Devotion to St. Anne in Texts and Images

From Byzantium to the Late European Middle Ages

Elena Ene D-Vasilescu

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9783319893983
• eBook ISBN:
  9783319893990
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

St. Anne was popular with representatives of various segments of society – from monks, nuns, members of the clergy, royal patrons, to church-goers of every rank. This book looks into both the public and private worship of this holy woman and brings to the surface some under-exposed aspects of it. It does so through the examination of manuscripts, monumental art, relics, sculpture, and texts of various genres. The contributors employ a historical as well as a theological perspective on how the cult of St. Anne (sometimes also with glimpses concerning that of Joachim) established itself, referring to areas in Europe which are not frequently discussed in English-language scholarship. This new contribution to the field of hagiography will be of interest to academics from a variety of research fields, including theologians, Byzantinists, art and church historians, and historians of a larger scope. 

© The Author(s) 2018

Elena Ene D-Vasilescu (ed.)Devotion to St. Anne in Texts and Imageshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89399-0_1

Begin Abstract

1. The Lives of Joachim and Anne Depicted in the Church of Humor Monastery, Moldavia (Romania)

Adriana Balaban Bara¹

(1)

Department of Theological Studies, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada

Adriana Balaban Bara

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

My chapter describes a series of frescoes devoted to Saints Anne and Joachim in the Romanian monastic church of Humor. The paintings focus on the role this holy couple had in the Incarnation of the Word of God (through the essential involvement in it of their daughter, Mary).

The chapter comments on the iconographical reflection concerning the history of salvation that visually unfolds along the walls of this shrine dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin and to St. George at Humor. I believe that this history is characterized by three ‘reversals’ in which Mary was instrumental and implicitly so were her parents. Iconographers who works at Humor managed to render a subtle reality as thus; the manner in which they did so is explained.

Keywords

MaryAnneJoachimHumor‘Reversals’Frescoes

End Abstract

1 Introduction

In 1993 the church of Humor Monastery and six other similar houses of worship from northern Moldavia, Romania, were declared UNESCO Heritage sites thanks to the frescoes painted on their exterior walls, which reflect rich iconographical programmes. My chapter focuses on the church in Humor, which was built in 1530 and has as patronal feasts the Dormition of the Mother of God and St. George. The frescoes visible on both its outer and interior walls, painted in 1535, make this building unique. One of the iconographic series they contain—that which depicts the life of Mary and of her parents as the iconographers imagined it—is within its crypt (gropnița) where the founders are buried (Fig. 1.1).

Fig. 1.1

The church of Humor Monastery. (The author took all the photographs reproduced in this chapter)

The gropnița is placed between the nave and the narthex in the church we present here. At the time of its construction this architectural element represented an innovation.¹ The burial of important officials or benefactors next to churches was a popular practice in Orthodoxy, but for this purpose usually separate chapels annexed to the main church were used, and not spots within the ‘heart’ of the building (Fig. 1.2).²

Fig. 1.2

The Church of Humor Monastery—Isometric Cross View. 1—the open porch, 2—the narthex, 3—the room for the treasures of the church, 4—the gropnița, 5—the nave, 6—the altar. (Eng. Valentin Bara helped the author to draw the section of the church using dedicated software)

Paul Henry assumes that the placement of the burial chamber inside churches was an indicator of the increasing honour given to the founders after their death.³ However, this practice might have had another explanation. In Orthodox theology death is considered a rest in the expectation of the Resurrection (John 11: 11–13) at the second coming of Christ (1 Thess. 4: 13–14). For patrons and their families, the churches they found and offer to Christ in the hope to have their sins forgiven are the ideal places to await the eschatological event⁴—that was the case during the Byzantine era, the Middle Ages (in both Eastern and Western Christendom), and is today. Thus, the gropniţa could be understood as the embodiment of the belief in the Resurrection.

At Humor, the iconographers ingeniously chose to cover the walls of the burial chamber with scenes depicting the Last Judgment and the figures of the most beloved intercessors for the souls of the dead: the Mother of God, her parents Joachim and Anne, and the Archangel Michael. The fresco cycle depicting the life of Mary and of her parents is the most complex of this kind in Romania and in iconography in general. However, researchers have never studied it. This chapter introduces it to scholarship for the first time and analyses it from a theological perspective.

2 An Overview of the Theology Illustrated by the Series of Frescoes That Depicts the Life of Mary and of Her Parents, Joachim and Anne, at Humor

Christian theology centres on the coming of the Son of God into human history, that is, the Incarnation. The execution of the magnificent series of frescoes on the interior and exterior walls of the church of Humor Monastery was an attempt of the founders and iconographers to ‘speak’ to the viewers about this great event, and about others leading to it. Their endeavours are consistent with those of many similar creators from areas that formerly were under the cultural influence of Byzantium, who paint episodes from the lives of the saints who loved and worshiped Christ, prayed to Him, and/or were martyred for their faith in Him. The frescoes also represent His Nativity, Passions, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. Since these constitute the main themes of Christian faith, liturgy, and spirituality, the iconographers found it suitable to reflect about them vividly in colour.

The series of frescoes depicting the life of Mary and of her parents on the walls of the burial chamber at Humor does not in itself attempt a synthesis of Christian theology. The iconographer focused on the role of the Virgin and of her family in the Incarnation. He or they paid particular attention to the following occurrences in Anne and Joachim’s lives and in Mary’s infancy: Joachim and Anne’s gifts being accepted (Fig. 1.3), The Angel of the Lord appeared to Joachim in a desert (Fig. 1.4), Anne praying in her garden (Fig. 1.5), Joachim and Anne praying (individually) (Fig. 1.6), Anne and Joachim’s kiss (Fig. 1.7), Anne giving birth to Mary (Fig. 1.8); Anne who gives the infant Mary to Joachim (Fig. 1.9), Virgin Mary receiving the blessing of the priest (Fig. 1.10), Mary’s first steps [towards Anne] (Fig. 1.11), The Entry [Dedication] of the Mother of God into/to the Temple (Fig. 1.12), and Joachim’s sacrifice to the Temple (Fig. 1.13).

Fig. 1.3

Joachim and Anne’s gifts being accepted

Fig. 1.4

The Angel of the Lord Appeared to Joachim in a desert

Fig. 1.5

Anne prays in her garden

Fig. 1.6

Joachim and Anne praying (individually)

Fig. 1.7

The kiss of Anne and Joachim

Fig. 1.8

Anne giving birth to Mary

Fig. 1.9

Anne gives the infant Mary to Joachim

Fig. 1.10

Virgin Mary receiving the blessing of the priests

Fig. 1.11

Mary’s first steps (towards Anne)

Fig. 1.12

The Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple (The dedication of the Virgin to the Temple)

Fig. 1.13

Joachim’s sacrifice to the Temple

Other scenes from the history of Christianity are depicted within the cycle of fresco we discuss here: Mary meeting with St. Joseph, the Annunciation through the Archangel Gabriel about Mary’s role in the history of salvation [that of Bearer of the divine Redeemer], the birth of Christ, the flight to Egypt of Mary an...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. The Lives of Joachim and Anne Depicted in the Church of Humor Monastery, Moldavia (Romania)
• 2. The Pleasure of Child Nursing: St. Anne and the Infant Mary in Texts and Byzantine Art
• 3. The Reception of Saint Anne’s Cult in the Hungarian Ecclesiastical Environment: Her Legend in Codices
• 4. An Alternative Suggestion Regarding the Origins of the Image ‘The Education of the Virgin’
• Back Matter