Five wounds of Christ
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In the tradition of the Church, the five wounds of Christ , also called the holy wounds , are those wounds that Jesus Christ suffered at the crucifixion . In addition to the side wound , which is also symbolized in some iconographic representations by the Sacred Heart , from which the sacraments of the Eucharist and Baptism arise with blood and water , these include those on the hands and feet caused by the nails.
Development of worship
The patristic involved the Servant Songs of the prophet Isaiah to Jesus Christ.
The veneration of the five wounds is connected with the mysticism of the Middle Ages and their emphasis on the piety of the passion, especially among the hells. Bernhard of Clairvaux and Francis of Assisi . St. Francis is the first to be reported as bearing the crucifixion wounds of Christ . From the hll. Clare of Assisi and Gertrude of Helfta , several prayers for the five wounds of Christ have been preserved, from St. Klara also had a small office on the five wounds. The Dominicans had in the 13th century its own festival of wounded side of Christ, which on Friday after Fronleichnamsoktav was committed and later the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus emerged from the.
In the 14th century it was customary in southern Germany to recite fifteen pater noster in the course of a church year in memory of Christ's wounds.
The prayer of the Dominican Rosary also helped to spread the veneration of the sacred wounds, as did the custom in some regions of giving five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys on Fridays at the ringing of the bell to commemorate the passion and death of Jesus Christ to inflict holy wounds.
In addition to a votive mass of the five wounds, which is ascribed to Pope Boniface II († 532), and its own office in the prayer of the hours , the church also knows the litany of the five sacred wounds of Jesus Christ. Older liturgical calendars of the Roman rite included the Feast of the Five Wounds of Jesus Christ and the Feast of the Crown of Thorns of Jesus Christ, which were celebrated on the first and second Fridays in March.
In a letter from the Polish bishops to Pope Clement XIII. († 1769) it says:
“We also honor the five wounds of Christ at Holy Mass and through our own office, and for these wounds we also venerate the feet, hands and side of the Savior, whose love transcended everything. These members of the most holy body of our Lord deserve our special veneration, precisely because they endured special sufferings for our redemption and are adorned with these wounds as a sublime symbol of love. "
iconography
In addition to depictions of the crucified one wearing his wounds, the pericope in which the doubting St. Thomas puts his hand in the wounds of the risen One ( Jn 20 : 19-29 EU ). Related to this topos is that of the Ostensio vulnerum , in which the risen One shows his wounds to all of humanity, sometimes surrounded by the instruments of suffering, sometimes at the Last Judgment . Here the five wounds are considered a pledge of redemption for the penitent, and an indictment for the unrepentant.
In addition, can be found in the iconography and the Customs also independent forms, which include the Five Wounds Cross , the Cross of Jerusalem , and by extension the Arma Christi Cross are to be expected.
The Easter candle is adorned with five wax nails set on the cross, which represent the five wounds. In older liturgies, five grains of incense were sunk here as a symbol of the wounds that "have been embalmed in the grave with fragrant specerei". When an altar is consecrated , it is anointed with chrism in five places that symbolize the wounds , and grains of incense are ignited in these places.
Deviating from the tradition, which at best adds the crown of thorns to the wounds suffered on the cross as an instrument of suffering, other forms of devotion and representation developed in the piety of the Passion. St. Birgitta, for example, based on her visions, came to the conclusion that Christ had suffered no fewer than 5480 wounds in his suffering and death, which she described in detail in the eight volumes of her Revelationes . Corresponding representations therefore show the Man of Sorrows covered over and over with wounds.
The symbols of the flags of Georgia and Portugal refer to the five wounds of Christ. The banner of St. Cuthbert von Lindisfarne , which the rebellious Catholics of the Pilgrimage of Grace under Robert Aske carried in front of them in 1536, adorned the wounds of Christ, surrounded by a crown of thorns, a chalice and the Christ monogram as further attributes.
Devotional forms
In his devotional book The Bitter Suffering and Dying of Our Lord Jesus Christ from 1761, St. Alphons Maria Liguori, among other pious exercises, applied the small rosary from the five wounds of the crucified Jesus Christ. The Passionists' rosary on the five wounds was written in Rome around 1821.
The hospital for the five wounds was built in Hildesheim .
A religious practices traditionally associated with works of charity and social justice was associated was that associated with the Five Wounds Catholic Reformation in England grace pilgrimage protesting their charities and religious freedoms against loss.
The stigmatized Italian Anna Maria Gallo (1715–1791) acquired the religious name Maria Franziska of the five wounds of Christ based on her experience .
In Franconia there is the five-wound path (Zahlbach) .
Individual evidence
- ↑ David Williams, The Five Wounds of Jesus , Gracewing Publishing, 2004 pp. 20f.
- ↑ Holweck, Frederick, The Five Sacred Wounds in The Catholic Encyclopedia . Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912
- ↑ Franz Xaver Schmidmayer, The Devotion of the Holy Week as it exists in the Catholic Church , Mechitaristen, 1841
- ↑ Anke Twachtmann-Schlichter: Monument topography of the Federal Republic of Germany: Monuments in Lower Saxony: City of Hildesheim: with the districts of Achtum, Bavenstedt, Drispenstedt, Einum, Himmelsthür, Itzum, Marienburg, Marienrode, Neuhof, Ochtersum, Sorsum, Steuerwald and Uppen . Ed .: Anke Twachtmann-Schlichter. Hameln 2007, p. 155 .