The Ultimate Miracle: Revival of the Dead in Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria
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Connie L. Scarborough
Abstract
Restoration to life after death constituted a dramatic miracle, a manifestation of God’s power that defies all natural law. The Virgin Mary as the most significant intercessor between mortals and God was a firmly established tenet of the medieval Church. A blueprint for miracle stories about restoring life was found in the biblical tale of Christ’s resurrection of Lazarus as related in chapter eleven of the Gospel of St. John. Revivals of those who have died in Marian miracle tales often follow the same pattern as the Lazarus narrative of the New Testament: initially family or friends of the deceased grieve, they pray fervently that the deceased person be restored to life, the prayer is answered, and the miracle attests to the rewards of faithful devotion. In the case of Marian miracle narratives, the Virgin’s ability to revive the dead is second only to her ability to rescue the faithful from harrowing circumstances, injury, or disease. That her protective grace extends even to the deceased is a repeating theme in Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria. Of the collection’s some four hundred songs relating miracles performed by Holy Mary, twenty-seven involve the Virgin resurrecting the dead.
The Virgin Mary’s ability to restore life to the dead not only establishes her preeminence in the salvation narrative but also the authority she wields in the lives of her faithful devotees. This article analyzes select narratives from the Cantigas that deal with revival of the dead from the standpoint of the heightened emphasis on Marian devotion in the thirteenth century. These tales also reflect the Virgin’s boundless mercy that extends to innocent victims as well as to sinners whose saving grace is their devotion to the Holy Mother.
Abstract
Restoration to life after death constituted a dramatic miracle, a manifestation of God’s power that defies all natural law. The Virgin Mary as the most significant intercessor between mortals and God was a firmly established tenet of the medieval Church. A blueprint for miracle stories about restoring life was found in the biblical tale of Christ’s resurrection of Lazarus as related in chapter eleven of the Gospel of St. John. Revivals of those who have died in Marian miracle tales often follow the same pattern as the Lazarus narrative of the New Testament: initially family or friends of the deceased grieve, they pray fervently that the deceased person be restored to life, the prayer is answered, and the miracle attests to the rewards of faithful devotion. In the case of Marian miracle narratives, the Virgin’s ability to revive the dead is second only to her ability to rescue the faithful from harrowing circumstances, injury, or disease. That her protective grace extends even to the deceased is a repeating theme in Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria. Of the collection’s some four hundred songs relating miracles performed by Holy Mary, twenty-seven involve the Virgin resurrecting the dead.
The Virgin Mary’s ability to restore life to the dead not only establishes her preeminence in the salvation narrative but also the authority she wields in the lives of her faithful devotees. This article analyzes select narratives from the Cantigas that deal with revival of the dead from the standpoint of the heightened emphasis on Marian devotion in the thirteenth century. These tales also reflect the Virgin’s boundless mercy that extends to innocent victims as well as to sinners whose saving grace is their devotion to the Holy Mother.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Miracles, Wonders, and Human Existence Globally and in the Pre-Modern Age: Also an Introduction 1
- (False) Miracles, Doctors and the potentia of Saints in the Gaul of Gregory of Tours 107
- Apostle’s Miracles and Kings’ Authority in West Francia (ca. 850–ca. 1050) 127
- Fecundity, Motherhood and Healing Karāmāt (Miracles): A Comparative Study of Sayyidah Nafīsah and Christian Women Saints 161
- Intertextuality and the Transcendental Miracle of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s Risālat al-Ghufrān (The Epistle of Forgiveness) (1033 C.E.) 189
- The Miracles of Solomon: A Comparative Study of Al-Thaʿlabī’s Qiṣaṣ Al-Anbiyāʾ and “The City of Brass,” a Tale in the Arabian Nights Collection 215
- Miracle Accounts as Teaching Aids and Learning Tools: Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum as a Mirror of Everyday Life and the History of Mentality 241
- The Ultimate Miracle: Revival of the Dead in Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria 275
- Miracle of Miracles: Improbable Choices and Impossible Outcomes in Dante’s Paradiso 299
- Miraculosa gratia: Discerning the Spirit, Discerning the Body in the Liber of Angela of Foligno and in the Vita of Clare of Montefalco 337
- Miraculous Revelation in the Middle English Pearl 375
- The Miracles of the Immaculate Conceptions in the St. Anne’s Legend and the Middle English Joseph of Aramathie 405
- “Many ferlis han fallen in a fewe ȝeris”: Debt, Obligation, Godly Presence, and Grasping the Miraculous in Piers Plowman 427
- Margery Kempe and Miracles: Guarding Understanding and Interpretation of Experience 459
- Where Has God Gone in the Vernacular Renderings of Lanfranc’s Chirurgia magna? 477
- Non vidit, sed firmiter credit – The Many Roles of Jews in Christian Miracle Narratives 505
- “Never of Myselff”: Failure and Interiority in Malory’s “The Healing of Sir Urry” 555
- Between Wonders and Miracles. The Use and Abuse of Natural Substances in the Healing Rituals of Late Medieval and Early Modern Popular Culture 581
- Between Wonder and Science: Alchemy in Augurello’s Mini-Epic Chryrsopoeia (1515) 619
- “Miraculous Light” – Natural Phenomena and Divine Salvation in the Medieval and Early Modern World 647
- Biographies of the Contributors
- Index
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Miracles, Wonders, and Human Existence Globally and in the Pre-Modern Age: Also an Introduction 1
- (False) Miracles, Doctors and the potentia of Saints in the Gaul of Gregory of Tours 107
- Apostle’s Miracles and Kings’ Authority in West Francia (ca. 850–ca. 1050) 127
- Fecundity, Motherhood and Healing Karāmāt (Miracles): A Comparative Study of Sayyidah Nafīsah and Christian Women Saints 161
- Intertextuality and the Transcendental Miracle of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s Risālat al-Ghufrān (The Epistle of Forgiveness) (1033 C.E.) 189
- The Miracles of Solomon: A Comparative Study of Al-Thaʿlabī’s Qiṣaṣ Al-Anbiyāʾ and “The City of Brass,” a Tale in the Arabian Nights Collection 215
- Miracle Accounts as Teaching Aids and Learning Tools: Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum as a Mirror of Everyday Life and the History of Mentality 241
- The Ultimate Miracle: Revival of the Dead in Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria 275
- Miracle of Miracles: Improbable Choices and Impossible Outcomes in Dante’s Paradiso 299
- Miraculosa gratia: Discerning the Spirit, Discerning the Body in the Liber of Angela of Foligno and in the Vita of Clare of Montefalco 337
- Miraculous Revelation in the Middle English Pearl 375
- The Miracles of the Immaculate Conceptions in the St. Anne’s Legend and the Middle English Joseph of Aramathie 405
- “Many ferlis han fallen in a fewe ȝeris”: Debt, Obligation, Godly Presence, and Grasping the Miraculous in Piers Plowman 427
- Margery Kempe and Miracles: Guarding Understanding and Interpretation of Experience 459
- Where Has God Gone in the Vernacular Renderings of Lanfranc’s Chirurgia magna? 477
- Non vidit, sed firmiter credit – The Many Roles of Jews in Christian Miracle Narratives 505
- “Never of Myselff”: Failure and Interiority in Malory’s “The Healing of Sir Urry” 555
- Between Wonders and Miracles. The Use and Abuse of Natural Substances in the Healing Rituals of Late Medieval and Early Modern Popular Culture 581
- Between Wonder and Science: Alchemy in Augurello’s Mini-Epic Chryrsopoeia (1515) 619
- “Miraculous Light” – Natural Phenomena and Divine Salvation in the Medieval and Early Modern World 647
- Biographies of the Contributors
- Index
