medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Martin Howley <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> According to Geoffrey Grigson;
i don't know this fellow.
seems a bit like Robert Graves, whose non-fiction ("The Greek Myths") work i
rather like.
>'... a church of [St Michael] crowning our English or Welsh hills has
links with the Christianity of Coptic anchorites or monks in the deserts
of Upper Egypt
of course, its name to the contrary notwithstanding, "Upper Egypt" was not a
particularly "High Place", perversely.
>in the fourth century. The Egyptians had thought of their god Osiris as 'the
light of the sun which vanishes in the shadows every evening to reappear more
brilliantly at dawn'; Egyptian monks gave Osiris-like qualities to this
archangel, who was also weigher of souls, and built chapels to him on the roof
of their monasteries where they would catch the first rays at sunrise.
this puts me in mind of a very curious ("Coptic") relief sculpture in the
Louvre, depicting a mounted soldier in full (roman) military dress,
dispatching a crocodile below with a long lance.
the figure has the head of a falcon --Horus, presumably, the traditional
slayer of the underworld god (crocodile), Seth. as best i can recall, there is
nothing specifically "Christian" about the iconography (no cross at the end of
the lance, for example), and the association "Coptic" --if indeed it has any
validity at all-- might be based on some other criteria, such as the
archaeological context in which the relief was found.
if Coptic, we're dealing here with the interface between (or convergence of?)
two "different" religious traditions (one extraordinarily ancient, the other
still in process of being birthed), themselves expressions of profound psychic
phenomena which are, fundamentally, reflective of a single Reality.
we can see similar convergences in our own Benighted Epoch, on occasion:
I dreamed I saw St. Augustine,
Alive as you or me,
Tearing through these quarters
In the utmost misery;
With a blanket underneath his arm
And a coat of solid gold,
Searching for the very souls
Whom already have been sold.
"Arise, arise," he cried so loud,
In a voice without restraint,
"Come out, ye gifted kings and queens
And hear my sad complaint.
No martyr is among ye now
Whom you can call your own,
So go on your way accordingly
But know you're not alone."
I dreamed I saw St. Augustine,
Alive with fiery breath,
And I dreamed I was amongst the ones
That put him out to death.
Oh, I awoke in anger,
So alone and terrified,
I put my fingers against the glass
And bowed my head and cried.
here in a very nice new "cover", by a 20-something singer-songwriter who was
born a few years after the original was written:
http://www.theagilmore.com/soundfiles/staugustine.mp3
(sorry)
>Coptic Christianity much influenced the practices of British Christianity in
the Dark Ages, which probably explains the abundance of
Michael churches and chapels on the hills of Cornwall, the West of England and
Wales.
a bit far-fetched, but possibly the vector of transmission, i suppose.
Oswald Spengler has an interesting concept which he calls "Historical
Pseudomorphosis", which might be applicable here.
>The most wonderful of the Michael's mounts of the British Isles beongs to
Ireland - the island-rock of Skellig Michael off the Kerry coast, where nearly
700 feet above the Atlantic the saint has a little medieval church surrounded
by the more ancient beehive huts or cells of a Celtic monastery.'
yes, this is one pattern, as in Tom and Megan's mention of Mt. St. Michel &
LePuy.
>See his _The Shell Country Book_, pp 49-51.
goodness, the only copy of this at Indiana U. is in the Lilly Rare Book
Library.
the Historical Roots of the association of Michael with High Places is, of
course, a quite valid course of enquiry.
Life is Short, however, and my own interest is in the phenomenon as it
manifests itself in the High M.A., especially the architecture of the 11th and
12th cc.
looking at the liturgy associated with these St. Michael chapels would be a
start, perhaps, and i don't know whether or not anything survives from, say,
Chartres which might throw some light on kind of ideas which were associated
with the cult in this period.
best from here,
christopher
Christopher's Book Room
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