From Mary’s Motherhood to the Immaculate Conception: An Iconographic Analysis of Marian Art in Spain during the Tenth to Nineteenth Centuries

This article analyzes Marian art in Spain from the tenth to nineteenth centuries in order to show how popular piety represented Mary’s motherhood. Through art, including architecture, painting, sculpture, and oral preaching, a popular image of Mary emerged and, in turn, became key for understanding the history of the family in western Catholic countries. Studying the evolution of Marian iconography during this thousand-year period reveals a kind of grandeur, and then a certain crisis, surrounding Mary’s motherhood. This crisis specifically involves the meaning of the body as an effective sign of the personal gift-of-self. We argue that this process ran parallel to growing problems in theological culture related to reconciling the natural and supernatural realms, and we further sustain that it contains a true cultural revolution, a shift that is at the origin of many later transformations. This interpretation helps better understand the dilemmas surrounding the history of the family in the West, and specifically of motherhood, from the point of view of the Christian tradition.

7. Modern Mary—Reformation to the present

‘Modern Mary—Reformation to the present’ looks at the Virgin Mary from the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century to the present. During this period Mary was often at the centre of conflicts over religious ideals that contributed to the Enlightenment. The Catholic Council of Trent reaffirmed Mary’s perpetual virginity, intercession, pilgrimage, and relics. Catholic Marian beliefs were shaped by some of the misgivings that Protestants had voiced about Catholic views of Mary. The rosary and apparitions of Mary illustrate Catholic views of Mary after the Council of Trent. The so-called ‘Marian Century’ began in 1854 with Pope Pius IX’s declaration of Mary’s Immaculate Conception effectively ended in 1965 with the church reforms of Vatican II. Marian spirituality in the 21st century have taken often surprising directions.

Our Lady of Caysasay, the Chinese Goddess of the Sea

This chapter examines the foundation and growth of the devotion to a foot-high wooden icon of the Immaculate Conception who has also been identified as Ma-Cho, the Chinese goddess of the sea and seafarers, since the seventeenth century. It argues that Tagalogs, Spaniards, and Chinese embraced the devotion to Our Lady of Caysasay as a means to protest the indiscriminate massacre of the Chinese of 1639. Tagalog and Spanish grievances over the mass killings of the Christian Chinese in the Taal region were recorded in an investigation conducted by the Manila Church in 1640. The investigation concerned Juan Imbin, a Christian Chinese stonecutter who was believed to have been pulled out of the sea and revived by Our Lady of Caysasay after he had been executed, along with other condemned Chinese, by Spanish forces. Imbin’s miracle investigation is also the only extant source that voices the story of the massacre from the point of view of the Chinese who were targeted by the order of extermination. I argue that it is only by examining the testimonies of witnesses who participated in the investigation of the miracle that we can understand why this particular story was chosen to be remembered by the community at large.

Сикст IV как заказчик Сикстинских капелл

The name of Sixtus IV is associated with three Sistine Chapels: in the Vatican Palace, in the former convent of San Francesco in Savona, and in the old Basilica of San Pietro in Rome (also known as the Choir Chapel and Immaculate Chapel). The former is well studied by scientists. While remaining two chapels are much less discussed in the literature since their Quattrocentist setting has largely been lost. The article compares these three major artistic orders and for the first time shows how different their ecclesiastical and social significance were, and how distinctively the outstanding personality of Sixtus IV was manifested in each of them. In the Vatican chapel are depicted his religious, political and philanthropic activities. The funeral chapel in San Pietro was designed to provide the customer with a happy afterlife and perpetuates Sixtus IV as a real Pope-King. The Chapel of the Immaculate Conception located far from Rome became the mausoleum for the pontiff's parents and provides the most complete picture of his personal qualities. In this monument Sixtus IV is shown as an attentive son, but also practically dared to put himself on a par with the saints. С именем Сикста IV связаны три Сикстинские капеллы: в Ватиканском дворце, бывшем монастыре Сан-Франческо в Савоне и старой базилике Сан-Пьетро в Риме (также известная как капелла хора и капелла Непорочного зачатия). Первой из них посвящено множество исследований. Две другие представлены в литературе значительно более скромно (их кватрочентистская декорация во многом была утрачена). В статье путем сопоставления этих трех крупных художественных заказов впервые показано, насколько разными были их церковное и общественное значение и как самобытно в каждом из них проявилась выдающаяся личность Сикста IV. В ватиканской капелле запечатлена его религиозно-политическая и меценатская деятельность. Погребальная капелла в Сан-Пьетро, призванная обеспечить заказчику счастливую загробную участь, увековечивает его в памяти потомков как настоящего Папу-Короля. Удаленная от Рима капелла Непорочного зачатия, ставшая мавзолеем родителей понтифика, дает наиболее полное представление о его личных качествах. В этом памятнике Сикст IV не только проявил трогательную сыновью заботу, но и практически дерзнул поставить себя в один ряд со святыми.

A Lifetime in Error: Helena P. Blavatsky and the Immaculate Conception

This article presents the cognitive error made by Helena P. Blavatsky concerning the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Blavatsky’s error consisted in ascribing the term “Immaculate Conception” to the content of one of the basic tenets of the Christian faith, which is the Incarnation of the Lord. An additional mistake in connection with this error was the observation that it was only in the middle of the 19th century that the Church elevated this truth to the rank of dogma. The confusion of the conception of the Mother with the Incarnation of the Son, and the association of the latter with the term “Immaculate Conception” gave rise to further difficulties, when the new verse of the Litany of Loretto pointed to Mary as “immaculately conceived.” The doubled cognitive problem that H. P. Blavatsky had to face because of this led her to announce further fantastic theories about the Immaculate Conception, which were not challenged by anyone for the next 150 years. Her grave cognitive error is now widespread and responsible for the functioning in contemporary Western culture of popular expressions such as the “Immaculate Conception of Christ,” where the “immaculateness” of the conception means the absence of sexual intercourse leading to the conception of a child. As a result of the widespread use of expressions of this type the authentic content of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary remains unknown to many people. In the article, this issue is presented based on the sources, which testify to the agency of H. P. Blavatsky as regards the spread of this cognitive error in the Western culture.

Un programa de exaltación mariana en la iglesia de santa María la Blanca de Sevilla

ABSTRACT: Santa María La Blanca, a medieval Church in Sevilla, was renovated in the XVII century. At that time a unique ornamentation program was developed in light of the brief pontifical in 1661about the immaculate conception of Mary. The restoration in 2015 of its plasterwork and wall paintings has allowed the recovery of the images and texts of its program, an iconographic message about Marian praise and eucharistic cult that is analyzed in this study. KEYWORDS: Justino de Neve; Murillo; Faux Plasterwork; Litanies; Baroque Festivity. RESUMEN: La iglesia medieval de Santa María la Blanca de Sevilla fue renovada durante el siglo XVII, desarrollándose su ornamentación tras el Breve Pontificio de 1661 sobre la concepción inmaculada de María. La restauración en 2015 de las yeserías y pinturas murales de su interior ha permitido recuperar las imágenes y textos del programa de exaltación mariana que, junto al culto eucarístico, integran su mensaje iconográfico. PALABRAS CLAVES: Justino de Neve; Murillo; yeserías fingidas; letanías; fiesta barroca.

Una escultura inédita de san Roque del Círculo de Balduque, recuperada en Tenerife

"In this paper we study a wood sculpture representing Saint Roch of Montpellier that belongs to the parish church of The Immaculate Conception, in Realejo Bajo, Los Realejos (Tenerife). The religious effigy, which was venerated in the extinct Franciscan Convent of Saint Lucy, in the same town, has recently been restored. Its art features allow us to relate this simulacrum to the art of the well-known Flemish sculptor and woodcarver Roque de Balduque, who worked in Seville from 1534 to 1561 and is one of the most prominent figures in 16th-century Spanish sculpture."

A festa religiosa de Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Vila Viçosa ao tempo de D. João II, duque de Bragança (1630-1640)

The devotion to the Immaculate Conception in Vila Viçosareassembles to the Middle Age. With the establishment of House of Braganza in the locality, was extremely estimated by the ducal family. The party, organized by the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Conception, included a Eucharistic celebration, a monumental procession, and other profane amusements, including bullfights and fireworks. The study of this 17th century celebration focuses on the account of António de Oliveira de Cadornega is cross-checked with brotherhood documentation and with other historiography