Flying, Fighting, and Forgiving. The Materiality of the Living Cross in the Visionary Sermons of Juana de la Cruz
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37536/RPM.2024.38.1.103655Keywords:
Holy matter, Living saint, Arma Christi, Female visionaries, Imaginative theology, Passion, Last JudgmentAbstract
Juana de la Cruz (1481-1534), abbess of a beaterio turned Clarisan convent, was known as a «living saint» for her Marian visions and for the weekly sermones during which Jesus reportedly spoke through her enraptured body to extend the biblical narratives and describe celestial festivities. Juana’s Passion spirituality led her to contemplate the materiality of the arma Christi; in particular, the physicality of the cross as splintery yet living wood influenced Juana’s images of the cross as at once instrument of torture leading to death, while also as triumphant, animate, and even violent. In her visionary sermons, Juana takes the animate materiality of this «holy matter» to its logical extreme, presenting the cross as able to mutate, feed others, enact the liturgy, and subdue the seraphim in a heavenly battle, all actions that helped justify the ultimate action of the living cross participating in the Last Judgment.
Downloads
Métricas alternativas
References
Acosta-García, Pablo (2020a), «“En viva sangre bañadas”: Caterina da Siena y las vitae de María de Ajofrín, Juana de la Cruz, María de Santo Domingo y otras santas vivas castellanas», Archivio Italiano per la Storia della pietà, 33, pp. 143-172. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4580499.
Acosta-García, Pablo (2020b), «On Manuscripts, Prints and Blessed Transformations: Caterina da Siena’s Legenda maior as a Model of Sainthood in Premodern Castile», Religions, 11:33, pp. 1-16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11010033.
Acosta-García, Pablo (2021), «Radical Succession: Hagiography, Reform, and Franciscan Identity in the Convent of the Abbess Juana de la Cruz», Religions, 12:223, pp. 1-23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12030223.
Beltrán Llavador, Rafael (2020), «Del suicidio de Judas al salto de Pármeno: Codicia, traición y caídas mortales en La Celestina», Celestinesca, 44, pp. 9-80. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7203/Celestinesca.44.19428.
Boon, Jessica A. (2010), «Mother Juana de la Cruz: Marian Visions and Female Preaching», in Hilaire Kallendorf (coord.), A New Companion to Hispanic Mysticism. Leiden: Brill, pp. 127-148. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004183506.i-518.33.
Boon, Jessica A. (2012), The Mystical Science of the Soul: Medieval Cognition in Bernardino de Laredo’s Recollection Mysticism. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Boon, Jessica A. (2016), «Introduction», in Jessica A. Boon and Ronald E. Surtz (coords.), Mother Juana de la Cruz, 1481–1534: Visionary Sermons. Toronto, Tempe: Iter Academic Press, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, pp. 1-33.
Boon, Jessica A. (2016), «Violence and the “Virtual Jew” in Castilian Passion Narratives, 1490s-1510s», Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, 8:1, pp. 110-129. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17546559.2015.1077987.
Bonaventure (1978), «The Life of St. Francis», in Ewert Cousins (trans.), The Soul’s Journey into God, The Tree of Life, The Life of St. Francis. Mahweh, NJ: Paulist Press, pp. 177-328.
Bynum, Caroline Walker (2007), Wonderful Blood: Theology and Practice in Late Medieval Northern Germany and Beyond. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Bynum, Caroline Walker (2011), Christian Materiality: An Essay on Religion in Late Medieval Europe. New York: Zone Books.
Bynum, Caroline Walker (2015), «The Animation and Agency of Holy Food: Bread and Wine as Material Divine in the European Middle Ages», in Beate Pongratz-Leisten and Karen Sonik (coords.), The Materiality of Divine Agency. Boston/Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 70-86. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501502262-007.
Casale, Ubertino de (2007), Árbol de la vida crucificada, Luis Pérez Simón (coord.). Murcia: Editorial Espigas.
Cátedra, Pedro M. (2001), Poesía de pasión en la Edad Media: El Cancionero de Pero Gómez de Ferrol. Salamanca: Seminario de Estudios Medievales y Renacentistas.
Cavalca, Domenico (1486), Espejo de la cruz, Alfonso Fernández de Palencia (trans.). NP: Antón Martínez.
Christian, William A., Jr. (1981), Apparitions in Late Medieval and Renaissance Spain. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Codet, Cécile (2014), Femmes et éducation en Espagne à l’aube des temps modernes (1454–fin des années 1520) [PhD dissertation]. École Normal Supérieure de Lyon.
Cooper, Lisa H., and Denny-Brown, Andrea (2014), «Introduction: Arma Christi: The Material Culture of the Passion», in Lisa H. Cooper and Andrea Denny-Brown (coords.), The Arma Christi in Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, pp. 1-20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315241296.
Cortijo Ocaña, Antonio (2016), «Sor Isabel de Villena: De la religio amoris al amor religionis», Mirabilia, 22:1, pp. 1-29. Online: <https://raco.cat/index.php/Mirabilia/article/view/310249> [consulted: 7/07/2024].
Fasciculus mirrhe (1511), Burgos: Fadrique de Basilea.
Fasciculus myrrhe: El qual trata de la passion de nuestro redemptor Jesu Christo (1524). Sevilla: Juan Varela de Salamanca.
Giles, Mary E. (1999), «Spanish Visionary Women and the Paradox of Performance», in Mary A. Suydam and Joanna E. Ziegler (coords.), Performance and Transformation: New Approaches to Late Medieval Spirituality. New York: St. Martin’s Press, pp. 273-297.
Giles, Ryan D. (2009), The Laughter of the Saints: Parodies of Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance Spain. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Gómez Redondo, Fernando (2012), Historia de la prosa de los Reyes Católicos: El umbral del Renacimiento, 2 vols. Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra.
Greer Fein, Susanna (1998), «The Dispute Between Mary and the Cross: Introduction», in Susanna Greer Fein (coord.), Moral Love Songs and Laments. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, pp. 87-95.
Hahn, Cynthia (2020), Passion Relics and the Medieval Imagination: Art, Architecture, and Society. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.
Isabel de Villena (1992), Vita Christi, Josep Almiñana Vallés (coord.), 2 vols. Valencia: Ajuntament de València.
Juana de la Cruz (1999), El Conhorte: Sermones de una mujer. La Santa Juana (1481-1534), Inocente García de Andrés (coord.), 2 vols. Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española.
Juana de la Cruz (2016), Mother Juana de la Cruz, 1481-1534: Visionary Sermons, Jessica A. Boon and Ronald E. Surtz (coords.), Ronald E. Surtz and Nora Weinerth (trans.). Toronto/Tempe, AZ: Iter Academic Press.
Juana de la Cruz 2018/2021, Libro de la Casa y Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de la Cruz, María Victoria Curto (coord.). Online: <http://catalogodesantasvivas.visionarias.es/index.php/Juana_de_la_Cruz#Vida_manuscrita_.282.29> [consulted: 21/12/2022].
Juana de la Cruz (2019/2022), La vida y fin de la bienaventurada virgen sancta Juana de la Cruz, María Luengo Balbás and Fructuoso Atencia Requena (coords.). Online: <http://catalogodesantasvivas.visionarias.es/index.php/Juana_de_la_Cruz#Vida_Manuscrita_.281.29> [consulted: 21/12/2022].
Juster, Susan (2017), «Planting the “Great Cross”: The Life, and Death, of Crosses in English America», The William and Mary Quarterly, 74:2, pp. 241-270. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5309/willmaryquar.74.2.0241.
Li, Andrés de (2011), A Scholarly Edition of Andrés de Li’s Thesoro de la passion (1494), Laura Delbrugge (coord.). Leiden: Brill.
Ludolph of Saxony (2010), La vida de Cristo, Emilio del Río (ed.). Madrid: Comillas, 2 vols.
Martínez Ruíz, Carlos Mateo (2000), De la dramatización de los acontecimientos de la Pascua a la cristología: El cuarto libro del Arbor vitae crucifixae Iesu de Ubertino de Casale. Roma: Pontificium Athenaeum Antonianum.
Miller, Daniel (2010), Stuff. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Muessig, Carolyn (2020), The Stigmata in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Muñoz Fernández, Angela (2016), «Iberian Women in Religion and Policies of Disciplined Dissent in the Archbishopric of Toledo in the Fifteenth to Early Sixteenth Centuries: The Heaven of Juana de la Cruz», in Fabrizio Titone (coord.), Disciplined Dissent: Strategies of Non-Confrontational Protest in Europe from the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century. Roma: Viella, pp. 193-218.
Newman, Barbara (2005), God and the Goddesses: Vision, Poetry, and Belief in the Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Osuna, Francisco de (2004), Primer abecedario espiritual, José Juan Morcillo Pérez (ed.). Madrid: Editorial Cisneros.
Padilla, Juan de (1505), Retablo de la vida de Cristo. Seville: Jacobo Cromberger.
Pérez Simón, Luis (2009), «Presencia de Ubertino de Casale (1259-1329): En el Primer abecedario espiritual, de Francisco de Osuna (1492-1541/2)», Verdad y vida, 67:254, pp. 275-308.
Prejano, Pedro Jiménez de (1495), Lucero de la vida cristiana. Burgos: Fadrique de Basilea.
Ritchey, Sara (2014), Holy Matter: Changing Perceptions of the Material World in Late Medieval Christianity. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Robinson, Cynthia (2006), «Trees of Love, Trees of Knowledge: Towards a Definition of a Cross-Confessional Current in Late Medieval Iberian Spirituality», Medieval Encounters, 12:3, pp. 388-435. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/157006706779166101.
Robinson, Cynthia (2013), Imagining the Passion in a Multiconfessional Castile: The Virgin, Christ, Devotions, and Images in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State Press.
Sanmartín Bastida, Rebeca (2016), «Sobre las categorías de santa, beata y visionaria: El género performativo», Cahiers d’études hispaniques médiévales, 1:39, pp. 183-208. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/cehm.039.0183.
Sanmartín Bastida, Rebeca (2019), «Un episodio en la vida de Juana de la Cruz: Sobre la autoridad espiritual femenina a comienzos del siglo xvi», Edad de Oro, 38, pp. 55-73. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15366/edadoro2019.38.003.
Sanmartín Bastida, Rebeca (2021), «Performing Authority Through Iconography: On Iberian Visionary Women and Images», in E. Michael Gerli and Ryan D. Giles (coords.), The Routledge Hispanic Studies Companion to Medieval Iberia: Unity in Diversity. New York: Routledge, pp. 600-620. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315210483.
Sanmartín Bastida, Rebeca, and Massip Bonet, Francesc (2017), «La danza de espadas en El libro del conorte de Juana de la Cruz», Revista de poética medieval, 31, pp. 15-38. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37536/RPM.2017.31.0.58478.
Sticca, Sandro (1988), The Planctus Mariae in the Dramatic Tradition of the Middle Ages, Joseph R. Berrigan (trans.). Athens/London: University of Georgia Press.
Surtz, Ronald E. (1990), The Guitar of God: Gender, Power, and Authority in the Visionary World of Mother Juana de la Cruz (1481-1534). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Tenerio, Francisco de, and Escobar, Luis (1526), Passio duorum: Tractado de devotísimas y muy lastimosas contemplaciones de la pasión del Hijo de Dios y compassion de la Virgen sancta María, su madre. Valladolid: Nicolás Tyerri.
Timmermann, Achim (2001), «The Avenging Crucifix: Some Observations on the Iconography of the Living Cross», Gesta, 40:2, pp. 141-160. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/767243.
Troiano, Alfredo (2024), «“Quella cotale presenza della sua umanità passionata”: Immagini e affetti nello Specchio di croce di Domenico Cavalca», Specula: Revista de Humanidades y Espiritualidad, 8, pp. 33-77.
Twomey, Lesley (2013), The Fabric of Marian Devotion in Isabel de Villena’s Vita Christi. Woodbridge, England: Tamesis.
Weiss, Jessica (2022), «Art Patronized and Collected by Queen Isabel», in Hilaire Kallendorf (coord.), A Companion to the Queenship of Isabel la Católica. Leiden: Brill, pp. 113-157. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004521520_006.
Weissberger, Barbara F. (2009), «Motherhood and Ritual Murder in Medieval Spain and England», Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 39:1, pp. 7-30. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-2008-011.
Whinnom, Keith (1963), «The Supposed Sources of Inspiration of Spanish Fifteenth-Century Narrative Religious Verse», Symposium, 17, pp. 268-291. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00397709.1963.10732789.
Zarri, Gabriella (1996), «Living Saints: A Typology of Female Sanctity in the Early Sixteenth Century», in Daniel Bornstein and Roberto Rusconi (coords.), Women and Religion in Medieval and Renaissance Italy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 219-304.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Jessica A. Boon
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The opinions and facts stated in each article are the exclusive responsability of the authors. The University of Alcalá is not responsible in any case for the credibility and aunthenticity of the studies.
Authors will retain the rights on their work, even if they will be granting the journal a non-exclusive right of use to reproduce, edit, distribute, publicly communicate and show their work. Therefore, authors are free to enter into additional, independent contracts for non-exclusive distribution of the works published in this journal (such as uploading them to an institutional repository or publishing them in a book), as long as the fact that the manuscripts were first published in this journal is acknowledged.
Works are published under the terms stipulated in the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) that allows third parties to share the work under the following conditions:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
Funding data
-
Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Grant numbers PID2019-104237GB-I00