Virgines capitales

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Lucas Cranach, d. Ä. : The mystical marriage of St. Catherine with the hll. Barbara, Margareta and Dorothea

The group known as (quattuor) virgines capitales includes four virgin martyrs of the early Church. These martyrs, also referred to in literature as the four excellent (holy) virgins or the four main virgins , are Katharina , Margareta , Barbara and Dorothea. Three of these Virgines capitales are also among the fourteen helpers in need .

These four virgins are often depicted in iconography together or with the Virgin Mary at the center. Occasionally, instead of the classic sequence with Dorothea, St. Ursula is also shown or her attribute, the arrow, is shown in the hands of St. Dorothea. The representation of the four main virgins is mostly a sub-form of the Virgo inter virgines type , which shows Mary in the midst of virgin martyrs.

Our Lady with the four Virgines capitales in a Hortus conclusus . The virgins can be recognized by their attributes : in front Dorothea (left) and Margareta, in back Katharina (left) and Barbara.

The fact that the Missale Cologniense contains the votive mass Missa de sanctis quatuor virginibus capitalibus testifies to the great veneration of the four martyrs .

literature

  • Hiltgart L. Keller: Reclam's Lexicon of Saints and Biblical Figures . Stuttgart Reclam ⁶ 1987. There under Dorothea (p. 179f.), Katharina (p. 352f.) And Margareta (p. 395)
  • Stanley E. Weed, Venerating the Virgin Martyrs: The Cult of the "Virgines Capitales" in Art, Literature, and Popular Piety , in: The Sixteenth Century Journal , Vol. 41, No. 4, 2010, pp. 1065ff.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quattuor Virgines Capitales , in: PW Hartmann, Das große Kunstlexikon , Sersheim 1997
  2. ↑ cf. Little Passion Book of the Four Principal Virgins
  3. ^ Heinrich Krauss, Eva Uthemann, What pictures tell: the classic stories from antiquity and Christianity in western painting , Verlag CH Beck, Munich, 4th edition 1998, p. 399
  4. ^ Heinrich Krauss, Eva Uthemann, What pictures tell: the classic stories from antiquity and Christianity in western painting , Verlag CH Beck, Munich, 4th edition 1998, p. 399
  5. ↑ Stanley E. Weed, venerating the Virgin Martyrs: The Cult of the "virgins Capitales" in Art, Literature, and Popular Piety , in: The Sixteenth Century Journal , Vol. 41, No. 4, 2010, p 1065ff..