Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Lat. Dormitio, Pausatio, Transitus, Assumptio, B. Virginis. Ital. Il Transito di Maria. Il Sonno della Beata Wirgine. L’ Assunzione. Fr. La Mort de la Vierge. L’Assomption. Ger. Das Absterben der Maria. Maria Himmelfahrt. (August 13, 15.) We approach the closing scenes. Of all the representations consecrated to the glory of the Virgin, none have been […]

THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST is a strictly scriptural subject. I have heard it said that the introduction of Mary was not authorized by the scripture narrative. I must observe, however, that, without any wringing of the text for an especial purpose, the passage might be so interpreted. In the first chapter of the […]

The Coronation of the Virgin. Lat. Coronatio Beatae Marin Virginis. Ital. Maria coronata dal divin suo Figlio. Fr. Le Couronnement de la Sainte Vierge. Ger. Die Kronung Mari. The usual type of the Church triumphant is the CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN properly so called, Christ in the act of crowning his Mother; one of the […]

THE ASCENSION, though one of the “Glorious Mysteries,” was also accounted as the seventh and last of the sorrows of the Virgin, for she was then left alone on earth. All the old legends represent her as present on this occasion, and saying as she followed with uplifted eyes the soaring figure of Christ, “My […]

THE enthusiastic and increasing veneration for the Madonna, the large place she filled in the religious teaching of the ecclesiastics and the religious sentiments of the people, are nowhere more apparent, nor more strikingly exhibited, than in the manner in which she was associated with the scenes which followed the Passion — the manner in […]

The ENTOMBMENT follows, and when treated as a strictly historical scene, the Virgin Mother is always introduced, though here as a less conspicuous figure, and one less important to the action. Either she swoons, which is the ancient Greek conception : or she follows, with streaming eyes and clasped hands, the pious disciples who bear […]

THE DEPOSITION is properly that moment which succeeds the DESCENT from the Cross ; when the dead form of Christ is deposed or laid upon the ground, resting on the lap of his Mother, and lamented by St. John, the Magdalene, and others. The ideal and devotional form of this subject, styled a Pietà, may […]

THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS and the DEPOSITION are two separate themes. In the first, according to the antique formula, the Virgin should stand ; for here, as in the Crucifixion, she must be associated with the principal action, and not, by the excess of her grief, disabled from taking her part in it. In […]

“Verum stabas, optima Mater, juxta crucem Filii tui, non solum corpore, sed mentis constantia.” This great subject belongs more particularly to the Life of Christ. It is, I observe, always omitted in a series of the Life of the Virgin, unless it be the Rosary, in which the ” Vigil of the Virgin by the […]

LO SPASIMO. “O what avails me now that honor high, To have conceived of God, and. that salute, Hail, highly favored among women blest ! While I to sorrows am no less advanced, And fears as eminent, above the lot Of other women by the birth I bore.” “This is my favored lot, My exaltation […]