medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Friday, August 31, 2007, at 6:50 am, Jon Cannon wrote:
> Surely the thrice-crowing cock of St Peter's denial is the key model
> (itself presumably echoing prophetic sources)?
Er, Jon, have you got a text of Peter's denials in which a cock crows thrice?
In Matthew (26:70-74), Luke (22:57-60), and John (18:25-27) the three denials take place before any crowing. In Mark (14:67-72), there are three denials but only two crowings (matching the form of the prediction at 14:30).
Three is such a common way of expressing multiple instances ("What I tell you three times is true") that parallel occurrences of three apparitions may not be all that significant. One would also want to know about cases where the apparitions are said to have occurred either several times (number unspecified) or else in some low number other than three. One later example (twelfth-century): John the Baptist appeared twice before he could get a human to tell Grimoald of Pontecorvo that he should build a church in J.'s honor.
If I remember correctly, the late eighth- or ninth-century _Liber de apparitione sancti Michaelis in monte Gargano_ (BHL 5948) says that the archangel appeared several times (in dream visions) to the bishop of Siponto (later said to have been Lawrence of Siponto, but that of course is another story) prior to the appearance in which the bishop is enjoined to bear witness to the existence of the newly created shrine. One could check to see whether a particular number of appearances is specified.
Best,
John Dillon
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