Blessed Rabanus Maurus

The proper calendar for the dioceses of Germany marks February 4th as the feast of one of the most interesting figures of the Carolingian era, the Bl. Rabanus Maurus, who died on this day in the 856. (His first name is also written as Hrabanus or Rhabanus.)

Bl Rabanus, together with Alcuin, presents his poem “On the praises of the Holy Cross” to Otgar, archbishop of Mainz. Alcuin’s presence here is symbolic, since he was dead by the time Rabanus finished the work. (Image from a manuscript of the 9th century copied out at Fulda, now in the National Library of Vienna. Public domain, from Wikimedia Commons.)

He was born around the year 780 to a noble family in Mainz, where St Boniface, the Apostle of the Germans, had been archbishop. As a child, he was sent to the monastery of Fulda, which Boniface had established as one of the centers of his mission. Fulda was already an important seat of learning, but would become widely renowned for this only later, under Rabanus’ own leadership. When his education was completed, he went to the court of Charlemagne at Aachen, and came under the tutelage of the famous Englishman Alcuin of York, who gave him his second name “Maurus” in remembrance of one of St Benedict’s favorite disciples. Rabanus followed Alcuin to the abbey of St Martin of Tours, where he studied the Bible, liturgy and canon law. In 801, he was ordained a deacon, and sometime before his teacher’s death in 804, returned to Fulda to become a master in his own right at the monastery’s school.

In 814, the year of Charlemagne’s death, he was ordained a priest, and four years later, made the head of the school at Fulda. Many of the men who would perpetuate the legacy of learning encouraged by Charlemagne through the rest of the 9th century were students of Rabanus.

During his life as a scholar, he wrote an astonishing amount on a very wide variety of topics: commentaries on nearly every book of the Bible; treatises on theological topics and the liturgy, including an important revision of the Roman Sacramentary and a martyrology; works on canon law, clerical life and discipline, history, grammar; an encyclopedia based on the earlier work of St Isidore of Seville, as well as hymns and sermons. The Pentecost hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus, is traditionally attributed to him (this is now disputed by many), as is the original version of the common hymn for the feast of St Michael and All Angels, Christe, sanctorum decus Angelorum. The sermon read for the feast of All Saints in almost every version of the Divine Office before the Tridentine reform is also attributed to him, with great uncertainty. All this was done while maintaining frequent correspondences; he was on close terms with and a valued counselor to both Charlemagne’s son, the emperor Louis the Pious, and his grandson Lothair, and to their wives.

In June of 822, he was elected abbot of Fulda, a position which he would hold for 20 years. Already at the time of his election, Fulda had several dependent monasteries, with a total population of around 600 monks. Rabanus worked tirelessly to expand the monastery’s library and its collection of relics, organized the administration of its considerable property holding, and built several churches and chapels for the benefit of the peasants who worked its many farms. In his later years, he was often called away from the abbey on imperial business, but as Louis the Pious became involved in a series of political disputes with his sons, Rabanus chose to withdraw by resigning as abbot, and returning to the life of a scholar.

Despite this, in 847, Louis’ son, known as Louis the German, whose lands included the territory of Fulda, had him elevated to the archbishopric of Mainz. He took office exactly 25 years and one day after his abbatial election, and proved himself to be as effective and energetic in his new position as he had been as abbot, despite his (for that era) advanced age. He ruled until his death less than nine years later, and was originally buried at the monastery of St Alban outside Mainz, another one of the most important centers of monastic life in western Germany. In 1515, his relics were transferred by the archbishop of Mainz, but they seem to have to have been lost during the disturbances of early protestant reformation, and so he has no known grave or relics. He has never been formally canonized, and is still known as the Blessed Rabanus.

One of his most famous writings is a cycle of poems, “De laudibus sanctae Crucis – On the Praises of the Holy Cross’, completed in 814. Six copies of this almost unfathomably complex work, produced directly under his supervision, still survive, including one with notes in his own hand, which is now in the Vatican library. (Vat. lat. reginensis 124) Each poem is written out in a grid, and within each grid, several letters are highlighted by their inclusion within various geometric shapes, larger letters, or drawings. The highlighted letters form their own independent verses; some of these verses form dedication poems to various people, including St Martin of Tours and Pope Gregory IV, while the most elaborate is a portrait of the emperor Louis the Pious. Here is a selection of some of the more complex images, beginning with one of the Lord. (All images public domain from Wikimedia Commons.) 

The Lamb of God with the symbols of the Evangelists. 

Rabanus himself, kneeling in front of a cross.

Various angels.

The Latin word Crux (cross) crossed with Salus (salvation). It would be fair to note that this is a little clumsy (crlux), and Rabanus is extremely free with his use of meter, but nevertheless, one can only admire the mind that was able to plan such a thing at all. 

The portrait of the emperor Louis the Pious.

St Anthony the Abbot in the Isenheim Altarpiece

One of the most famous late medieval depictions of the Crucifixion is the central panel of the Isenheim altarpiece, painted by the German artist Matthias Grünewald (1470 ca. - 1528) between 1512-16. I call this work “late medieval” despite its date, because Grünewald completely ignores the elegant stylizations of his Italian Renaissance contemporaries, and shows us the reality of Our Lord’s sufferings very starkly indeed: the dislocation of His shoulders, the twisting of his Hands, the contortion of His face, the discoloration of His skin, etc. Marks of the flagellation cover His whole body, and the artist seems to have imagined that the scourging was done with briars, rather than a corded whip, leaving several pieces of wood still lodged in His flesh.

The altarpiece was commissioned for a monastery and hospital in Isenheim, a town about 57 miles to the south south-east of Strasbourg (now part of France, and generally spelled Issenheim). This institution belonged to an order of hospitalers founded in Vienne, France, at the end of the 11th century, and named after St Anthony the Abbot, whose feast is today. The order’s special duty was to care for those who suffered from the painful condition which in that era was called St Anthony’s fire, but is now called ergotism, since it results from long term ingestion of a fungus called ergot which was commonly found in rye and other cereals. As my colleague David Clayton has previously noted, Christ’s disfigurement here reflects those of the patients in the hospital, and is intended to encourage them to bear with their sufferings with patience and fortitude.

In the museum where it is now kept, the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar, the altarpiece has been dismantled so that all of its sections can be seen. In its original placement in the monastery, this is how it was displayed most of the time.

St Anthony is depicted on the right wing, with a demon raging at him through the window next to his head, since Anthony spent a lot of time in combat with demonic forces. Notice how he is depicted standing on a pedestal, almost as if he were a colored statue.
 

On the opposite side is Saint Sebastian, who is generally invoked as a patron against contagious diseases such as the black plague. Ergotism is not contagious, but it can do horrible things to the skin, very much as the plague can.  

At the bottom is the Deposition and Burial of Christ; patients with advanced ergotism rarely recovered, and with the reality of impending death upon them, this image would, of course, encourage them to think of their own sufferings in union with Christ, leading to the Resurrection.

On major feast days, the panels of the front would be pulled back to reveal this second set of images.

On the left, the Annunciation, with the prophet Isaiah at the upper left; the words of his prophecy of the Virgin that shall conceive are written on the book which Mary is reading. (By the early 16th century, the Italian convention had long been to have the angel Gabriel kneel before the Virgin so that his head would lower than Mary’s, to indicate Her higher dignity.)

The central panels, which in the original arrangement could be pulled open to reveal the sculptures seen below, show the Virgin holding the infant Christ as they are serenaded by a group of angels with musical instruments. (In German, the left section bears the charming name of “Engelskonzert - the angelic concert.”) On the building above the angels are small images of Moses and the four major prophets.

To the right side, the Resurrection. Christ displays His wounds as a sign of hope to the patients in the hospital that their sufferings will also lead to their transfiguration in the final resurrection. (It may be a fair gauge of how little this style is to modern tastes that when this slide was shown in my college freshman art history class, many of the students laughed out loud, to the deep annoyance of our German art history teacher.)

The panels shown above could then be opened to show this configuration. It is generally assumed that this was done for the feast days of the Saints depicted here: St Anthony, his friend St Paul the First Hermit, St Augustine and St Jerome. There may well have been various other such occasions.

The two painted panels on the side show the assaults made upon Anthony by various demons, and his meeting with Paul. The former are described at length in St Athanasius’ biography of Anthony, and have given many artists an opportunity to indulge their strangest conceits, among them, Hieronymus Bosch and Salvador Dalí, but also the young Michelangelo, in his very first painting. The latter episode occupies the largest part of St Jerome’s biography of St Paul.

The sculptures in the center of the altarpiece are the work of an artist named Nicholas from the town of Hagenau, about 19 miles to the north of Strasbourg.

In the middle, St Anthony is depicted as an abbot with a crook. Pigs belonging to the Order of St Anthony were generally allowed to graze on common land, which is why they are often shown in his company. On the right is St Jerome, who wrote the biography of St Paul the First Hermit; on the left, with the donor kneeling in front of him, St Augustine, by whose rule the Order lived. 

At the bottom, a stylized representation of Christ with the Apostles at the Last Supper.

A 12th Century Tabernacle from Cologne

This post is kind of a follow-up on the series which we concluded yesterday on the twelve Romanesque basilicas of Cologne, Germany. I say “kind of” because it is generally believed that this magnificent tabernacle comes from the basilica of St Pantaleon in Cologne, but this is not completely certain. (All images from Wikimedia Commons: 1, 3, 4, 7 and 11-13 by Fæ, CC BY 2.0; 2, 5, 6, 8-10 and 14 by Marie-Lan Nguyen, CC BY 2.5)

The tabernacle was made ca. 1180, and consists of a core of oak, covered over with gilt copper and enamel, and decorated with 32 pieces of carved ivory, both elephant and walrus. (Some of these ivories are modern restorations, as are the knot on top of the dome, and two of the griffins on which it rests.) It stands at about 1’, 9½” tall, roughly 1’, 8½” square at the base, and weighs 58 pounds. It was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1861, and has been there ever since. (See this link for more detailed information.) Beneath the dome, Christ sits with eleven of the Apostles; the sixteen standing figures on the lower part are prophets, while each side has a “door” with an ivory plaque of an event in the life of Christ. The first two of these are modern (i.e. 19th century) copies made from a reliquary in a museum in Berlin which is contemporary to this piece. On this side is the Christ Child with the Virgin Mary and St Joseph.

The Journey of the Magi.

The Crucifixion (original to this object).

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The Basilica of St Pantaleon in Cologne

We finally conclude this series on the twelve Romanesque basilicas of Cologne, Germany, with the church of St Pantaleon, which I have saved for last in order to end on an artistic high note, namely, its very beautiful and well-preserved rood screen. (All images from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 unless otherwise noted.)

by Hawabo, CC BY-SA 2.0 DE 

A church is mentioned on the site in a document dated to the year 866, but the current building was founded as a Benedictine monastery by St Bruno, archbishop of Cologne, the younger brother of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great, in 955; the central nave dates to this period.

© Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0

This is the oldest church anywhere in the west of Europe dedicated to Pantaleon, a Christian doctor martyred in the first years of the fourth century, during the persecution of Diocletian, at Nicomedia, a town about 65 miles to the east of Constantinople. St Bruno’s successor-but-one as archbishop, Gero, obtained his relics while on embassy to Byzantium in 971, during which he negotiated the marriage of Emperor Otto II with Theophanu, a niece of the Eastern Roman emperor John I Tzimiskes (969-76). When her husband died, Theophanu became regent of her son Otto III. She often visited Cologne, and the church’s westwork was built ca. 980 at her behest; in accordance with her own request, she was buried here when she died in 991. (Her modern sarcophagus is in the narthex of the westwork.)

by Beckstet

© CEphoto, Uwe Aranas (cropped)

Around 1160, the single-nave Ottonian church was expanded into its current form as a three-nave basilica. The late Gothic rood screen, which is by far the church’s most interesting feature today, was built at the beginning of the 16th century.

© CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 4.0

by Ljuba brank, CC BY-SA 4.0

The high altar behind the rood screen.

© CEphoto, Uwe Aranas

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The Basilica of Saint George in Cologne

Thus far, the posts in this series about the twelve great Romanesque basilicas of Cologne, Germany, have been posted on the feast days of their titular Saints, or some other relevant liturgical occasion. The two that remain are dedicated to St George and St Pantaleon, whose feasts are on April 23 and July 27 respectively, which is too long to wait, so I will do the former today, and save the latter, which is far more beautiful and interesting, for next week to conclude the series. (All images from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 or public domain unless otherwise noted.)

An oratory dedicated to a martyr named Caesarius was built on this site, reutilizing walls of an ancient Roman building, sometime in the 7th century, but seems to have been destroyed during the Norman incursions into the region around Cologne in the later 9th century. St Anno II, archbishop of Cologne from 1056-75, founded a new collegiate church in the same place, which he dedicated to St George; both Saints are depicted in this mosaic in the tympanum over the main door, the work of a local artist named Eduard Schmitz, made in 1930.

by Arabsalam

Like many churches in Germany, the complex was neglected after the great state-sponsored theft of ecclesiastical property at the beginning of the 19th century, and all of the conventual buildings around it torn down. This painting made in 1827 shows the choir with its Baroque roof, and the late medieval parish church of St James, which was attached to St Georg by a cloister, now destroyed. 

The church was heavily damaged during World War Two; the new roof of the choir was added in the post-War restorations, completed in 1964. 

© Raimond Spekking

This photograph of the interior was taken in 1911.

Shortly after World War I, the church had to be closed for fear that it would collapse. From 1927-30, it was given a very severe restoration, typical for its era, which sought to return it to something like its supposedly original appearance by whitewashing the interior. Between these various restorations, the interior is now mostly very plain.

by Chris06

As part of the interwar restoration, the church was also given a new set of Art Nouveau stained glass windows designed by a Dutch artist named Johan Thorn Prikker (1868-1932), which would have been better chosen for a different kind of architectural setting.

© CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0

The new sanctuary area in front of the choir, decorated for Christmas, but still exceedingly plain.

by Pedro J Pacheco

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The 11th Century Doors of Sankta Maria im Kapitol in Cologne, Germany

Since we have three Marian feasts this week, Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Loreto (today), and Our Lady of Guadalupe (Thursday), it’s a good time to finish up part of our ongoing series on the Romanesque basilicas of Cologne, Germany, with the last major feature of Sankta Maria im Kapitol, the city’s principal Marian church. (See parts one and two of this same church from last month.) This is a wooden door which dates to the time of the building’s first construction, ca. 1060, and which has survived the vicissitudes of its history in an astonishingly good condition, even preserving some of the original paint. It was first mounted into the north apse as an external door, facing the city, but has been moved more than once since then, and now stands at the back of the south aisle, with a gate in front of it for preservation purposes.

This makes for less-than-ideal photography, so the images available on Wikimedia Commons do not give us a complete overview of the iconographic program. The doors measure roughly 15’ 11” by 8’ 1½”; the narrative panels are framed by elaborate wooden tracery which is fitted around them to create the illusion that the doors are carved as a single piece. The figures are in unusually high relief, some of them even sticking out of their frames, although this makes them far more likely to get broken over time, and there are a number of figures missing wholly or in part. The iconographic program includes all the major events of the life of Christ, on the left side, from the Annunciation to His Baptism, and on the right, from Palm Sunday to Pentecost. Four scenes of the Temptation of Christ originally ran across the bottom of both panels; these are the most badly damaged.

On the left: the Annunciation and Visitation in the top panel, the appearance of the Angels to the shepherds and the birth of Christ in the second row. On the right: the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem at the top, and the healing of the blind Man and the raising of Lazarus in the second row. (These last two follow the order of the liturgical readings of the fourth week of Lent, on Wednesday and Friday respectively.)

On the left: at top, the Magi before Herod, and their adoration of the Christ Child; below that, the Angel appears to Joseph in a dream, and the flight into Egypt: third row, the messengers speak to Herod, and Herod makes inquiry of the scribes.

In the upper band in this image, Herod sending out his soldiers, and the Massacre of the Innocents, and in lower, the Baptism of Christ.

This was the clearest picture available of the lowest panels on both sides, which depicted the Temptation of Christ in four scenes, now very damaged.

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The Basilica of Saint Andrew in Cologne

For the feast of St Andrew the Apostle, we continue our ongoing series on the twelve Romanesque basilicas of the city of Cologne, Germany, with the one dedicated to him. We have already seen part of the church earlier this month, on the feast of St Albert the Great, since he is buried in the crypt. It also houses relics of the Maccabee brothers in a very beautiful reliquary shrine, shown below. (All images from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted.)

The church was founded as a secular canonry in 974, but significantly expanded and rebuilt in the 12th and 13th centuries; the westwork, nave and central tower date from this period. Cologne was where the Dominicans established their very first house in Germany, only a very short time after St Dominic’s death, welcomed by the canons of this church. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Dominicans’ were suppressed in Germany, and their church and monastery in Cologne were both destroyed; they returned to the city in 1947, and have had charge of St Andrew’s church ever since then.

by Johan Bakker

by Edgar El, CC BY-SA 3.0

C. Raimond Spekking

In the 15th century, the original choir was destroyed, and rebuilt in the Gothic style (lower right in the this photo), followed by the north transept in 1470/80 (on the right), and the south transept by 1492.

by Островский Александр, Киев, CC BY-SA 3.0

There are not a lot of good photos of the building available, but one can see a very good panorama of the interior on Google maps. Here we see the nave from the second bay (moving forward), roughly the point at which the architecture transitions from Romanesque to Gothic. I suspect that the Crucifix and statues of Our Lady and St John mounted on the arch were originally part of a rood screen, which would have been positioned right below where they are now.

C. Raimond Spekking

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