 |
 |
At 04:28 PM 8/31/00 -0400, you wrote: >> From: [log in to unmask] [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] With reference to caves and apparitions - the first section of Ruth Harris's Lourdes: Body and Mind in a Secular Society, 1999 (I am not sure I have the title quite right) is well worth reading, as indeed is the whole book. > > Also keep in mind that for centuries the main focus of pilgrimage at >Whithorn Priory was Ninian's cave. Of course that could well have been a >hermit's cave in monastic times, but was it originally so? After all, so >many Celtic sacred sites have caves associated with them. The association of >underground sanctuary and shining figure was not uncommon, even in the >Christian period. There's Jesus rising from the dead, of course--after being >placed in a cave-like sepulcher--and one might also point to sites like >Montesantangelo where the underground mountaintop sanctuary dates from >pre-Christian times, though it was later associated with the shining figure >of Michael the archangel. > > Francine > > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%