The Miracles of the Immaculate Conceptions in the St. Anne’s Legend and the Middle English Joseph of Aramathie
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Anita Obermeier
Abstract
Theologically, there is one Immaculate Conception, the conception of Mary; however, the conception of Jesus is immaculate as well and is the reason for Mary’s Immaculate Conception in the first place. Both events are miraculous as they fly in the face of existing theories of conception at various points in the development of the Immaculate Conceptions. This essay argues that theological, medical, and literary texts in conversation deepen our understanding of the numinous quality of these Christian Immaculate Conceptions. The Protoevangelium Jacobi, the baseline text for Mary’s conception, shows a certain demotion of Joachim and privileging of Anne in the story and an ambivalence in how much human and how much divine involvement occurred. How miraculous was that conception? The next major proponent, Jacobus de Voragine, tried to assert a masculine and more human position again, downgrading Anna and thus weakening the miraculous. Due to the dearth of scholarship on this topic, the literary examples are Middle English, chief among them Osbern Bokenham’s “Life of St. Anne,” which completely sidelines Joachim and credits “Anne’s seed” with the conception of Mary. Middle English plays and lyrics depict Jesus’s Immaculate Conception, which is entirely miraculous as it no longer needs a human male. Contrary to late antique and medieval conception theories which privilege the male, the miraculous Immaculate Conceptions center on human women and miraculous divine involvement.
Abstract
Theologically, there is one Immaculate Conception, the conception of Mary; however, the conception of Jesus is immaculate as well and is the reason for Mary’s Immaculate Conception in the first place. Both events are miraculous as they fly in the face of existing theories of conception at various points in the development of the Immaculate Conceptions. This essay argues that theological, medical, and literary texts in conversation deepen our understanding of the numinous quality of these Christian Immaculate Conceptions. The Protoevangelium Jacobi, the baseline text for Mary’s conception, shows a certain demotion of Joachim and privileging of Anne in the story and an ambivalence in how much human and how much divine involvement occurred. How miraculous was that conception? The next major proponent, Jacobus de Voragine, tried to assert a masculine and more human position again, downgrading Anna and thus weakening the miraculous. Due to the dearth of scholarship on this topic, the literary examples are Middle English, chief among them Osbern Bokenham’s “Life of St. Anne,” which completely sidelines Joachim and credits “Anne’s seed” with the conception of Mary. Middle English plays and lyrics depict Jesus’s Immaculate Conception, which is entirely miraculous as it no longer needs a human male. Contrary to late antique and medieval conception theories which privilege the male, the miraculous Immaculate Conceptions center on human women and miraculous divine involvement.
Chapters in this book
- 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
Chapters in this book
- 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
