Mother's blessing

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Ordo of the mother's blessing in the St. Gallen Codex (16th century)

The mother's blessing, the blessing of a mother before and after birth, is a rite associated with the sacrament of baptism in the Roman Catholic Church . Women who have recently given birth can also be blessed in the Orthodox , Evangelical and Anglican churches .

Popularly, until the end of the 20th century, the rite was regionally referred to in Catholic parlance as a blessing , also as a (Her) pre-blessing or process . In the Protestant regional churches it was called consecration , first church attendance , happy or grateful church attendance, abdication, thanksgiving or sacrifice . It usually took place some time after the baptism, in case the mother was unable to attend the baptism.

Origin and development

Presentation of the Lord in the temple

The dispensation of this blessing is attributed to purification rituals originating from Judaism . In Judaism, a woman was considered “ unclean ” for several days after giving birth , just like after menstruation, and was only allowed to enter the sanctuary after 40 days after the birth of a son, and 80 days after that of a girl. She indicated the end of this time by taking a ritual bath in the mikveh and made a sacrifice in gratitude for the birth of the child.

“The Lord said to Moses: Say to the Israelites: When a woman comes down and gives birth to a boy, she is unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean in the time of her rule. The child's foreskin should be circumcised on the eighth day and the woman should stay at home for thirty-three days because of her cleansing bleeding. She must not touch anything consecrated or come to the sanctuary until the time of her purification is over. When she gives birth to a girl, she is impure for two weeks, as during her period. She is said to be home for sixty-six days because of her cleansing bleeding. When the time of her purification is over, she is to bring a year old sheep as a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove as a sin offering to the priest at the entrance to the tabernacle for a son as well as a daughter. He should bring it before the Lord and atone for them; so it is cleared of its blood flow. This is the law for a woman who gives birth to a boy or a girl. If she cannot raise the funds for a sheep, she should take two lovebirds or two young pigeons, one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering; the priest shall atone for her and so she will be purified. "

- ( Lev 12.1-8  EU )

In Luke's Gospel there is the pericope of the presentation of the Lord in the temple ( Lk 2,21–38  EU ). The feast of the Presentation of Jesus is celebrated on February 2nd - on the 40th day after the birth of Jesus according to the Jewish directive - and was called In Purificatione Beatae Mariae Virginis ("To the purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary" - " until the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council " Feast of the Purification or Candlemas ”). That is why it used to be popularly known as "Virgin Mary Sacrifice" or "Virgin Mary Purification".

In Christianity, too, the view was widespread that “a young mother had to stay away from the church for some time after birth and, in order to be allowed to enter the church again, needed purification and atonement.” This view went from the oriental churches to The early Middle Ages also spread to the Latin Church and was included in the liturgical books from the 11th century. The oldest reliable sources for a ritual blessing of women who have recently given birth when they first go to church date from the end of the 12th century, but women who have recently given birth should have met a deadline before going to church for the first time. There was no obligation for ritual cleansing. The appeal was made to Pope Gregory the Great († 604), who had emphasized in a letter that the woman should not be condemned (non judicanda) if she entered the church immediately after giving birth to give thanks and received communion . The thought of the uncleanness of women could not be suppressed, however, and the Church recommended the custom of the blessing as pia et laudabilis consuetudo, as “pious and praiseworthy custom” and “approved habit”. In the 12th century the custom was practiced in general, in the 15th century it was even considered an obligation in some places.

In some places women who had recently given birth or died without a blessing during childbirth or in childbed were refused church burials. Elsewhere, women who had recently given birth were blessed before the funeral. Such local customs persisted into the 19th century despite official church prohibitions.

Since 1614, the rite in Rituale Romanum , the Benedictio mulieris post partum (“blessing of the mother after the birth”), has been shaped by the mother's thanks to God for the birth of the child and the survival of the child, the purification motif no longer played a role . The older understanding of a purification ("blessing") was still effective in popular belief until the 20th century and was also retained in the particular rituals of some dioceses after 1614.

The church ordinances of the Reformation period were initially critical of the blessing and viewed it as “angry abuse” and “outflow of superstition”; in addition, marital status is sacred and giving birth is not an abomination. But even in Protestantism, the blessing of the child prayer was established again as early as the end of the 16th century, with the character of thanksgiving for the happy birth. The evangelical pastoral care today understands the blessing as "benedictive practice" ("blessing action"), in which the blessing of God is bestowed on individual people in special life situations by the laying on of hands. Thus the blessing of a mother belongs to the casualia .

rite

The blessing was separate from the baptism of the child if it was given shortly after the birth and usually without the mother's presence. It took place ten to forty days after the birth. Where baptism took place late - for example in Protestant northern and central Germany - the date of first going to church was also late or was linked to the date of baptism; in the case of early baptism - common south of the Main - it was also earlier. In Austria there was a two-week deadline almost everywhere.

Catholic liturgy

The priest and an altar boy went to the church portal or to the back of the church, regionally also to the sacristy , where the mother was waiting. The acolyte handed her a burning candle. The priest sprinkled holy water on the mother . After the chanting of an antiphon , the procession moved to the Marian altar under the prayer of Psalm 23 ( Ps 24  EU ) - locally, where available, also to the altar of St. Anna ( Mary's mother ) - where the woman who had recently given birth knelt. The priest put his stole over the woman's hands and said: "Enter the temple of God, pray to the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who has given you fertility." After the Kyrie eleison , Our Father and the Oration , he said this Blessing prayer, the mother sprinkled holy water again and gave the blessing. A Marian hymn was often sung.

When it became customary to give a baptismal donation at a greater distance from the birth and in the presence of the mother, the mother's blessing was given immediately after the baptism ceremony.

In the baptismal rite renewed after the Second Vatican Council , the blessing was transformed into a blessing of the mother and the father at the end of the baptismal celebration. If the mother cannot attend the baptism of her child, she can later come to church with her newly baptized child to thank God for the birth and to receive his blessings. The service includes a scripture reading , the chanting of the Magnificat, and the blessing prayer over the mother (and father) of the child.

Evangelical practice

A woman who had recently given birth could go to church for the first time as a solemn blessing at the altar as part of a church service. The process included a speech by the pastor, a prayer and the blessing of the woman who had recently given birth kneeling on the steps of the altar, locally there was a meeting around the altar and the laying down of a sacrifice. The first church attendance could also take place without a formal consecration. The woman who had recently given birth visited the church alone or accompanied on a working day during the ringing of prayer (older practice) or on the Sunday before the church service, knelt down, said a prayer and placed a sacrifice on the altar.

Around 1930, another form of prayer was widespread: the woman who had recently given birth took part in the worship service with other members of the congregation, and as part of the general terminations and prayers , thanks for the birth and blessings for mother and child were expressed. In addition, it was regionally customary to sing a song of praise and thanksgiving (most often praise the Lord and now everyone thanks God ).

Finally, since the beginning of the 20th century, the blessing has increasingly been connected with the baptism of the child at the end; this practice ultimately led to the disappearance of a particular custom.

Offering

According to Jewish regulations, an offering was part of the ritual cleansing of the woman who had recently given birth. Mary and Joseph also sacrificed two doves when Jesus was presented in the temple ( Lk 2.24  EU ). Until the 20th century, the sacrificial custom was therefore part of the Christian denominations of blessing and first going to church. The offering could consist of a monetary donation, but especially in Bavaria, bread rolls, eggs or, more commonly, candles were also donated; in the process, the sacrificial money was pressed into the wax of a candle. Originally, the woman who had recently given birth made the sacrifice herself in the church, possibly supported by her company. In some places it was customary to lay the sacrifice on the altar, sometimes combined with an altar ambulatory as a "sacrificial passage". The priest, the sexton and the acolytes received shares of the sacrifice.

Initially in the Protestant, increasingly also in the Catholic area, only monetary donations were common. In the form of the “prayer for preaching”, the sacrifice was usually paid in advance as a stolen fee, also in the course of merging the blessing and baptism in both denominations. Thus, with the form of the mother's blessing practiced today, the practice of sacrifice as a ritual element has lost its importance.

Folk customs

As part of the rites around birth and death, the first visit to church for the woman who had recently given birth was associated with the ordination or blessing with a multitude of regionally different folk customs and sometimes superstitious practices. Around 1930, the blessing was still widespread among Catholics in north, west and south-west German areas as well as in the areas of Vienna and Klagenfurt, but by then the custom had already disappeared in Bavaria and northern Bohemia. In Protestant congregations in central Germany (Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, South Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia), the blessing usually already took place in connection with baptism; in northern Germany, East Prussia and Saxony, the preaching was still common, and only In East Pomerania, parts of Lower Saxony and Schleswig, the woman who had recently given birth was consecrated at the altar.

Sometimes - as was the case in the Rhineland around 1930 - the woman who had recently given birth had to stand in front of the church door, in the bell tower or in a certain chair at the back of the church, as long as she was not yet blessed. She was only allowed to come to church for the sermon and was the first to leave it.

The woman who had recently given birth was led to the blessing - sometimes solemnly - and supported by neighbors, relatives, godmothers or the midwife . Accompaniment by the husband was only common in Protestant areas, clothing was subject to local customs. In the Rhineland on the left bank of the Rhine, there was a custom of handing out pastries to companions and children when leaving the church.

Whether the mother brought the child to the church celebration was handled differently in the Catholic area, in the Protestant area it was almost never common.

The midwife, the companions, in some places the schoolchildren and the neighborhood gathered for the funeral for coffee, in Franconia and Bavaria also for a meal to which the guests brought gifts.

The details of the woman who had recently given birth to church were determined in part by superstitious ideas, the non-observance of which should mean misfortune or death. Before leaving the house, for example, she had to say prayers, she had to take a rosary or the prayer book and cover her head with a white cloth (“Maultuch”). On the way she had to walk in silence, without stopping and without looking around, she was not supposed to greet anyone and avoid meeting old women, beggars and cats. You should enter the church with your right foot first. Similar rules applied to the way home. The flickering or even going out of the candle was considered a bad omen for future children's blessings. The midwife bit the candle to prevent the child from having a toothache.

Mothers of illegitimate children were not blessed.

When there was still no maternity protection legislation, a church-supported ban on a woman who had recently given birth went out before the burial, especially in rural and rural areas, also had the function of protecting the young mother from hard work, especially if this period was 40 days based on Mary's temple visit was extended.

literature

  • Walter von Arx: The mother's blessing after the birth. History and meaning. In: Concilium (D). 14, 1978, pp. 106-111.
  • Gerda Grober-Glück: The woman who had recently given birth first went to church around 1930. A “church custom” in spread and change. According to the collections of the Atlas of German Folklore. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. Volume XXIII, 1977, pp. 22-86.
  • Bruno Kleinheyer : Rites around marriage and family. in: Church service. Handbook of liturgical science. Volume 8 (Sacramentary Celebrations II), Pustet, Regensburg 1984, ISBN 3-7917-0940-2 , pp. 152–156 (blessing of mother and child after birth) .
  • Susan Roll: The ancient rite of women going to church for the first time after giving birth. In: Annette Esser, Andrea Günter, Rajah Scheepers (eds.): Having children - being a child - being born: Philosophical and theological contributions to childhood and birth. Helmer, Königstein / Taunus 2008, ISBN 978-3-89741-273-6 , pp. 176-194.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Benediktionale, study edition for the Catholic dioceses of the German-speaking area . Freiburg i. Br., Herder 2004, pp. 15-16.
  2. ↑ Gerda Grober-Glück: The first woman to go to church around 1930. A “church custom” in spread and change. According to the collections of the Atlas of German Folklore. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. Volume XXIII, 1977, pp. 22–86, here p. 23 A. 5. - Dictionary of German Folklore. 3rd edition, Stuttgart 1974, cited here ( memento of the original from June 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / Lebenskreislauf.de
  3. ↑ Walter von Arx: The blessing of the mother after the birth. History and meaning. In: Concilium (D). 14, 1978, pp. 106-111, here p. 106.
  4. ^ Archabbey of Beuron: The complete Roman missal. Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1963, p. 764.
  5. ↑ Kleinheyer (Lit.), p. 153.
  6. ↑ Gerda Grober-Glück: The first woman to go to church around 1930. A “church custom” in spread and change. According to the collections of the Atlas of German Folklore. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. Volume XXIII, 1977, pp. 22–86, here p. 72, with reference to: A. Franz: The Church Benedictions in the Middle Ages. Vol. 2, Freiburg 1909, pp. 219f.
  7. ↑ Walter von Arx: The blessing of the mother after the birth. History and meaning. In: Concilium (D). 14, 1978, pp. 106-111, here p. 109; Gerda Grober-Glück: The woman who had recently given birth first went to church around 1930. A “church custom” in spread and change. According to the collections of the Atlas of German Folklore. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. Volume XXIII, 1977, pp. 22-86, here p. 78.
  8. ↑ Gerda Grober-Glück: The first woman to go to church around 1930. A “church custom” in spread and change. According to the collections of the Atlas of German Folklore. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. Volume XXIII, 1977, pp. 22-86, here pp. 73-77.
  9. ↑ Gerda Grober-Glück: The first woman to go to church around 1930. A “church custom” in spread and change. According to the collections of the Atlas of German Folklore. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. Volume XXIII, 1977, pp. 22-86, here pp. 52f.
  10. ^ Rituale romanum, 1952, tit. VIII cap. 6; Walter von Arx: The mother's blessing after the birth. History and meaning. In: Concilium (D) . 14, 1978, pp. 106-111, here p. 107.
  11. ^ Walter von Arx: Mother's blessing . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 7 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1998. >; Rituale romanum ex decreto Sacrosancti Oecumenici Concilii Vaticani II renovatum, auctoritate Pauli PP. VI editum, Ioannis Pauli PP II cura recognit.
  12. ↑ Gerda Grober-Glück: The first woman to go to church around 1930. A “church custom” in spread and change. According to the collections of the Atlas of German Folklore. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. Volume XXIII, 1977, pp. 22-86, here pp. 24ff., 36, 39-43.
  13. ↑ Gerda Grober-Glück: The first woman to go to church around 1930. A “church custom” in spread and change. According to the collections of the Atlas of German Folklore. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. Volume XXIII, 1977, pp. 22-86, here pp. 44-52.
  14. ↑ See the overview with Hermann Heinrich Ploss : The child in custom and custom of the peoples. Volume 1, Auerbach, Stuttgart 1876, p. 227.
  15. ↑ Gerda Grober-Glück: The first woman to go to church around 1930. A “church custom” in spread and change. According to the collections of the Atlas of German Folklore. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. Volume XXIII, 1977, pp. 22-86, here pp. 29, 32-39.
  16. ↑ Kleinenbroich : gingerbread, macaroons or rye rolls; similar in Miel and Schophoven ; Gerda Grober-Glück: The woman who had recently given birth first went to church around 1930. A “church custom” in spread and change. According to the collections of the Atlas of German Folklore. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. Volume XXIII, 1977, pp. 22-86, here p. 48 A. 54.
  17. ↑ Merkendorf (Middle Franconia) : festive meal, called "Kindleskirwa"; Simbach am Inn : a better meal in which the child's godmother also takes part and brings certain gifts; Gerda Grober-Glück: The woman who had recently given birth first went to church around 1930. A “church custom” in spread and change. According to the collections of the Atlas of German Folklore. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. Volume XXIII, 1977, pp. 22-86, here p. 62 A. 122, 123.
  18. ↑ Gerda Grober-Glück: The first woman to go to church around 1930. A “church custom” in spread and change. According to the collections of the Atlas of German Folklore. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. Volume XXIII, 1977, pp. 22-86, here pp. 79-82.
  19. ^ Dictionary of German Folklore. 3rd edition, Stuttgart 1974, cited here ( memento of the original from June 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / Lebenskreislauf.de
  20. ↑ Walter von Arx: The blessing of the mother after the birth. History and meaning. In: Concilium (D). 14, 1978, pp. 106-111, here p. 109; Gerda Grober-Glück: The woman who had recently given birth first went to church around 1930. A “church custom” in spread and change. According to the collections of the Atlas of German Folklore. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. Volume XXIII, 1977, pp. 22-86, here pp. 52f.