medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Westminster Abbey had a relic of footprints of Christ, presented by Henry III; see Nicholas Vincent, Holy Blood: King Henry III and the Westminster Blood relic (Cambridge UPr, 2001).
Tom Izbicki
Thomas Izbicki
Research Services Librarian
and Gifts-in-Kind Officer
Eisenhower Library
Johns Hopkins
Baltimore, MD 21218
(410)516-7173
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>>> "Grover Zinn (imap)" <[log in to unmask]> 6/20/2007 12:00 AM >>>
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Jim is right about the widespread nature of this phenomenon.
Medieval pilgrims believed that Jesus' footprints could be seen in
the Church of the Ascension (if you want to see a photo of the
purported right footprint go to www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/
jerusalem-chapel-of-ascension.htm which I found by googling; I have
no opinion about the web site!). If my memory is not entirely
faulty, there were a number of sites in France where the "knee
prints" of St. Martin of Tours' donkey could be found in stones----
prints made when the donkey knelt down for St. Martin as he made his
yearly visitations to parishes, etc. I believe there is a tradition
of "footprints" of the historical Buddha, but there is also a long
tradition of artistic representations of his footprint with symbols.
And yes, Jim, a systematic study would be fascinating.
Grover Zinn
Grover A. Zinn
William H. Danforth Professor of Religion (emeritus)
former Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Oberlin College
Oberlin, OH 44074
440-775-8866 (department)
[log in to unmask]
On Jun 19, 2007, at 8:47 PM, jbugslag wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
>> John Dillon wrote:
>>> "The mass had ended and the grotto was emptying. We were watching
>>> this at leisure now. Near the altar a water basin is standing from
>>> which the pilgrims are drawing the water of the holy source. Nearby
>>> an ancient statue of the Archangel is set up. Here as well a
>>> footprint of his is shown in a stone, his only relic. But are the
>>> angels so heavy footed and so heavy walking as to be able to leave
>>> such footprints?"
>
> Possibly not, but this is a common and quite old topos. I'm
> currently reading Pausanias, and
> there are lots of references to such "achieropoietic" body prints
> in rocks, in relation to ancient
> Greek gods and heroes, long before they became Christianized. But
> there are lots of
> examples of Christian "body prints" -- not just footprints but
> handprints and, for want of a
> better word, bumprints (where holy figures sat on a rock). This is
> one of those little noticed
> phenomena that is crying out for systematic study.
> Cheers,
> Jim Bugslag
>
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