Category Archives: Days and Seasons

St. Catherine and her Wheel

Posted on by
Reply
A woodprint depicting the execution of Peter Stumpp, a famous convicted werewolf, on the wheel in Cologne.

A woodprint depicting the execution of Peter Stumpp, a famous convicted werewolf, on the wheel in Cologne.

A woodcut depicting how the limbs of a victim would be laced through the spokes of the wheel.

A woodcut depicting how the limbs of a victim would be laced through the spokes of the wheel.

An icon of St. Catherine, with her wheel. Note the 2 images of Mt. Sinai in the background: Moses at the burning bush on the left and the later fortress-monastery on the right.

An icon of St. Catherine, with her wheel. Note the 2 images of Mt. Sinai in the background: Moses at the burning bush on the left and the later fortress-monastery on the right.

One of the most popular women of the Middle Ages, St. Catherine was thought to have been a 4th century philosopher in Alexandria who was martyred in the Great Persecution of Diocletion. Her biography indicates she was tortured on the wheel and finally beheaded; her relics were taken by “angels” (a euphemism commonly used to mean monks) to the monastic settlement on Mount Sinai. A monastery-fortress was built there by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the 6th century; extremely rare and priceless icons and manuscripts have survived there because it was so remote. Her feast day, on November 24 or 25 (in various places), was one of the most popular holidays of the year. It was said that if there was snow on St. Catherine’s day, it would be a hard winter. If an unmarried girl wanted a husband or a married woman wanted to be rid of a bad husband, she should fast on St. Catherine’s day and the saint would either produce a husband or reform/dispatch him as required.

Because of St. Catherine’s association with the wheel, the “St. Catherine’s wheel” firework is probably the first association modern people think of. But in the Middle Ages the use of the wheel as an instrument of torture was a frequent sight in town squares across Europe. People would be tortured on the wheel in several ways but the worst — though least known today — was lacing the broken limbs of a victim through the spokes of the wheel and then spinning the victim to induce nausea as well as pain.

Because crucifixion was no longer practiced in Europe, artists had no models to paint from when depicting the crucifixion of Christ. It was the victims of the wheel that were most often used as models for depicting crucifixions, especially the two thieves on either side of Christ: the contortions of the crucified thieves display the positions commonly seen in victims of the wheel rather than what we now know to be the positions of victims of crucifixion. So, in fact, when we see medieval or Renaissance paintings of the crucifixion scene, we are often actually seeing depictions of contemporary victims of the wheel used as models by the artists.

There is no shortage of books about medieval torture, describing the wheel as well as other instruments used to provoke confessions of guilt from the accused. Although we, as modern people, are not surprised that people accused of outlandish crimes in the Middle Ages — such as being a werewolf or a witch — would confess simply to stop the torture it was the presumption of Classical Roman and medieval people that people subjected to torture would never lie; this must still be the presumption behind the use of “enhanced interrogation,” I think.

Our Lady of Deliverance

Posted on by
Reply
The altarpiece in Our Lady of Deliverance in Venice; note the angel on the right driving away Lady Plague with a torch.

The altarpiece in Our Lady of Deliverance in Venice; note the angel on the right driving away Lady Plague with a torch.

The bridge in 2011 to allow the procession to Our Lady of Deliverance in Venice.

The bridge in 2011 to allow the procession to Our Lady of Deliverance in Venice.

Each year on November 21, the feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple, a bridge is built across the water in Venice to allow a procession of the city council and the citizens of the city to Our Lady of Deliverance in thanksgiving for the end of the plague.

Beginning in the summer of 1630, a wave of the plague assaulted Venice, killing nearly a third of the population by 1631. In the city, 46,000 people died whilst in the lagoons the number was far higher, some 94,000. As a votive offering for the city’s deliverance from the pestilence, the Republic of Venice vowed to build and dedicate a church to Our Lady of Health (or of Deliverance, Italian: Salute). It was also decided that the Senate would visit the church each year on November 21 the Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin, also known as the Festa della Madonna della Salut. The city’s officials still parade from San Marco to the Salute for a service in gratitude for deliverance from the plague. This involves crossing the Grand Canal on a specially constructed pontoon bridge and is still a major event in Venice.

There are several such “plague churches” in Venice, each built to celebrate the end of one outbreak of plague or another. The plague was one of the most fearsome diseases anyone could face (until the development of modern antibiotics); an outbreak of the plague in a town was probably the most terrible thing the inhabitants could face, except war. Plague was fought with prayer and fasting, fire (burning the houses and corpses of the sick), and efforts to avoid the poisonous fumes or “miasmas” that were thought to spread the disease. (Sometimes poisoned water was thought to spread the disease as well.)

Plague, as all illnesses, was seen as a disruption of the balance of the four humors of the human body. Doctors sought to heal a patient by restoring the balance of the humors, often by “bleeding” a patient to remove the excessive humors; folk healers used herbs and plants to heal patients and the modern heirs of these folk healers are the pharmacists who provide medicine at a local pharmacy. “Pharmacology” was the Greek word for witchcraft because if a person knew how to use herbs and plants to heal, the person was assumed to know how to use these same herbs and plants to kill. Many people accused of witchcraft might still be put on trial today — but as poisoners, not witches.

Samhain 2015

Posted on by
Reply

Samhain pronunciation

“Winter is coming!” Samhain, the Celtic festival more commonly known as “Hallowe’en,” was considered the first day of winter in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Marking the day halfway between the autumnal equinox and the Winter Solstice, Samhain marked the beginning of the sun’s descent into darkness and the world’s embrace by the growing cold. Both these trends would be reversed at the Winter Solstice, marking the “midpoint” of the Winter season.

Like Beltane, on April 30-May 1, Samhain was seen as a time when the ‘door’ to the Otherworld opened enough for the souls of the dead, and other beings such as fairies, to come into our world. The souls of the dead were said to revisit their homes on Samhain. Lewis Spence described it as a “feast of the dead” and “festival of the fairies”. However, harmful spirits and fairies were also thought to be active at Samhain. People took steps to allay or ward-off these harmful spirits/fairies, which is thought to have influenced today’s Halloween customs. The practice of lighting bonfires during Hallowmas may have been a Christianized one, as the Celts lit bonfires during Samhain as well.

Big stores of Hallowe’en costumes and decorations have opened all over Manhattan. I will get out my hooded cape that I usually wear during the last week of October. I think that November 1 is also the day that we give up Daylight Savings Time this year and “fall back” an hour. The huge NYC Marathon will also be run on November 1 this year. How will YOU be marking this year’s descent into darkness at the end of October?