also marks the beginning of something new -- by commemorating the first experience of human suffering by the Incarnate Word.