November 30, 2007
Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series
A CONTEXT FOR AN IMAGE
The image of St Michael in art
D. Ricardo Fernández Gracia.
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art
The diffusion of catechetical content was linked, in past centuries, with images and words. An impressive collection of images of St. Michael can be traced from the High Ages average to the present day. Such abundance is due to a series of causes: confraternities of subject military, associated to the balance that the saint presents in the psychostasis and, in final, a cult promoted by the Church in different mementos and with different connotations. The Catholic Church has him as a special advocate (custos Ecclesiae romanae). In this regard, it should be remembered that in plenary session of the Executive Council period of Catholic Reformation his cult acquires a new impulse and also a new character under the influence of the Counter-Reformation. The leader of the divine militia that triumphs against Lucifer and the rebellious angels for the Jesuits means the triumph of the Catholic Church against the dragon of Protestant heresy: for this reason magnificent churches, such as those in Munich and Vienna, were placed under his patronage.
In his representations it is convenient to distinguish his isolated figure and the great cycles, where we find diverse scenes, in relation to his appearances and many stories that are lost in the legend. As a general feature and in tune with other angels, he appears dressed, leaving the nudity, as something shameful and humiliating, for demons and reprobate. He is depicted as a handsome young man -frequently blond- and, of course, with wings that speak of the character of messengers that the angelic hierarchies have between God and men.
In a very high percentage we find the archangel as a warrior, defeating the devil, following the text of the book of Revelation. Apocalypse (12, 7-9). From the Age average he will distinguish himself, compared to the other archangels, for his popularity and as the victoriosus, o princeps militiae caelestis. As a knight, arch-strategist o constablehe is represented with great mantle, armor, sword or lance and in numerous occasions with helmet and plume. Because of these titles, it is he who leads the fight against the rebellious angels that he precipitates into the abyss, and who, in the Apocalypse, saves the Woman who has just given birth, symbol of the Virgin and the Church, fighting against the seven-headed dragon. For this last reason we will find him on many occasions in immaculist images.
He is also the holy psychopomp, the conductor of the dead, whose souls will be weighed on the day of judgment (psychostasis). In English he is called "The Lord of Souls".
Some religious orders such as the Capuchins and, in general, the entire Franciscan family in all its branches had him venerated in their churches, since his cult went back to the times of St. Francis of Assisi himself, assuring that he had gone to Mount Gargano to pray in the sanctuary of the archangel for a special predilection, since he carried souls to heaven and nothing impressed St. Francis as much as the salvation of souls.
Allegories, such as those of pride or justice, will use his figure -either throwing the demons into hell or with the scales weighing the souls- as support in his graphic speech .
In the case of Navarre, the representations of the saint are especially abundant, with an important issue of parishes dedicated to him, specifically, forty-six. Of great singularity is, in these lands, all the iconography related to the sanctuary of San Miguel in excelsis -Aralar-, as a crucifix angel, one of whose earliest examples is kept in the Museum of Navarre and comes from the small Shrine of Our Lady of Fair Love of the archangel of Villatuerta, in some rough reliefs that have been classified in the 11th century.
Finally, with Christmas approaching, the presence of St. Michael and St. Gabriel in the scene of the birth of Christ was analyzed at lecture, under the influence of a text by Sister Maria de Agreda in her opus magnumthe Mystical City of God.