Holy belt

Assumption of the Virgin Mary ( Palma Vecchio ), Mary loosens her belt when the Apostle Thomas (small brown figure, top right picture) enters the scene in the background

Assumption of Mary ( Francesco Granacci )

Altar of the Assumption of Mary ( Andrea Della Robbia ), glazed terracotta in the Liebieghaus

The Virgin Mary gives St. Thomas down her belt from heaven

The sacred belt is the belt of the Virgin Mary , venerated as the relic of Mary in various places .

history

According to tradition, the Virgin Mary made the belt herself from camel hair during her pregnancy and gave it to the apostle Thomas in an apparition after her bodily acceptance into heaven . According to tradition, Thomas was the only apostle who was not present when Mary was physically taken into heaven . He doubted the event as he had before the resurrection of Christ . Therefore Maria appeared to the doubter and handed him her belt as proof.

Adoration

The relic of the Holy Belt of the Virgin Mary is one of the most revered relics of Orthodox Christianity . It is kept on Mount Athos ( Greece ) in the Vatopedi monastery. The belt of the Madonna is supposed to bring about general health and above all to help unintentionally childless children to have offspring.

Another belt relic can be found in Prato Cathedral in Tuscany . In 1428 Donatello and Michelozzo di Bartolomeo were given the task of designing the pulpit , which is intended to show the people the Sacra Cintola (sacred belt) on festive days (usually five times a year) . The Capella della sacra cintola was created by Lorenzo di Filippo between 1386 and 1390 and serves as a place of storage and worship for the Marian relic.

“Among the items of clothing which pious faith assumes to be still there is especially her belt. There was a church at Constantinople , which for that very reason was the goal of many pilgrimages . […] Meanwhile there are also such belts of Saints in Rome , Aachen , Bruges , Arras , Prague , Cologne , Andechs . Virgin. These are probably copied, and parts of the real thing sewn in, so that their number can no longer be surprising. "

iconography

In the baroque era , the "belt donation" was a popular motif in Christian iconography .

Jesus as a belt donor

In the miraculous image of St. Martin's Consolation (Freiburg Old Town) , the Virgin Mary is girdled with a black leather belt and the baby Jesus stretches the belt towards the viewer. The Augustinian hermits cultivated the veneration of the black belt donating Madonna mostly in so-called Maria-vom-Trost brotherhoods and wore the black leather belt. In Oberigling , for example, there is a so-called Maria Trost Belt Brotherhood.