Dear List
I am working on Florentine devotional manuscripts, dating from the
fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Two of these contain a legend of
'Santa Smera' or 'Santa Ismera'. The narrative describes Smera as the
mother of St Anne and grandmother of the Virgin. She retires to a hospital
(spedale) after the marriage of her daughter to Joachim and the death of
her own husband. There she performs various miracles and charitable acts
and dies in an odour of sanctity etc. This legend appears to be entirely
different to the more usual legends of St. Anne which name her parents as
Emerentiana and Stollanus and her sister as Ismeria. Has anyone come
across this legend? I would be very grateful if anyone could help me with
tracing or finding this.
Thanks
Catherine
Dr. Catherine Lawless
Department of the History of Art
Trinity College
Dublin 2
Tel: 6082480
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