Abstract
The Bible is one of the canonical texts of Western literature. During the Middle Ages when literacy was low, and only a minority could read the Bible, the masses learned its narratives thanks to paintings and sculptures. These artifacts are plentiful in our museums and churches. But the biblical stories, particularly the life of Christ, were also disseminated by means of colorful liturgical ceremonies that reenacted these events with the use of articulated sculptures. For instance, in German-speaking lands the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem was celebrated on Palm Sunday with a statue of Christ on a donkey that was pulled through the city. On Good Friday, some churches commemorated Christ’s burial by unnailing an articulated figure of Christ from a crucifix and placing it into a sepulcher. On Easter, a statue of Christ was sometimes placed on the sepulcher to signify his resurrection. And on Ascension Thursday, the same statue was in some churches pulled through an opening in the vault to represent his ascension. These medieval liturgical ceremonies all but disappeared after the adoption in 1570 of the Roman rite as the universal liturgy of the Catholic Church. In this paper, I discuss these little-known practices that contributed to the dissemination of the biblical story among the laity.
Presenters
Christophe ChaguinianAssociate Professor of French, Department of World Languages, Cultures and Literatures, University of North Texas, Texas, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2023 Special Focus—Literary Landscapes: Forms of Knowledge in the Humanities
KEYWORDS
Bible, Liturgy, Middle Ages
