Saint Matthias: The Thirteenth Apostle

11 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by Reliquarian in Altarpiece, Stone Reliquary

Tags

altarpiece, basilica, Germany, Krakow, Poland, reliquary, Saint Helena, Saint James, Saint Mary, Saint Matthias, Saint Peter, Trier, Veit Stoss

Veit Stoss, Saint Mary’s Altar (detail with Saint Matthias), Saint Mary’s Basilica, Krakow, Poland

The Kiss of Judas

Judas Iscariot, one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus, infamously betrayed Christ with a kiss in exchange for thirty pieces of silver. Following the Last Supper, Judas led the priests and Temple guards of the Sanhedrin to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he identified Jesus to the gathering crowd with a kiss. His treachery set in motion the events leading to the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus.

Giotto Scrovegni, Kiss of Judas (courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Giotto, The Kiss of Judas (1304-06), Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy (courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Upon learning that Jesus had been sentenced to death, Judas repented. According to the Gospel of Saint Matthew, “Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.”[1] Judas’s plea fell on deaf ears. “What is that to us?” the chief priests and elders responded.[2] Judas then “cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.”[3] In a conflicting account, retold in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter states that Judas “purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.”[4]

Whatever the manner of his death, Judas’s betrayal opened a void in the ranks of the Apostles. At a gathering of Jesus’ followers, which met shortly after the Ascension, Peter proposed that the vacancy in the Apostolate be filled. Two disciples were nominated: Joseph, who was known as Barsabas, and Matthias.

Once Barsabas and Matthias had been singled out, the group prayed for guidance. “Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.”[5] They then drew lots to select Judas’s replacement. The lot fell on Matthias, “and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.”[6]

Not much is known of Matthias’s life following his election to the Apostolate.[7] Some sources claim he preached first in Judea and then Ethiopia before he was eventually crucified for his faith.[8] Others state he traveled to Ethiopia, where he preached near the sea of Hyssus, and died at Sebastopolis.[9] Still others declare he was stoned and then beheaded in Jerusalem.[10]

Reliquary of Saint Matthias, Trier, Germany

Ultimately, Saint Matthias’s relics were purportedly brought to Rome by Saint Helena – although some speculate that the relics in Rome are those of a different Matthias: Saint Matthias, Bishop of Jerusalem, who died in 120.[11] Some of Saint Matthias the Apostle’s relics were also translated to Trier, where they are currently kept in the crypt of the abbey church of Saint Matthias.

Abbey Church of Saint Matthias, Trier, Germany, prior to Mass

Depictions In Art

Compared with the other Apostles, including Judas, Saint Matthias is infrequently portrayed in works of art. His iconography is also less well-defined. For example, while keys are a sign of Saint Peter and seashells are a common attribute of Saint James, no single symbol has come to distinguish Saint Matthias in the visual shorthand of Christian art.

Veit Stoss and Saint Mary’s Altar

Veit Stoss’s magnificent Saint Mary’s Altar, located at the Basilica of Saint Mary in Krakow, Poland, includes one of the few depictions of Saint Matthias I’ve encountered. Carved in the late 15^th century, Saint Mary’s Altar is the largest gothic altar in the world, measuring approximately 11 m (36 ft) long and 13 m (42.65 ft) high.[12] The altar, or retable, is constructed as a pentaptych consisting of a large central cabinet and two pairs of wings: an inner pair that is hinged and can be used to close the cabinet, and an outer pair that is fixed.[13] The altar is further supported by a predella and is surmounted by a finial of carved baldachins spread between thinly carved pillars.[14]

Veit Stoss, Saint Mary’s Altar, Saint Mary’s Basilica, Krakow, Poland

According to multiple sources, the doors of the altar are ordinarily kept closed during the liturgical year and are only opened for important feasts.[15] On several recent visits to Krakow, however, I noted that the doors were generally opened for a few hours each day to allow visitor’s to view the central scene of Stoss’s masterpiece. The central scene of the open retable depicts two important events in the life of Mary – the Death of the Virgin (or Dormition) and the Assumption – while a variety of Biblical episodes are represented on the wings of the altar.[16]

The Dormition depicts a youthful Mary falling to her knees at the moment of her passing.[17] Unlike more traditional depictions of Mary’s passing (such as the one pictured below), Stoss’s Dormition purposely omits references to death or dying to emphasize the extraordinary nature of Mary’s passage from earthly life.[18] There is no deathbed in Stoss’s scene, although Mary continues to be surrounded by Apostles, including Saint Peter and Saint John.[19]

A traditional depiction of the Death of the Virgin (detail), Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

Joos van Cleve, The Death of the Virgin (detail) (1520), Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany

In my opinion, in addition to Mary herself, three figures in particular stand out in Stoss’s portrayal of the Dormition. The first is Saint James.[20] Because of his central position and his dark, generous beard, the eye is naturally drawn to James, who stands above Mary, supporting her as she sinks to her knees. He is also one of the few figures that stares out towards to the viewer, seemingly making contact with the world outside the altar. The second is Saint John (pictured below), who stands to the right of Saint James, behind Mary.[21] John is holding a blue cloak or cape, which he is raising in an enigmatic gesture. Some suggest he is lifting it to his face to dry a tear while others argue he is extending it to Mary.[22] The third figure that stands out is purportedly Saint Matthias, whose unusual pose is noteworthy.[23]

Saint John (detail), from Saint Mary’s Altar

Like the representation of Saint James, the figure of Saint Matthias is also centrally located in the scene, although he is arranged even closer to the center of the composition. His position serves as a visual link between Mary and the saints of the Dormition, and the Assumption, which takes place in the sky above his head.[24] Matthias holds his hands outspread, his fingers interlaced, just above Mary’s head in a gesture some have described as one of protection.[25] To me, however, Matthias’s interlaced fingers are reminiscent of a crown, and his gesture is suggestive of a coronation. Matthias almost appears ready to place a crown on the kneeling Mary’s head. Could the arrangement have been intended to evoke Mary’s imminent coronation as Queen of Heaven?

It is interesting to speculate why Veit Stoss might have chosen to place Saint Matthias in so prominent a position on Saint Mary’s Altar. Alternatively, Saint Matthias may be the Apostle whose face, carved in profile, is just visible at the left of the composition. All twelve Apostles are present for Stoss’s Dormition, so Saint Matthias must be among them. In the absence of a clear pictorial tradition, however, identifying Matthias from among Stoss’s crowd of carved Apostles must remain a matter of conjecture. Nevertheless, as Rainer Kahsnitz notes in Carved Splendor: Late Gothic Altarpieces in Southern Germany, Austria, and South Tirol, “Presenting twelve apostles in a single scene—one or two of them young, the rest old and with flowing beards, was a notoriously difficult task for a Late Gothic artist. Only a very few carvers and painters proved themselves up to it.”[26] Of those, Veit Stoss may have been the best.

Interior of Saint Mary’s Basilica, Krakow, Poland, with Veit Stoss’s Saint Mary’s Altar in background

[1] Matthew 27:3 (King James Bible).

[2] Matthew 27:4.

[3] Matthew 27:5.

[4] Acts 1:18 (King James Bible).

[5] Acts 1:24-25.

[6] Acts 1:26.

[7] See “St. Matthias,” New Catholic Encyclopedia, available at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10066a.htm (providing a general overview of sources describing the ministry of Saint Matthias).

[8] Id. (citing Nicephorus, 2 Church History 40, in 1 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Philip Schaff ed., Arthur Cushman McGiffert trans, 1890)).

[9] Id. (citing the The Synopsis of Dorotheus).

[10] Id. (citing Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont, 1 Mémoire pour servir à l’histoire ecclésiastique des six premiers siècle 406-7).

[11] Id. (citing Jean Bolland, Acta Sanctorum, Maii, III (1680)).

[12] Krzysztof Czyzewski, Veit Stoss: Mary’s Altar 10 (Aleksander Ptak et. al, trans. 2007).

[13] See id. at 10-11.

[14] Id. at 11.

[15] See, e.g., Czyzewski, supra note 12, at 11; Teresa Czerniewicz-Umer, Eyewitness Travel: Cracow 96 (2010).

[16] The following scenes are depicted on the internal wings of the altar and are visible when the doors are open: the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and Pentecost. The following scenes are visible when the doors of the altar are closed: the Meeting of Saint Anne and Saint Joachim, the Birth of the Virgin, the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, Christ Among the Doctors, the Capture of Christ, the Crucifixion, the Lamentation, the Entombment, Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene (Noli me tangere), the Three Marys at the Sepulcher, and the Descent into Hell.

[17] Czyzewski, supra note 12, at 12. In her travel guide to Krakow, Teresa Czerniewicz-Umer opines that the “figure of the youthful Mary is one of the greatest sculptures ever made in Poland.” Czerniewicz-Umer, supra note 15, at 97.

[18] Czyzewski, supra note 12, at 12. In Carved Splendor: Late Gothic Altarpieces in Southern Germany, Austria, and South Tirol, Rainer Kahsnitz states, “In accordance with legendary tradition going back more than five hundred years—the Gospels say nothing about the death of the Virgin—the standard Dormition shows the apostles, miraculously transported from their far-flung missions, convened around Mary’s deathbed . . . .” Rainer Kahsnitz, Carved Splendor: Late Gothic Altarpieces in Southern Germany, Austria, and South Tirol 137 (2006).

[19] Rainer notes that portrayals of Mary kneeling in prayer before her death was a form that “spread from Bohemia to southeast Germany, Austria, and adjacent territories in the late fourteenth century.” Rainer, supra note 19, at 137.

[20] Rainer identifies this figure as possibly being Saint Paul rather than Saint James. Id. at 139.

[21] Rainer identifies this figure as possibly being Saint Philip rather than Saint John. Id. at 140.

[22] See, e.g., Czyzewski, supra note 12, at 29 (featuring a caption reading “St. John raises the rim of his coat to dry a tear,” which accompanies a detail of The Dormition); Czerniewicz-Umer, supra note 15, at 97 (featuring a caption beneath a detail of Saint John stating “the saint is about to put a cape on the fainting Mary”).

[23] Rainer identifies this figure as possibly being Saint John rather than Saint Matthias. Rainer, supra note 19, at 139.

[24] In the Assumption, Christ and Mary are being raised to heaven by angels.

[25] Czyzewski, supra note 12, at 12 (noting that one of the Apostles “protects” Mary with his “hands above Her”).

[26] Rainer, supra note 19, at 140.

Winter of Discontent: Saint Sebaldus, Protector Against Cold Weather, Takes a Sabbatical

07 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by Reliquarian in Tomb / Sarcophagus

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Albrecht Durer, Bamberg, Germany, Nuremberg, pilgrim, Saint James, Saint Sebaldus

Statue of St. Sebaldus, Church of Saint Sebaldus, Nuremberg, Germany

This winter has been unusually cold, dark, and damp in Germany. A recent article in Spiegel Online proclaimed it the “darkest winter in 43 years,”[1] and the German weather service (Deutscher Wetterdienst) reported that this past March was the 6^th coldest since 1881, when official records began to be kept.[2] One headline expressed what many Germans have been thinking. It read, “Just Kill Us Now: German Spring Kicks Off With More Snow.”[3]

In past centuries, unrelenting winter weather like this might have elicited prayers and entreaties to a saint. In Germany, that saint might have been Saint Sebaldus, a protector against cold weather, who is also the patron saint of Nuremberg.

Patron Saint of Nuremberg

St. Sebaldus Kirche Saint Sebaldus (or Sebald), was a hermit who lived in the Reichswald around the 8^th century.[4] Little is definitively known about Saint Sebaldus, although by 1072, he was already recognized as the patron saint of Nuremberg.[5] Sigismund Meisterlin’s Life of Saint Sebald, completed in 1484, provides some background on the saint, although even Meisterlin acknowledged that his vita was imperfect.[6] David Collins, in his book Reforming Saints: Saints’ Lives and Their Authors in Germany 1470-1530, notes that Meisterlin “fixed certain inaccuracies and contradictions in the older legends” about Saint Sebaldus, although Meisterlin realized his corrections “might offend popular sensibilities.”[7] According to Collins, “Meisterlin’s concern about the changes he had made indicates his familiarity with Sebald’s rich hagiographical tradition.”[8]

Meisterlin wrote the Life of Saint Sebald at the request of the Nuremburg city council.[9] Collins states, “The city fathers sought a new life of Sebald apparently because the earlier ones were not inspiring the reverence for Sebald outside of Nuremberg in the diocese of Bamberg . . . that the city fathers believed he (and, derivatively, they themselves) deserved.”[10] At the time, Bamberg was a rival of Nuremberg, and jokes about Saint Sebaldus, especially ones that characterized the saint as rustic and simpleminded, offended the people of Nuremberg, who imagined the jokes implicated them by extension.[11] Meisterlin’s new vita, it was hoped, would restore the dignity and prestige of Saint Sebaldus, as well as of the city of Nuremberg.

The Life of Saint Sebaldus

According to Meisterlin’s account, Sebaldus was a Danish prince who felt called to serve God from an early age. Upon reaching adulthood, he left Denmark and joined three children of the king of Brittany: Willibald, Wunibald, and Walpurgis. The group dedicated itself to religious asceticism and elected Willibald, the eldest, as their leader. The four chose to serve God as itinerants, and they vowed to travel to Rome as pilgrims. When they arrived in Rome, the pope appointed Willibald a bishop and eventually sent the group back to Germany. Sebaldus made his way to Regensburg and then to the forests of Franconia, where he lived in solitude, praying and fasting, until his death. When the locals discovered his body, they placed it on a bier and yoked it to several untamed oxen, which brought the body to a deserted place in the woods, the future site of Nuremberg.[12]

Miracle of the Icicles

Saint Sebaldus is credited with having performed several miracles during his lifetime. One of his more famous miracles involved the transformation of icicles into fuel for a warm fire. The story, as recounted in Butler’s Lives of the Saints, goes like this: “[O]ne snowy night [Saint Sebald] took shelter in a peasant’s cottage, but found it was almost as cold within as without, for the fire was low and small. Sebald suggested that more fuel might be put on, but the man answered that he was too poor to keep up a decent fire, so Sebald turned to the housewife and asked her to bring in a bundle of long icicles hanging from the eaves; this she did, Sebald threw them on the fire, and they blazed up merrily.”[13] The miracle of the icicles is depicted in relief on the base of Saint Sebaldus’s shrine at the church of Saint Sebaldus in Nuremberg. The bronze shrine (below), which was made between 1508 and 1519, is one of the best-known works of Peter Vischer the Elder.

Shrine of Saint Sebaldus by Peter Vischer the Elder, Church of St. Sebaldus, Nuremberg, Germany

Another miracle, included in earlier hagiographies but omitted from Meisterlin’s 1484 vita, describes the experience of an unfortunate Scottish monk who, for some unexplained reason, was plucking the beard of Saint Sebaldus’s corpse. Apparently annoyed by this, the dead saint’s right hand shot up and poked out the monk’s eye. This story is not depicted on the saint’s tomb.

Attributes in Art

Depictions of Saint Sebaldus are not as ubiquitous as depictions of more popular saints, such as Saint Christopher or the four Evangelists, even in Germany. In the few representations I have seen, the saint is frequently depicted as a pilgrim, replete with a pilgrim’s hat, cloak, and staff. Albrecht Dürer, a native of Nuremburg, executed a number of woodcuts of Saint Sebaldus dressed as a pilgrim, including Saint Sebald on the Column (c. 1501) in the collection of the Albertina Museum in Vienna. Another woodcut by Dürer, entitled Saint Sebald in the Niche (c. 1518), similarly shows Saint Sebaldus as a pilgrim holding his namesake church in his right hand.

St. Sebald in the Niche (1518) by Albrecht Durer, courtesy Wikimedia Commons

When depicted as a pilgrim, it is easy to confuse Saint Sebaldus for Saint James, the patron saint of pilgrims. For example, the statue shown at the beginning of this post, located inside the church of Saint Sebaldus in Nuremberg, could be mistaken for Saint James, although the miniature church in the figure’s hand – and, importantly, the location of the statue itself – would suggest it is actually Saint Sebaldus.

Interestingly, Peter Vischer the Elder’s shrine of Saint Sebaldus is supported by several plump snails, which I was not aware were associated with Saint Sebaldus. Whether the snails are symbolic or whether they were included for purely aesthetic reasons, I am not sure. In Christian art, snails do not have the best of reputations.[14] Snails were believed to have been born from mud and were thought to feed on mud.[15] Consequently, they were seen as symbols of laziness because they did not seek food but merely ate what was available.[16]

On the other hand, the snail is an apt symbol for this long German winter, which has passed at a snail’s pace and threatens to linger while Saint Sebaldus takes a sabbatical.

Exterior of the Church of St. Sebaldus, Nuremberg, Germany

[1] Overly Overcast: Germany Weathers Darkest Winter in 43 Years, Spiegel Online, Feb. 26, 2013, available at http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-weathers-darkest-winter-in-43-years-a-885608.html. According to Spiegel Online, Germany receives an “already measly” average of 160 hours of sunshine each winter. As of late February, Germany had received less than 100 hours of sunshine over the course of the meteorological winter, which begins in December and ends in February. Id.

[2] Press Release, Deutscher Wetterdienst, “Deutschlandwetter im März 2013,” March 28, 2013

[3] Just Kill Us Now: German Spring Kicks Off With More Snow, Spiegel Online, Mar. 21, 2013, available at http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/winter-weather-plagues-germany-as-spring-begins-a-890166.html. The article remarks, “The calendar says spring started Wednesday, but a look outside tells sun-starved Germans otherwise. Snow has blanketed large parts of the country in recent days, and forecasts predict yet more wintry weather to come. Super.”

[4] See 3 Butler’s Lives of the Saints 357 (Herbert J. Thurston, S.J. & Donald Attwater eds., 2d ed. 1956).

[5] Id.

[6] See David J. Collins, Reforming Saints: Saints’ Lives and Their Authors in Germany 1470-1530 at 56-64 (2008).

[7] Id. at 57.

[8] Id.

[9] Id. at 57-58.

[10] Id. at 57.

[11] Id.

[12] Id. at 59.

[13] Butler’s Lives of the Saints, supra note 4, at 357.

[14] See Rosa Giorgi, Saints in Art 25 (Stefano Zuffi ed. & Thomas Michael Hartmann trans., 2002).

[15] Id.

[16] Id.

The Way of Saint James: Pilgrimage to the Tomb of a “Son of Thunder”

09 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by Reliquarian in Altarpiece

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Altar of the Holy Blood, altarpiece, church, Friedrich Herlin, Germany, martyr, pilgrimage, relic, Rothenburg, Saint James, Santiago de Compostela, tomb

Twelve Apostles Altar, Church of Saint James (St. Jakobskirche), Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. Photo by Reliquarian.

The Way of Saint James

According to tradition, Saint James, one of the twelve Apostles, was martyred by beheading in the year 44. After the rediscovery of his relics in 814, pilgrimages to his tomb in Compostela, northern Spain, became extremely popular. Compostela even rivaled Jerusalem and Rome as a destination for pilgrim travelers during the Middle Ages. Consequently, routes to Saint James’s shrine, including one through Rothenburg, Germany, crisscrossed Europe, marking the path to the saint’s tomb. Today, the Way of Saint James (Camino de Santiago) continues to direct travelers to the remains of the fiery-tempered Apostle whom Jesus once called a “Son of Thunder.”

Invitation to a Beheading

Saint James was beheaded in Jerusalem during the Christian persecutions of King Herod Agrippa I. According to Clement of Alexandria, Saint James’s accuser was so moved by the courage and conviction James showed at his trial that he subsequently repented and declared himself a Christian. As a consequence, the man was sentenced to be beheaded alongside Saint James. As both men were led to execution, the accuser turned to James and begged for his forgiveness. According to Butler’s Lives of the Saints, “St James, after pausing a little, turned to him and embraced him, saying, ‘Peace be with you’. He then kissed him, and they were both beheaded together.”[1]

A Tomb by the Sounding Sea

Isenheim Altarpiece, Matthias Grunewald (sculptures by Nicolas of Hagenau) (detail), 1510-1515, Colmar, France. On the carved predella of the Isenheim Altarpiece, Saint James can be seen holding a large seashell in his right hand. His pilgrim’s cap is also adorned with a shell. Photo by Reliquarian.

Early chronicles suggested that after his death, Saint James’s remains were transported from Jerusalem to the northern coast of Spain where they were buried contra mare Britannicum, “close to the British sea.”[2] The location of the tomb, however, remained a mystery until, centuries later, in about 814, the tomb was rediscovered under miraculous circumstances.[3] According to legend, a local monk named Pelayo was guided by a star to a secluded spot in the woods near the Galician coast.[4] There he discovered a marble sarcophagus that contained human bones, apparently very old.[5] Bishop Teodomir, the local bishop, proclaimed the remains to be those of Saint James, long believed to have been buried in the region. After learning of the discovery, King Alfonso II journeyed to the site to venerate the relics and ordered that a church be built on the spot. The modest church established by King Alfonso II later grew into the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, the ultimate destination of pilgrims traveling the Way of Saint James.

King Alfonso II’s journey to the tomb of Saint James is considered the first pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, and it set the example for subsequent generations of pilgrim travelers. Departing from Oviedo, the location of his royal court, King Alfonso II likely took the Roman road known as the Camino Primitivo to Compostela. As the popularity of Saint James’s shrine grew, other routes gradually came into regular use, such as the Camino del Norte, another Roman road, which skirted the coast. By the 11^th century, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela had become an international phenomenon, drawing visitors from all over Christendom and establishing Santiago de Compostela as a rival to Jerusalem and Rome for pilgrims.[6] In a paper discussing the history of the pilgrimage, Laurie Dennett opines that interest in Saint James’s relics had begun to shift the “conceptual geography of Christian Europe, giving it a new pole in the west, a new focus for popular devotion, that balanced the Byzantine east with its spiritual centre at Jerusalem.”[7] She further notes that “Santiago de Compostela even seemed to rival the pretensions of Rome,” at least for a time.[8]

St. Jakobskirche and the Twelve Apostles Altar

The St. Jakobskirche (Saint James’s Church) in Rothenburg ob der Tauber was once an important stop on the pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela. Known more widely as the home of the Altar of the Holy Blood, the church also houses the impressive Twelve Apostles Altar (Zwölfbotenaltar), a carved altarpiece with a painted predella and painted wings, which incorporates several images of Saint James.

View of St. Jakobskirche from the city walls. Photo by Reliquarian.

Completed in 1466, the altarpiece is the work of Hans Waidenlich and Friedrich Herlin with carvings in the Multscher tradition by an unknown sculptor.[9] Herlin, who may have been from Rothenburg, moved to Nördlingen later in his career and is closely identified with the Twelve Apostles Altar, which he signed: “This work was made by Friedrich Herlin, painter, mcccclxvi. Saint James pray to God for him.”[10]

In Carved Splendor: Late Gothic Altarpieces in Southern Germany, Austria, and South Tirol, Rainer Kahsnitz identifies the Twelve Apostles Altar as “one of the best-preserved altarpieces from the Late Gothic period.”[11] Although little is known about the origins of the altarpiece, Kahsnitz speculates that it must have replaced an earlier work at St. Jakobskirche.[12]

Twelve Apostles Altar (detail). Photo by Reliquarian.

The corpus of the altarpiece depicts the Crucifixion, with Mary (to the left) and Saint John the Evangelist (to the right) below the cross, flanking the dying Christ. Next to Mary stands Saint James wearing a pilgrim’s hat decorated with a scallop shell, a symbol of pilgrimage. Two other shells dangle from his wrist, and he is shown with a pilgrim’s staff, another defining attribute of the patron saint of pilgrims.[13] The other carved figures below the cross are Saint Elizabeth (to the far left), who is carrying a loaf of bread and a pitcher; Saint Leonard (next to Saint John), the patron saint of prisoners of war; and Saint Anthony the hermit (to the far right), who is shown with a bell. According to Kahsnitz, the altar was kept permanently closed following Rothenburg’s adoption of the Reformation.[14] This helped preserve the sculptures and the paintings on the inner wings.[15]

Saint James and Saint Peter. Friedrich Herlin’s predella depicts Saint James with his traditional attributes in art: a pilgrim’s staff and a seashell. To the right of Saint James is Saint Peter with several of his symbols: a set of keys and a book. Photo by Reliquarian.

Saint James appears again on Herlin’s predella with a shell in one hand and a pilgrim’s staff in the other. To his left, Saint Peter carries two of his traditional attributes: a set of keys and a book, which he peers into with the aid of spectacles. All twelve Apostles are represented on the predella, arranged in pairs behind a Late Gothic balustrade.[16] In addition to other paintings, the back of the predella also features a depiction of the veil of Saint Veronica: the image of Christ’s face with a crown of thorns imprinted on a veil or shroud.[17]

Sons of Thunder

Saint James is often known as “the Greater” to distinguish him from Saint James, son of Alphaeus, known as “the Lesser.” He was the son of Zebedee and brother of Saint John the Evangelist, and he was the first Apostle martyred. Saint James and his brother John apparently earned the epithet Boanerges, or “Sons of Thunder,” on account of their “impetuous spirit and fiery temper.”[18] Nevertheless, as noted in Butler’s Lives of the Saints, James, John, and Peter, the Apostles “who from time to time acted impetuously, and had to be rebuked, were the very ones our Lord turned to on special occasions.”[19] James, John, and Peter were the only Apostles to witness the agony in the garden of Gethsemani and were the only ones present for the Transfiguration.

Modern Pilgrims

The Way of Saint James continues to be a popular with pilgrims even today. According to the Confraternity of Saint James, an organization founded “to bring together people interested in the medieval pilgrim routes through France and Spain to Santiago de Compostela,” the last several decades “have seen an extraordinary revival of interest in the pilgrimage to Santiago.”[20] Once considered “one of the greatest of all Christian shrines” in the Middle Ages,[21] the route from the border of France and Spain known as the Camino Francés was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.[22]

Twelve Apostles Altar, Church of Saint James (St. Jakobskirche), Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. Photo by Reliquarian.

Still, some scholars question whether Saint James ever preached in Spain and whether the remains interred at Santiago de Compostela really are those of Saint James. Butler’s Lives of the Saints states, “Outside of Spain almost all eminent scholars and critical students of history answer both questions in the negative.”[23] Several authors have argued that Saint James’s visit to Spain is “improbable” because Saint James was martyred in Jerusalem in the year 44 and because he was “unheard of in Spain before the end of the seventh century.”[24] Additionally, while it may be “quite possible that the relics recovered, after they had been lost, are identical with those which were venerated at Compostela in the middle ages, . . . the authenticity of medieval relics is always difficult to establish and in this case it is more than dubious.”[25]

Nevertheless, thousands of people continue to follow the Way of Saint James to Santiago de Compostela each year. While there are “as many reasons for this revival as there are pilgrims,” the Confraternity of Saint James observes that “many people make the pilgrimage at a turning point in their lives, and . . . many are helped to come to terms with personal crisis by a period of separation from all that is familiar, and the shared hardship of the road.”[26]

Pilgrim’s Hat, felt, silk braid, shell, bone, jet (c. 1571). This pilgrim’s hat is currently on display at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, Germany, along with a matching pilgrim’s cloak and staff. The matching set of pilgrim’s garb belonged to Stephan Praun III, a pilgrim to Santiago de Compostela. Photo by Reliquarian.

Saint James the Greater, pine with paint and gilding, South German (1475-1500), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The influence of Veit Stoss, who worked in Nuremberg and Krakow, is evident in the carving of the statue’s robes and face. Photo by Reliquarian.

[1] 3 Butler’s Lives of the Saints 183 (Herbert J. Thurston, S.J. & Donald Attwater eds., 2d ed. 1956).

[2] Laurie Dennett, “2000 Years of the Camino de Santiago: Where Did It Come From? Where Is It Going?,” The Confraternity of Saint James, http://www.csj.org.uk/2000-years.htm (citing martyrologies by Florus of Lyons and Usuard of St. Germaine-des-Prés). Dennett observes that “by the late 8^th century, a literary tradition had developed which held that the burial place of St James lay in Spain, even if the site had not yet been identified.” She further notes, “Interestingly, it was not until after the purported discovery of the tomb in about 814 that a corresponding tradition evolved concerning the Apostle’s return to Palestine and death, and the transportation of his mortal remains back to Spain for burial.” Id. The mare Britannicum is the present-day English Channel.

[3] See id.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Id.

[7] Id.

[8] Id.

[9] See Rainer Kahsnitz, Carved Splendor: Late Gothic Altarpieces in Southern Germany, Austria, and South Tirol 58 (2006). Kahsnitz explains that the sculptures “were executed by a carver from the circle around the Ulm sculptor Hans Multscher (active there from 1427 until his death in 1467). In their compact three-dimensionality they are based more strongly on Multscher’s earlier works from the 1450s, at which time the sculptor was probably Multscher’s pupil.” Id. at 61.

[10] Id. at 58. A clever Latin inscription on the frame of the altarpiece also dates the work to 1466. It begins, “Bis duo c quoque sexagintaque sex quoque mille . . . .” Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13] See George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art 112 (1959). Ferguson observes that the pilgrim’s staff is “used alone and in combination with various other objects as an attribute of numerous saints who have been noteworthy for their travels and pilgrimages.” Id. Other saints commonly depicted with staffs include Saints Christopher, John the Baptist, Jerome, Philip the Apostle, Ursula, and Roch. Id.

[14] Kahsnitz, supra note 9, at 58.

[15] Id.

[16] Id. at 60.

[17] See, e.g., Rosa Giorgi, Saints in Art 119 (Stefano Zuffi ed. & Thomas Michael Hartmann trans., 2002).

[18] Butler’s Lives of the Saints, supra note 1, at 182.

[19] Id.

[20] The Confraternity of Saint James, The Confraternity of Saint James, http://www.csj.org.uk/csj.htm; The Present-Day Pilgrimage, The Confraternity of Saint James, http://www.csj.org.uk/present.htm.

[21] Butler’s Lives of the Saints, supra note 1, at 183.

[22] The Present-Day Pilgrimage, supra note 20.

[23] Butler’s Lives of the Saints, supra note 1, at 183.

[24] Id.

[25] Id.

[26] The Present-Day Pilgrimage, supra note 20.