Candlemas

Today is Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple and of the Purification of the Virgin Mary.

Candlemas 

Master of the Life of the Virgin, c.1460-75

National Gallery, London

Image: Wikipedia

There is more about the painter at Master of the Life of the Virgin and on the National Gallery website at Master of the Life of the Virgin

I may well post his other seven scenes from the life of Our Lady, which are in Munich, as we go through the liturgical year.

A happy Candlemas to all readers 

Medieval Images of Candlemas

Here, thanks to the post by the Rev. Gordon Plumb on the Medieval Religion discussion group, are some medieval images of Candlemas in stained glass and in other artists' mediums:

Canterbury Cathedral, nXV, c.1178-80:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/13202500733

Ashbourne, St Oswald, Derbyshire, nXVII, 4a, c.1240:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15959572071

York Minster, nXXVIII, 2b-3b, c.1335 :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/5036457663/in

East Harling, St Peter & St Paul, Norfolk, East window, 3b, c.1463-80:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2480753195
and detail:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2480750319

Leicester, Jewry Wall Museum, roundel, late 15th century:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2480750319

Apse of Santa Maria Maggiore,Rome, mosaic of 13th century.
http://www.christianiconography.info/staMariaMaggiore/presentationMosaic.html

Bodleian Library, Oxford, manuscript leaves from Franciscan Antiphoners, Pisa,
mid to late 14th century:
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/jpegs/don/a/011/1500/01100346.jpg

Pierpont Morgan Library,New York,  MS M.302., f.2r, English, c1300-10:
http://utu.morganlibrary.org/medren/single_image2.cfm?imagename=m302.002r.jpg&page=ICA000107021#A3

Metropolitan Museum of Art,New York, Byzantine icon, c.1400-1500:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah.67.8

Candlemas

Today is Candlermas, the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple and of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Master of St Severin Cologne 1465-1515

Painted circa 1490

The Louvre

Image: Wikimedia

As regular readers will realise I am particularly fond of late medieval northern gothic art and its representation of  Biblical scenes in what was for the artist and patron a contemporary context, and all the delightful details of pre-reformation liturgical amd pious practise.

Candlemas has always had agreat appeal to me, and that has been reinfovced in Oxford by two things concerning institutions close to my heart. Today is the College Feast of Oriel, my college, and teh dtae of the foundation of the Oratory in england by that great Orielensis Bl. John Henry Newman in 1848. It ios therefore very much aday of festival in my personal calendar.

The development of the Candlemas liturgy

Before we move into Septuagesima here is one final post for this year relating to Candlemas. The New Liturgical Movement has reposted an article by Shawn Tribe on the development of the liturgy for the feast which can be read at NLM Reprint: Historical Notes on Candlemas.

The article also includes a reproduction this rather fine painting from the late middle ages of the Presentation in the Temple:

A personal reflection on Candlemas

Thinking about Candlemas it occurs to me that we can understand this feast as being the third disclosure of Our Lord to the world.

If Christmas is His birth and revelation to the Jewish people, represented by the shepherds - as well as the rejection implicit in Herod's seeking to destroy the King of the Jews -, and Epiphany is His revelation to the Gentiles symbolised by the Magi - and its associated commemorations of the Baptism and the miracle at Cana disclosing His Divine commission and power at the start of His active ministry - then Candlemas is the revelation of Christ to God's people - Jew or Gentile - in the Temple, be it the old one of Jerusalem or the new one that is His Body, the Church.

In all three disclosures Our Lady is there as physical mother, as representitive of faithful Judaism, as proto-Church and as Mother of the Church.

So Candlemas is not just the end of the Christmas season, but a vital point of proclaiming the status of the Divine Infant to His world. In St Luke the next time we encounter Our Lord He is back in the Temple, about His father's business. That is where we will find him.

Maybe I should start writing sermons...

St Anselm on Candlemas

Writing of today's feast St Anselm (c.1033-1109) says

"The wax of the candles signifies the virginal flesh of the Divine Infant, the wick figures His soul and the flame His divinity"

St Anselm
Archbishop of Canterbury and Doctor of the Church

Image: christchurchwindsor.ca

I interpret his comment as indicating when we bear our candles in procession we are like Our Lady carrying the Light of the world in fleshly form into the Temple as we enter our own churches. Here is not only the Lord coming to his own Temple but we express our hermeneutic of continuity with the prophets and the Temple cult as we enter the true enlightenment that is purpose of the Incarnation.


So we conclude the extended Christmas season.

A joyful Candlemas to you all.

Candlemas

Today is Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, and of the Purification of Our Lady.

It is a feast of which I am particularly fond, originally for its symbolism and ceremonial, and then because it is both the feast of my college, Oriel - The House of Blessed Virgin Mary in Oxford commonly called Oriel College to give it the proper nomenclature - and also the anniversary of the establishment of the English Oratory in 1848 by that former Fellow of Oriel, Bl.John Henry Newman.

Image: Hagia Sophis on Flickr

I found this image on the internet, but so far have not discovered the artist or location of this tryptich which links to the Epiphany and the Coronation of Our Lady with its side panels. I assume it is early to mid-fifteenth century German or Netherlandish. I think it may well be by Stefan Lochner or apupil of his as it shows great similarities to the painting by him I posted last year in my post Candlemas. In any case it has delightful details and great charm.

Last year I posted the reading from the Divine Office for today from St Sophronius (560-638) which eloquently explores the symbolism of the feast, and indicates the use of candles and the procession at that time. It can be read at St Sophronius on Candlemas.

St Sophronius on Candlemas

This is the second reading from the Office of Readings for today, and is, I think,  a wonderful exploration of the themes of Candlemas.

It is from a sermon by Saint Sophronius (560-638) who was Patriach of Jerusalem 634-638.

One thing that strikes me is that he is referring very clearly to the established liturgy of the Jerusalem church, something he wrote about with his accounts of the pilgrmages places of the Holy City. In that sense he is like Egeria, an early witness to liturgical practice we can still recognise and participate in. 

Let us receive the light whose brilliance is eternal

" In honour of the divine mystery that we celebrate today, let us all hasten to meet Christ. Everyone should be eager to join the procession and to carry a light.

Our lighted candles are a sign of the divine splendour of the one who comes to expel the dark shadows of evil and to make the whole universe radiant with the brilliance of his eternal light. Our candles also show how bright our souls should be when we go to meet Christ.

The Mother of God, the most pure Virgin, carried the true light in her arms and brought him to those who lay in darkness. We too should carry a light for all to see and reflect the radiance of the true light as we hasten to meet him.

The light has come and has shone upon a world enveloped in shadows; the Dayspring from on high has visited us and given light to those who lived in darkness. This, then, is our feast, and we join in procession with lighted candles to reveal the light that has shone upon us and the glory that is yet to come to us through him. So let us hasten all together to meet our God.

The true light has come, the light that enlightens every man who is born into this world. Let all of us, my brethren, be enlightened and made radiant by this light. Let all of us share in its splendour, and be so filled with it that no one remains in the darkness. Let us be shining ourselves as we go together to meet and to receive with the aged Simeon the light whose brilliance is eternal. Rejoicing with Simeon, let us sing a hymn of thanksgiving to God, the Father of the light, who sent the true light to dispel the darkness and to give us all a share in his splendour.

Through Simeon’s eyes we too have seen the salvation of God which he prepared for all the nations and revealed as the glory of the new Israel, which is ourselves. As Simeon was released from the bonds of this life when he had seen Christ, so we too were at once freed from our old state of sinfulness.

By faith we too embraced Christ, the salvation of God the Father, as he came to us from Bethlehem. Gentiles before, we have now become the people of God. Our eyes have seen God incarnate, and because we have seen him present among us and have mentally received him into our arms, we are called the new Israel. Never shall we forget this presence; every year we keep a feast in his honour."

Reading St Sophronius and as I reflect on the symbolism of the feast I am struck not by the fact that it is a slightly quaint and charming celebration of the events as recorded by St Luke, but that it very appropriately closes the Christmas season by re-stating in so splendid a way all the ideas and images we have had over the last forty days. It is not an incidental celebration but rather the grand finale to our Christmas celebration.

Candlemas

The Presentation in the Temple
Stefan Lochner
1447
Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt

Today is Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of The Lord in the Temple and of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

As it marks the fortieth and last day of Christmastide I have decided to mark the day here with another painting by Stefan Lochner, whose works I used at Christmas and Epiphany. It is another delightful example of his style.

Candlemas with its wonderful imagery is one of the feasts I enjoy most in the calendar, and here in Oxford I have found two particular reasons to add to the joyful nature of the day.

It is the feast of my college, Oriel, which will celebrate it with a gaudy tonight. The full name of the college is The House of Blessed Mary the Virgin in Oxford commonly called Oriel College, and although the other feasts of Our Lady used to be observed with celebrations I suspect Candlemas became the main one because it is the only feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary to fall in Full Term. The eighteenth century glass from the old east window of the chapel (now on the south side of the organ gallery) depicts the Presentation, which suggests that by the mid-eighteenth century at least it was seen as the college's patronal feast.

The second reason is linked. It was on Candlemas 1848 that Bl. John Henry Newman established the English Oratory. I am not sure if in this he was influenced by the Oriel connection, but he certainly chose the Oratorian model because it resembled in structure the lofe of an Oxford Common Room.

So it is a day to remember with thanksgiving both Oriel and the Oratories, and to pray for their continuing welfare.