medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Today (25. November) is the feast day of:

Catherine of Alexandria (d. ca. 305, supposedly). The virgin martyr Catherine's historicity is very poorly attested. Herewith two illustrated, English-language sites on the monastery honoring her on the Sinai peninsula in Egypt (whither her body is said to have been miraculously transported and where her veneration is unmentioned in any of the surviving late antique pilgrim accounts): 
http://www.geographia.com/egypt/sinai/stcatherine.html
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/egypt/sinai-monastery
Catherine's body being carried thither by angels, as depicted in the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry (ca. 1407; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, ms. 1954 [54.1.1], fol. 20r):
http://tinyurl.com/d7purrs
Catherine in a tripartite scene (ca. 1428-1430; image expandable), said here to be by Masolino da Panicale, showing 1) her about to be decapitated, 2) her infant soul being held aloft by an angel, 3) angels at her tomb on top of a mountain (Sinai, presumably):
http://tinyurl.com/35layt
The present arrangements for housing Catherine's putative relics:
http://www.sinaimonastery.com/en/index.php?lid=84#


Other portrayals of Catherine:

a) As depicted in the earlier eleventh-century mosaics (restored between 1953 and 1962) in the katholikon of the monastery of Hosios Loukas near Distomo in Phokis: 
http://tinyurl.com/39uqg7t

b) As depicted in a later twelfth-century fresco (betw. 1160 and 1190) in the church of St. Nicholas Kasnitzes in Kastoria:
http://tinyurl.com/6rv6zea

c) As depicted in an earlier thirteenth-century fresco (1233/1234) from the chapel of St. Nicholas in the Spilia Penteli in northern Attika, now in the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens:
http://www.byzantinemuseum.gr/pictures/b_1950_1068.jpg
http://www.byzantinemuseum.gr/en/collections/wall_paintings/?bxm=1068

d) As depicted in a thirteenth-century wall painting in Hailes Church (Glos):
http://tinyurl.com/yucv7k
The church itself:
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/hailes-church.htm

e) As depicted in the later thirteenth-century frescoes (1259) in the church of Sts. Nicholas and Panteleimon at Boyana near the Bulgarian capital of Sofia:
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0010b.jpg

f) As depicted in a later thirteenth-century (ca. 1260) Cistercian psalter (Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 54, fol. 11r):
http://tinyurl.com/332y45h

g) As depicted in a later thirteenth-century psalter for the Use of Reims (Carpentras, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 77 (\1), fol. 178v):
http://tinyurl.com/3a8pdqe

h) As depicted in a late thirteenth-century Book of Hours (ca. 1280-1290) for the Use of Thérouanne (Marseille, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 111, fol. 148r):
http://tinyurl.com/2v485b6

i) As depicted in an initial in a late thirteenth- / early fourteenth-century copy of Clemence of Barking's _La vie sainte Katherine_ (London, British Library, MS add. 70513, fol. 246r):
http://arts.uwaterloo.ca/~drussell/images/Kth246r.jpg
NB: Texts of the poem from this and two other witnesses are available at no. 13 here: 
http://margot.uwaterloo.ca/campsey/CmpBrowserFrame_f.html

j) As depicted (scenes) in an early fourteenth-century window (nXXIII; ca. 1306-1310; restored in 1928 and in 1945; photographs by Gordon Plumb):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4790842797/
Details: 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4791487850/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4791496828/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4791499540/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4790871257/

k) As depicted (at left; at right, St. Irene) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1311 and ca. 1322) in the church of St. Nicholas Orphanos in Thessaloniki:
http://tinyurl.com/3wnopzz
Detail view (Catherine):
http://tinyurl.com/3qxhp35

l) As depicted (in this detail view, upper register at right) by Simone Martini in his earlier fourteenth-century Polyptych of Santa Caterina (1319) in the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo in Pisa:
http://www.wga.hu/art/s/simone/4altars/3pisa/3pisa.jpg

m) As depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century window panel in the Latin Chapel, Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford (photographs by Gordon Plumb):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2715295068/
Detail view:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2714499961/

n) As depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1330) by Gregorio d'Arezzo and Donato d'Arezzo in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles:
http://www.insecula.com/oeuvre/photo_ME0000095165.html

o) As depicted in an illumination, attributed to the Fauvel Master, in an earlier fourteenth-century collection of French-language saint's lives (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 183, fol. 100v):
http://tinyurl.com/ykkzgpo

p) As depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century panel painting (betw. 1335 and 1340) by Bernardo Daddi in a private collection in Milan: 
http://tinyurl.com/yku9mwa

q) As depicted (at right; at left, St. Augustine of Hippo) as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century glass window (ca. 1340) in the entrance hall -- an enclosed porch -- of the Basilika Mariä Himmelfahrt in Gurk (Land Kärnten):
http://www.burgenseite.com/glas/gurk_glas_3.jpg

r) As depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century panel painting (betw. 1330 and 1350) by Barna da Siena of Catherine's mystical marriage with Christ, now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston:
http://tinyurl.com/2ewhze2

s) As depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century panel painting (betw. 1342 and 1345) by Pietro Lorenzetti in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/13.212

t) As depicted in an illumination by Richard or Jeanne de Montbaston in an earlier fourteenth-century copy (1348) of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 316r):
http://tinyurl.com/yktrtxz

u) As depicted (at right; at left, St. John the Baptist) in a mid-fourteenth-century panel painting by Paolo Veneziano in the Art Institute of Chicago:
http://www.insecula.com/oeuvre/photo_ME0000093460.html

v) As depicted (lower register, far left) by Paolo Veneziano and Giovannino Veneziano in their mid-fourteenth-century Coronation of the Virgin altarpiece in the Pinacoteca comunale in San Severino Marche (MC):
http://tinyurl.com/6ffo4r

w) As depicted in a fourteenth-century glass window panel from the Church of St Andrew in Woodwalton (Cambs; olim Hunts), now in the Stained Glass Museum in Ely Cathedral (photographs by Gordon Plumb):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4682815852/
Detail view:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4682191729/

x) As depicted on one side of a fourteenth-century double icon from Veria (Imathia prefecture) in northern Greece, now in the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens:
http://tinyurl.com/6m2mv2b

y) As depicted in the later fourteenth-century frescoes (1360s and 1370s; restored in 1968-1970) in the church of St. Demetrius in Marko's Monastery at Markova Sušica (near Skopje) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/3lmf88z
 
z) As portrayed on a late fourteenth-century silver gilt reliquary pendant (betw. 1380 and 1390) of Parisian origin in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London:
http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/19232-popup.html

aa) As depicted (at right; at left, St. Nicholas of Myra) in a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1395-1400 or ca. 1405) by Gentile da Fabriano in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin:
http://www.wga.hu/art/g/gentile/virgin_c.jpg

bb) As portrayed in a late fourteenth- or earlier fifteenth-century ivory statuette from the Rheinland now in Paris in the Musée du Louvre (the first two photographs courtesy of Genevra Kornbluth):
http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/images/Catherine1.jpg
http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/images/Catherine2.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/ct8css8 [for 'Maxentius' read' Maximianus']

cc) As depicted (scenes, starting here and going forward) in the earlier fifteenth-century (ca. 1407) Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry (ca. 1407; The Cloisters Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, ms. 1954 [54.1.1], fols. 15r-20r):
http://blog.metmuseum.org/artofillumination/manuscript-pages/folio-15r/ 
 
dd) As depicted (martyrdom scene) in an earlier fifteenth-century fresco (betw. 1428 and 1431) by Masolino da Panicale in the cappella di Santa Caterina in Rome's basilica di San Clemente:
http://tinyurl.com/2a2vyn

ee) As depicted with a donor in a mid-fifteenth-century glass window panel (ca. 1450) from the église Saint-Étienne in Elbeuf (Seine-Maritime), now in The Cloisters Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:
http://tinyurl.com/bro2bd5

ff) As depicted (at upper left; at upper right, St. Anne) in a later fifteenth-century glass window panel (after 1450) in the Church of St George, Stamford (Lincs; photographs by Gordon Plumb):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2914730767/
Detail views (Catherine):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2914730767/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2915590414/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2915387759/

gg) As portrayed in a later fifteenth-century polychromed wooden reliquary bust (ca. 1465) of northern Netherlandish origin in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:
http://tinyurl.com/cehrsm5
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/elissacorsini/2469273485/

hh) As depicted in a later fifteenth-century panel painting (1467) by Michael Pacher in the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck:
http://www.wga.hu/art/p/pacher/various/1lauren3.jpg

ii) As depicted in a later fifteenth-century panel painting by Carlo Crivelli (ca. 1470; from his now dismembered Montefiore altarpiece) in the chiesa di Santa Lucia in Montefiore dell'Aso (AP) in the Marche:
http://tinyurl.com/2c2cx9
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/2dd4ar

jj) As portrayed in relief on a wing of the later fifteenth-century altar of Kölner origin, since 1931 in Sankt Peters Klosters kyrka in Lund:
http://tinyurl.com/285r4mv
The opened altarpiece as a whole:
http://tinyurl.com/267qf65

kk) As portrayed in a late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century statue in Jelling Kirke in Sydjylland:
http://tinyurl.com/299esod

ll) As depicted in a late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century icon in the Simonopetra monastery on Mt. Athos:
http://home.yebo.co.za/~xenitis/AgAikaterini.jpg

mm) As depicted in a late fifteenth- or earlier sixteenth-century drawing by Albrecht Dürer in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/90001741

nn) As depicted trampling the emperor Maximianus in a late fifteenth- or earlier sixteenth-century glass roundel of southern Netherlandish origin in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:
http://tinyurl.com/bwrevqg

oo) As depicted in an earlier sixteenth-century glass window panel of Kölner origin in the Museum Schnütgen in Köln:
http://tinyurl.com/3adest2

Other late medieval glass images of Catherine are linked to in a post from 2011 by Gordon Plumb:
http://tinyurl.com/ckhqquq


Other dedications to Catherine:

a) The originally twelfth- / fourteenth-century St Catherine's Church, East Tilbury (Essex):
http://tinyurl.com/2yj9mg

b) The originally late twelfth-century iglesia de Santa Catalina de Alejandría in Azcona (Navarra):
http://www.romanicoennavarra.info/azcona.htm?action=intro
http://www.romanicoennavarra.info/album_azcona.htm

c) The originally earlier thirteenth-century Katharinenkirche at Bliedersdorf (Lkr. Stade) in Niedersachsen (1240 with later modifications): 
http://tinyurl.com/2ngp6t
http://tinyurl.com/2m9l87

d) The mostly later thirteenth- and fourteenth-century chiesa di Santa Caterina (d'Alessandria) in Pisa:
Illustrated English-language and Italian-language pages, with rather different dates for the building's construction (the last of these, from Stile Pisano, has many expandable views following the text):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Caterina_%28Pisa%29
http://tinyurl.com/3yvtqoh
http://tinyurl.com/2wht649

e) The originally late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century church of Agia Aikaterini in Thessaloniki (before 1315):
Some exterior views and a German-language page with views of the interior (incl. earlier fourteenth-century portraits of St. David of Thessaloniki and St. John the Dwarf and other frescoing):
http://www.thessaloniki4all.gr/main.php?lang=en
http://tinyurl.com/345fadh
http://tinyurl.com/3xcbjuo
http://tinyurl.com/2aurytw
http://tinyurl.com/28poseu
http://tinyurl.com/caxqxqj

f) An illustrated, German-language page on the originally thirteenth- / earlier fifteenth-century Katharinenkirche in Oppenheim (Lkr. Mainz-Bingen) in Rheinland-Pfalz:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharinenkirche_%28Oppenheim%29
Aerial view:
http://www.bildagentur-rath.de/typo3temp/pics/9b36135d1d.jpg
Other exterior views (in the first two photographs it's the more distant of the two churches):
http://georg-dahlhoff.de/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/200906032832.jpg
http://georg-dahlhoff.de/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/201109152644.jpg
http://cdn.fotocommunity.com/photos/15793194.jpg
http://www.darnellfamily.org/Albums/Germany2007/G32.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/23ox8ty
http://tinyurl.com/26fko2
http://tinyurl.com/283fjkw
Interior views:
http://tinyurl.com/2azb4ou
http://tinyurl.com/2fh3v5q
http://tinyurl.com/2a3wuyl

g) Illustrated Spanish-language and Catalan-language pages on the originally thirteenth- / sixteenth-century iglesia de Santa Catalina in the city of Valencia:
http://tinyurl.com/23sfsnx
http://tinyurl.com/26zb93z

h) Some illustrated pages on the restored earlier fourteenth-century St Catherine's Lighthouse on the Isle of Wight, once adjoined by an oratory dedicated to Catherine:
http://www.invectis.co.uk/iow/orat.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/gal_coast_02.shtml
http://tinyurl.com/cjd6bxx
(That last view shows the roofline of the now vanished oratory.)
Other views:
http://tinyurl.com/cszyyyw
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anotherpintplease/7271966348/lightbox/
One doesn't often have the opportunity in 'Feasts and saints of the day' to show a medieval lighthouse. 

i) An aerial view, a flank view, and a German-language page with expandable views of the originally earlier fourteenth-century Katharinenkirche in Osnabrück (1342; built over the foundations of an earlier thirteenth-century predecessor):
http://tinyurl.com/2cuv5vk
http://cdn1.venyoobot.de/images/gj/uh/gjuh3r_400_600.jpg
http://www.osnabrueck.de/6522.asp

j) An illustrated, Spanish-language page on the originally fourteenth-century iglesia de Santa Catalina in Seville:
http://tinyurl.com/65nbew
That huge portal was moved to its present location from another church in 1929. The original, mudejar-style entrance is behind it:
http://www.sevilla5.com/monuments/mphotos/santacatalina2.jpg

k) The originally fourteenth- / fifteenth-century Church of St Catherine, Ludham (Norfolk; more expandable views near foot of page):
http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/ludham/ludham.htm

l) The originally fourteenth- / fifteenth-century St Catherine's Church, Boot (Cumbria; an expansion of [replacement for?] a chapel of the same dedication attested from 1125):
http://www.visitcumbria.com/wc/chc3.htm
http://www.walkthefells.net/DIR.asp?DIR_ID=22 

m) The originally fourteenth- / fifteenth-century Katharinenkirche in Salzwedel (Sachsen-Anhalt):
An illustrated, German-language site:
http://tinyurl.com/27ypke
That site's gallery of expandable views and its pages on the church's building history, on its sculptures, and on its stained glass (mostly early fifteenth-century):
http://tinyurl.com/29na8h
http://tinyurl.com/2bpdsyj
http://tinyurl.com/22kbzsz
http://tinyurl.com/2apycb6

n) The originally earlier fifteenth-century chapel (1421/1422) of Agia Aikaterina (Παρεκκλήσιο της Αγίας Κατερίνης) at Pyrga (Larnaka prefecture) in the Republic of Cyprus, believed to have been founded by the Lusignan king Janus (1398-1432) and thus often styled a Royal Chapel (Βασιλικό Παρεκκλήσιο):
http://tinyurl.com/2g98c8c
http://tinyurl.com/29w86qg

o) An illustrated, Italian-language page on the originally fifteenth-century church dedicated to Catherine in Northern Nicosia / Lefkoşa in Turkish-dominated northern Cyprus, converted to a mosque (Haydar Paşa camii) after the Turkish conquest of 1570:
http://wwwbisanzioit.blogspot.com/2011/10/chiesa-di-scaterina-nicosia.html
Other views:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/guraydere/1830899575/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanaplin/5335774518/lightbox/
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2157/1805773108_d987136a72.jpg

p) The originally fifteenth-century kostol Sv. Kataríny in Banská Štiavnica in Slovakia (1443-1491):
http://tinyurl.com/26eq7e 
http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/46962094

q) The originally later fifteenth-century église Sainte-Catherine in Honfleur (Calvados) in Normandy (1460-1490 with later modifications):
http://tinyurl.com/cadr3sw

r) The originally fifteenth- and earlier sixteenth-century Sint-Katharina en Sint-Corneliuskerk in Diegem in Machelen, Flemish Brabant (consecrated, 1543; the crossing tower is a modern re-building of a destroyed seventeenth-century predecessor):
http://www.belgiumview.com/belgiumview/tl3/view0000314.php4

Best,
John Dillon
(Part 2 to follow)

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