Holy length

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The right and true measure of the feet of our dear women , copper engraving on paper, 18th century

Sacred dimensions or sacred lengths were common in popular belief . They were based on the popular view that one could represent a savior or a revered object by specifying its exact size. If you owned a strip of paper or cloth the size of a certain person or object, you also benefited from its healing power.

Examples were the extent of the scourge column, the cross, the stigmata or the body of Jesus . It was hoped that the dimensions of certain parts of the body of Jesus or Mary , such as the foot of Mary or her belt, would have a special protective and healing effect . Some dimensions also referred to images of grace from places of pilgrimage. There were lengths from Our Lady of Einsiedeln , the Sarner child Jesus and head dimensions of the Jesus children from Montserrat or Loreto . Many other measures were in use, such as the length of St. Valentine and the length of St. Richildis .

Often the sacred lengths were provided with supplications such as:

O Lord Jesus Christ! I ask you to protect me at all times and protect me from all misfortunes, from all enemies, harmful wounds and blasphemy, from fire and water, from road clearing, from poisoning ... from all sorcerers, from hail and thunder ; and a happy birth to all pregnant women.

The lengths of Christ were worn as an amulet . They were especially used during childbirth, where they were placed on the chest or on the bed of women who were squirming.

Gregory of Tours already reported holy measures in the 6th century. In some places, holy measures could still be bought in the 20th century, although the church had already rejected them as superstitions in the Middle Ages .

Certain and true H. Long our Lord Jesus Christ

literature

Used literature:

  • Ellen Ettlinger: The Hildburgh Collection of Austrian and Bavarian Amulets in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum. Folklore 76, 2 (Summer 1965): 104-117, ISSN  0015-587X
  • Lenz Kriss-Rettenbeck: Images and signs of religious folk belief. Callwey, Munich 1963
  • Dominik Wunderlin: Means to Salvation. Religious symbols of blessing and protection in the Dr. Edmund Müller (= treasures from the Dolderhaus in Beromünster, issue 7). Beromünster 2005, ISBN 3-9521775-9-8

Further reading:

  • Adolf Jacoby: Sacred measures of length. An investigation into the history of amulets. Swiss Folklore Archives 29 (1929): 181–216, ISSN  0036-794X
  • Anna Boroffka, The “Length of Christ” in Painting. Codification of authenticity in intermedia discourse (Vestigia Bibliae, 35/36), Bern: Peter Lang 2017.

Web links