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To add to the references on St Mary of Charity: the Arena Chapel (or 
Scrovegni Chapel) in Padua, frescoed by Giotto in c. 1305, is jointly 
dedicated to the Virgin Annunciate and to Santa Maria della Carita. The 
importance of Mary of Charity in this context is that the patron, Enrico 
Scrovegni had acquired a vast family fortune as a result of usury, and 
hoped to expiate his sin by building this chapel.

As for John the Evangelist in this connection, there is a connection in 
this chapel between the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist, on the basis 
of their virginity/chastity. Enrico Scrovegni seems to have been under 
the influence of a religious/knightly order known as the Cavalieri 
Gaudenti, whose main interests were the opposition of usury, and the 
promotion of marital chastity and virginity, and it is said that there is 
a certain amount of concentration in the Arena chapel on male chastity 
and virginity (in the persons of Joachim, Joseph and John the 
Evangelist), as a result of the influence of the Cavalieri Gaudenti.

John the Evangelist is sometimes identified as one of the two figures who 
stand with the Virgin to accept Enrico Scrovegni's donation of the 
chapel, in the Last Judgement painting on the west wall of the Arena Chapel.

I hope some of this may be of interest to you.

Beth Williamson
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