Geometry of Love by Margaret Visser

Author:Margaret Visser [Visser, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4434-0369-6
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2000-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS

At Sant’Agnese’s, above the roundels containing portraits of popes come the galleries with their columns and the arches that carry the clerestory walls. First, there is a band of simple squares and oblongs. Above this band and between the windows, placed as high as possible just beneath the ceiling, is a series of nineteenth-century frescoes of young women—yet more saints. These are the martyred “companions” of Agnes, chosen as such because of the similarities between their stories and hers. They all lived during the first eight centuries of Christendom, and most of them are the heroines of passios, stories that fascinated their late antique and medieval listeners. We see Victoria, Lucy, Agatha, Barbara, Cecilia, Martina, Bibiana, Emerentiana (who, because she died a catechumen, is placed over the narthex of the church), Rufina, Columba, Julia, Apollonia, Flora, Catherine, Susanna, and Candida. Cecilia appears again, with Constantina and Agnes, in the ceiling.

These figures, and those honoured in the side chapels of the church, are only a tiny representative selection out of all the hosts of saints available to the people for whom this church was built. They are fellow Christians, believed to be now with God, who are thought of as ready and willing to offer inspiration, support, company, a sense of history, and even simple narrative interest and variety, if it is desired. They are the forebears, who have now reached the fullness of life promised in Christ’s Resurrection. They have been through the mill and have made a heroic stand for the invisible Transcendent, for loving and helping other people as the real expression of authenticity in people of goodwill.

It is by no means necessary for a Christian to pray to saints or in the company of saints, to remember them or celebrate them—nor is it required that saints be depicted in churches. Many Christians are repelled by any attention paid to saints, and many Christian churches are chastely saintless. Sant’Agnese’s church, indeed, is particularly kataphatic: it rejoices in the imagination. The opposite, and equally valid, way of praying is also valued in the Christian tradition. This is apophatic prayer, the deliberate shunning of imagining, the emptying of the mind so that God can enter and fill the soul. (Kataphatic and apophatic are Greek words that refer to gestures meaning “yes” and “no” respectively. To this day Greeks nod to say yes, lowering their heads—kata- means “down.” In order to say no, they do the opposite, jerking their heads up rather than down—apo- means “away from” or the opposite of a nod.)

Some people object—fairly enough—to the wild imaginings that often make up saintly legends, to the strange superstitions that sometimes surround saints, to vulgar and sentimental representations of saints. Sant’Agnese’s, however, has no such scruples. This is a church that expresses interest in these people; it has plenty of saints. They crowd the walls and the chapels and the ceiling. The ring of virgin martyrs around the top of the wall is a visual counterpart of a

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.