Tuesday, March 31, 2020

06 Works, Today, March 31st, is Righteous Joseph's Day, With Footnotes - #89

Righteous Joseph the Patriarch

Righteous Joseph the Handsome was a son of the Old Testament patriarch Jacob, and died in about the year 1700 before the Birth of Christ. His brothers by birth were jealous of him, because the father loved him more than the other brothers, and they feared him, since he told them about his dreams, foretelling his future greatness. The brothers decided to kill Righteous Joseph, but on the suggestion of the eldest of them, Reuben, they changed their minds and first threw Joseph into a pit, and then sold him to merchants who were journeying with a caravan to Egypt.


Anton Robert Leinweber
Joseph sold by his brethren


Anton Robert Leinweber , Czech Robert Antonín Leinweber (born February 7, 1845 in Bohemian Leipa , Kingdom of Bohemia , † December 21, 1921 in Munich ), was a German painter and illustrator of Czech descent.

Anton Robert Leinweber studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden . 


He spent many years in North Africa, especially in Tunisia. He created together with Philip Grot Johann and Hermann Vogel illustrations to the children and house fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm . Leinweber also created numerous Bible illustrations. More on Anton Leinweber

The brothers returned home to Jacob sorrowful, with fake tears. They told him: “Father! Forgive us! Such a grave sorrow has happened! Your son, the young Joseph, is no more. In the desert we saw only his blood-stained clothes and brought them to you

In Egypt Joseph was sold to Potiphar, – head of the imperial bodyguards, and thanks to his mind and virtues, he earned the trust of his master. Righteous Joseph was exceedingly handsome, and the wife of Potiphar wanted to force him into adultery. But the chaste youth turned away the temptation. 


Follower of Simon Vouet (French, 1590–1649)
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
Oil on Canvas
115 x 138.4 cm. (45.3 x 54.5 in.)
Private collection


Simon Vouet, (born January 9, 1590, Paris, France—died June 30, 1649, Paris), painter who introduced an Italianate Baroque style of painting into France.

Vouet formed his style in Italy, where he lived from 1612 to 1627. The use of dramatic contrasts of light and shade seen in such early works as his Two Lovers indicates that he began in Rome as a follower of Caravaggio. Works done after 1620, however, display more idealized figures. Vouet’s Time Vanquished (1627) breaks with the tenebrism of Caravaggio, using the more evenly diffused white light that characterizes his later style.


He returned to Paris in 1627 at the request of Louis XIII, who named him his first painter. Thereafter, Vouet won almost all the important painting commissions and dominated the city artistically for 15 years. He exercised an enormous influence with such works as Riches (c. 1630), which was probably part of the decorative program of the château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Engravings and surviving panels show that he had studied Italian illusionistic ceiling decoration. His other principal undertakings were in the Hôtel de Bullion and in the palace of the Cardinal de Richelieu at Rueil. More on Simon Vouet

Then out of malice and spite the wife of Potiphar slandered Righteous Joseph before her husband, saying that the youth wanted to defile her. 


Rembrandt, (1606–1669)
Joseph accused by Potiphar's wife, c. 1655
Oil on canvas
Height: 113.5 cm (44.6 in); Width: 90 cm (35.4 in)
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin


Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age when Dutch Golden Age painting dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative, and gave rise to important new genres in painting.
Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, Rembrandt's later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardships. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high, and for twenty years he taught many important Dutch painters. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity.

In his paintings and prints he exhibited knowledge of classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements of his own experience; thus, the depiction of a biblical scene was informed by Rembrandt's knowledge of the specific text, his assimilation of classical composition, and his observations of Amsterdam's Jewish population. Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called "one of the great prophets of civilization. More on Rembrandt

Believing the lie, Potiphar locked up the innocent youth in prison. Situated in prison, Saint Joseph the Handsome gained fame by his wise interpretation of dreams. 


James Jacques Joseph Tissot, (French, 1836-1902)
Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dream, c. 1896-1902
Gouache on board
5 15/16 x 8 7/8 in. (15.1 x 22.6 cm)
Jewish Museum, New York

Jacques Joseph Tissot (15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902), Anglicized as James Tissot, was a French painter and illustrator. He was a successful painter of Paris society before moving to London in 1871. He became famous as a genre painter of fashionably dressed women shown in various scenes of everyday life. He also painted scenes and characters from the Bible. More on James Tissot

Having solved the riddle of Pharaoh's dream, – foretelling the approaching years of famine and misfortune for Egypt, Righteous Joseph was set free and made first counselor of Egypt. When the famine befell also the native-land of righteous Joseph in Palestine, Saint Joseph was able to re-settle his father with all his family into Egypt. Before his end, Righteous Joseph gave instructions to transfer his bones from Egypt to the Promised Land, which was done under the holy Prophet Moses (Comm. 4 September), 1496 BC. Through his sons Manassah and Ephraim, Saint Joseph the Handsome is situated at the head of two of the tribes of Israel. More on Righteous Joseph the Handsome


David Roberts
Joseph's Tomb, c. 1839.

David Roberts RA (b Stockbridge [now a district of Edinburgh], 24 Oct. 1796; d London, 25 Nov. 1864). Scottish painter. He was apprenticed to a house painter, then worked as a scene painter for theatres in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In 1822 he settled in London and worked at the Drury Lane Theatre with his friend Clarkson Stanfield. From 1833 he travelled widely in Europe and the Mediterranean basin and made a fortune with his topographical views.

He worked in oil and watercolour and published lavishly illustrated books, among them the six-volume Views in the Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia (1842–9). His work can be monotonous when seen en masse, but at his best he combines bold design with precise observation. More David Roberts






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Monday, March 30, 2020

07 Works, Today, March 30th, is Saint John Climacus' Day, With Footnotes - #88

Saint John Climacus

"I have built a ladder of ascent… from earth to holiness… In honor of the thirty years of the Lord, I have built a ladder of thirty steps, which if we climb it to the age of the Lord, we will be righteous and safe from falls." 

Saint John Climacus, (born c. 579—died c. 649, Mt. Sinai, Sinai Peninsula). He is best known as the author of the Ladder of Divine Ascent, a treasury of spiritual wisdom which is read in its entirety in monasteries during every Lenten season. He is also commemorated on the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent.


Anonymous
Ladder of Divine Ascent, 12th century
Icon
Saint Catherine's Monastery 
Knowing of the saint's wisdom and spiritual gifts, the abbot of Raithu asked on behalf of all the monks of his monastery for "true instruction for those who seek unwaveringly, and a kind of steadfast ladder that will take those who desire it to the Heavenly gates…" 

The Ladder of Divine Ascent or The Ladder of Paradise. St John Climacus described the Christian life as a ladder with thirty rungs.  Also shown are angels helping the climbers, and demons attempting to shoot with arrows or drag down the climbers, no matter how high up the ladder they may be. Most versions of the icon show at least one person falling. Often, in the lower right corner St. John Climacus himself is shown, gesturing towards the ladder, with rows of monastics behind him. More on this icon

Nothing is known of his life before he entered the monastery at Mount Sinai (now St Katherine's Monastery) at the age of sixteen; he remained there until his death at the age of eighty. 

Mount Sinai Monastery/Saint Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai, Egypt
Lithograph by Louis Haghe, c. 1845


Louis Haghe (17 March 1806, Tournai, Belgium – 9 March 1885 London) was a Belgian lithographer and watercolourist.

Training in his teens in watercolour painting, he found work in the relatively new art of lithography when the first press was set up in Tournai. He visited England to find work, and settled there permanently in 1823.

Together with William Day (1797–1845), around 1830 he formed the partnership Day & Haghe, which became the most famous early Victorian firm of lithographic printing in London. After William's death in 1845, the firm became known as 'Day & Son'.[They were pioneers in developing the medium of the lithograph printed in colours.

In 1838, Day and Haghe were appointed 'Lithographers to the Queen'. Possibly his most ambitious project was providing 250 images for David Roberts' The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia printed between 1842–1849. Roberts praised his skill and artistry, although John Ruskin called it 'forced'.

From the mid-1850s Haghe concentrated more on his watercolours, and gained a reputation for his architectural scenes of northern Europe, with his pictures bought and displayed by the Victoria and Albert Museum. He also painted in oils, which were exhibited at the British Institution. He became president of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours from 1873 to 1884. More on Louis Haghe

After he first arrived, he spent nineteen years in strict obedience to his spiritual father, Martyrios. When Martyrios died, John retired to a nearby cave, where he lived in the strictest asceticism for twenty years. 

Saint John Climacus in his cave

He reluctantly returned to the monastery when he was made abbot by the brethren, and spent the rest of his days guiding his spiritual children in the way of salvation.

Saint John Climacus, abbot 

Once he heard a monk criticize him for speaking too much; rather than reproach the monk, he himself kept silence for a full year, never uttering a word until the brethren begged him to speak again. At another time a large company of pilgrims came to Mt Sinai. At supper they all saw a young man, dressed as a Jew, serving at table and giving orders to the other servants, then suddenly disappearing. When they wondered among themselves what this could mean, John said 'Do not try to look for him; that was the prophet Moses serving you in his own home.'

Saint John Climacus

Gifted with a strong, sharp mind that was made wise by deep spiritual experience, he taught everyone who came to him and guided them to salvation.

When the holy abbot knew that his death was approaching, he appointed his own brother, George, as his successor. George grieved the approaching death of his beloved brother, but St John told him that, if he was found worthy to stand close to God after his death, he would pray that George be taken up to heaven in the same year. So it happened: ten months after St John's death, George reposed in the Lord. More on Saint John Climacus







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Sunday, March 29, 2020

05 Works, Today, March 29th, is Saints Jonas and Barachisius's Day, With Footnotes - #87

Saints Jonas and Barachisius


Unknown, School of Antwerp, c. 1515-1525
King Sapor of Persia, between 1515 and 1525
Oil on panel
36.8 x 28.6 cm
Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts

King Sapor of Persia, in the year 327, raised a bloody persecution against the Christians and laid waste their churches and monasteries. Jonas and Barachisius, two brothers of the city Beth-Asa, hearing that several Christians were under sentence of death at Hubaham, went there to encourage and serve them. Fortified by these words, nine of that number received the crown of martyrdom.



Bloody persecution against the Christians

After their execution, Jonas and Barachisius were apprehended for having exhorted the martyrs to die. The president entreated the two brothers to obey the king of Persia, and to worship the sun, the moon, fire, and water. They answered that it was more reasonable to obey the immortal King of heaven and earth than a mortal prince. Saint Jonas was beaten with knotty clubs and with rods until his ribs were visible, but he blessed God. Then he was chained by one foot and dragged to a frozen pond to spend the night there.


Saint Jonas was beaten with knotty clubs and with rods

Saint Barachisius had two red-hot iron plates and two red-hot hammers applied under each arm, and melted lead dropped into his nostrils and eyes; after which he was carried to prison, and there hung up by one foot. Despite these cruel tortures, the two brothers survived and remained steadfast in the Faith. 


Saints Jonas and Barachisius  finally expired under a terrible press.

New and more horrible torments were then devised; both finally expired under a terrible press. They yielded up their heroic lives, praying for their enemies, while their pure souls winged their flight to heaven, there to gain the martyr's crown which they had so faithfully won. More  on Saints Jonas and Barachisius






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Saturday, March 28, 2020

03 Works, Today, March 28th, is Saint Hilarion's Day, With Footnotes - #86

VENERABLE HILARION THE NEW

Saint Hilarion the New, Igumen of Pelekete Monastery, from his youth devoted himself to the service of God and spent many years as a hermit. Because of his holy and blameless life he was ordained to the holy priesthood, and later he was made igumen of the Pelekete monastery (near the Dardanelles). Saint Hilarion was granted gifts of clairvoyance and wonderworking by the Lord.


Herodion of Patras and Archangel Selaphiel 

Through prayer he brought down rain during a drought, and like the Prophet Elisha he separated the waters of a river, he drove harmful beasts from the fields, he filled the nets of fishermen when they had no success in fishing, and he did many other miracles. In addition to these things, he was able to heal the sick and cast out demons.


Erastus of Corinth, Olympas, Rhodion, Sosipater, Quartus and Tertius (Menologion of Basil II)
Constantinople, c. 985

Saint Hilarion suffered on Great and Holy Thursday in the year 754, when the military commander Lakhanodrakon suddenly descended upon the Pelekete monastery in pursuit of icon-venerators, boldly forcing his way into the church, disrupting the service and throwing the Holy Gifts upon the ground. Forty-two monks were arrested, slapped into chains, sent to the Edessa district and murdered. The remaining monks were horribly mutilated: they beat them, they burned their beards with fire, they smeared their faces with tar and cut off the noses of some of the confessors. Saint Hilarion died for the veneration of icons during this persecution. More on Saint Hilarion





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Friday, March 27, 2020

06 Works, Today, March 27th, is Saint Matrona's Day, With Footnotes - #85

Saint Matrona

Matrona of Barcelona or Matrona of Thessalonica is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. She was recognized as a saint pre-congregation.

She lived in the third or fourth century. She was a young girl and a slave to the Jewish woman Pautila, wife of one of the military commanders, or governor, of Thessalonica.
According to legend, she believed in Christ from her youth. Pautila constantly constantly mocked her slave for her faith in Christ, and tried to convert her to Judaism. Saint Matrona still prayed to the Savior Christ, and secretly went to church unbeknownst to her vengeful mistress.

Pautila, learning that Saint Matrona had been to church, asked, “Why won’t you come to our synagogue, instead of attending the Christian church?” Saint Matrona boldly answered, “Because God is present in the Christian church, but He has departed from the Jewish synagogue.” Pautila went into a rage and mercilessly beat Saint Matrona, tied her up, and shut her in a dark closet. In the morning, Pautila discovered that Saint Matrona had been freed of her bonds by an unknown Power.


Pautila beat the martyr almost to death

In a rage Pautila beat the martyr almost to death, then bound her even more tightly and locked her in the closet. The door was sealed so that no one could help the sufferer. The holy martyr remained there for four days without food or water, and when Pautila opened the door, she again found Saint Matrona free of her bonds, and standing at prayer.


The martyrdom of Saint Matrona 
The Apse Church in Barcelona

Pautila flogged the holy martyr and left the skin hanging in strips from her body. The fierce woman locked her in the closet again, where Saint Matrona gave up her spirit to God.

Pautila had the holy martyr’s body thrown from the roof of her house. Christians took up the much-suffered body of the holy martyr and buried it. Later, Bishop Alexander of Thessalonica built a church dedicated to the holy martyr. Her holy relics, glorified by many miracles, were placed in this church.


Barcelona painter of 16th century
Gothic altarpiece with Saints Madrona (left) and Eulalia (right)

The judgment of God soon overtook the evil Pautila. Standing on the roof at that very place where the body of Saint Matrona had been thrown, she stumbled and fell to the pavement. Her body was smashed, and so she received her just reward for her sin.


Matrona of Barcelona

She is venerated in Barcelona and some villages in Catalonia. She is patron saint of the Santa Madrona church in Barcelona, the Santa Madrona hermitage in the mountain of Montjuïc, as well as churches in the villages of Madrona and Móra d'Ebre. The feast day for the Matrona of Barcelona is 15 March, while that of the Matrona of Thessalonica is 27 March. More on Saint Matrona

Patron Saint of Barcelona






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03 Works, Today, March 26th, is Saint Castulus' Day, With Footnotes - #84

SAINT KASTULUS

Saint Castulus (died 286) is venerated as a martyr. According to tradition, he was the chamberlain (or officer, valet) of Emperor Diocletian and the husband of Saint Irene of Rome.

Castulus was an officer who oversaw the household and palace for Emperor Diocletian, who was actively persecuting Christians. He is described as a quiet but zealous Christian. He arranged for Christians to gather for Mass inside the emperor’s palace because it was the last place that Roman authorities would search. He also sheltered Christians in his own home, which was attached to the palace. With a friend, he even went about the city, gathering men and women to the faith and presenting them to the pope for baptism.


Paolo Caliari, 1528–1588
St. Mark and St. Marcellian are lead to their martyrdom, c. 1565/70
Oil on canvas
355 × 540cm.
San Sebastiano, Venice

The Golden Legend of Jacopo da Voragine tells the story of the brothers Mark and Marcellinus and the events before their execution in great detail. The attempts by their despairing parents to get the two martyrs, strengthened in their faith by St Sebastian, to change their minds and abandon their faith is the subject of the crowded scene, which sticks very closely to the textual source. Idealized architecture conforming to the forms of Palladio and Sansovino provides the setting for the dramatic event. According to Ridolfi, the two paintings intended for the side walls of the "presbytery" were completed in 1565. This seems a credible date, and fits well with the report that Federico Zuccaro, who spent two and a half years in Venice from 1563, made drawings from both works. More on this work


Paolo Caliari, known as Paolo Veronese (1528 – 19 April 1588) was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, most famous for large history paintings of both religious and mythological subjects, such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi. With Titian, who was at least a generation older, and Tintoretto, ten years older, he was one of the "great trio that dominated Venetian painting of the cinquecento" or 16th-century late Renaissance. Veronese is known as a supreme colorist, and after an early period with Mannerist influence turned to a more naturalist style influenced by Titian.

His most famous works are elaborate narrative cycles, executed in a dramatic and colorful style, full of majestic architectural settings and glittering pageantry. His large paintings of biblical feasts, crowded with figures, painted for the refectories of monasteries in Venice and Verona are especially famous, and he was also the leading Venetian painter of ceilings. Most of these works remain in situ, or at least in Venice, and his representation in most museums is mainly composed of smaller works such as portraits that do not always show him at his best or most typical.


He has always been appreciated for "the chromatic brilliance of his palette, the splendor and sensibility of his brushwork, the aristocratic elegance of his figures, and the magnificence of his spectacle", but his work has been felt "not to permit expression of the profound, the human, or the sublime", and of the "great trio" he has often been the least appreciated by modern criticism. Nonetheless, "many of the greatest artists ... may be counted among his admirers, including Rubens, Watteau, Tiepolo, Delacroix and Renoir". More on Paolo Caliari

Among those he sheltered were Mark and Marcellian. He is one of the saints associated with the life and legend of Saint Sebastian.

He was betrayed by an apostate named Torquatus and taken before Fabian, prefect of the city.

Castulus was tortured and executed by being buried alive in a sand pit on the Via Labicana. 
According to tradition, Irene subsequently buried the body of the martyred Saint Sebastian. She was later martyred herself, around 288 AD.


St. Mark and St. Marcellian being buried alive





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Wednesday, March 25, 2020

06 Works, Today, March 25th, is Saint Dismas's Day, With Footnotes - #83

Michelangelo Cerquozzi, (1602–1660)
The good thief, between 1620 and 1660
Oil on slate
Height: 41.5 cm (16.3″); Width: 26.5 cm (10.4″)
Porcini Gallery

Michelangelo Cerquozzi, known as Michelangelo delle Battaglie (12 February 1602 – 6 April 1660) was an Italian Baroque painter known for his genre scenes, battle pictures, small religious and mythological works and still lifes. His genre scenes were influenced by the work of the Flemish and Dutch genre artists referred to as the Bamboccianti active in Rome who created small cabinet paintings and prints of the everyday life of the lower classes in Rome and its countryside. One of the leading battle painters active in Italy in the first half of the 17th century, Michelangelo Cerquozzi earned the nickname 'Michelangelo delle Battaglie' ('Michelangelo of the Battles'). More on Michelangelo Cerquozzi

Saint Dismas, also know as the Good Thief, was crucified along with Jesus and another man also condemned of stealing. The only historical mention of Saint Dismas is from the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion. Because of his request of Jesus that he at least be remembered by Jesus when Jesus came into his kingdom, Saint Dismas was forgiven and promised entry into paradise.


Titian (1490–1576)
Christ and the Good Thief, circa 1566
Oil on canvas
Height: 137 cm (53.9″); Width: 149 cm (58.6″)
Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna


Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, or Titian (1488/1490 – 27 August 1576), was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. 

Recognized by his contemporaries as "The Sun Amidst Small Stars", Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of color, would exercise a profound influence not only on painters of the Italian Renaissance, but on future generations of Western art.


During the course of his long life, Titian's artistic manner changed drastically but he retained a lifelong interest in color. Although his mature works may not contain the vivid, luminous tints of his early pieces, their loose brushwork and subtlety of tone are without precedent in the history of Western painting. More Titian

Perino del Vaga, (FLORENCE 1501-ROME 1547)
A Fragment: The Bad Thief (Gestas) c. 1520-25
Oil on poplar
123.4 x 83.5 x 3.0 cm
The Royal Collection Trust

Perino del Vaga (nickname of Piero Bonaccorsi) (1501 – October 19, 1547). Perino del Vaga received his early training in Florence under a friend of Raphael. About 1516 he traveled to Rome with a painter called Vaga, from whom he took his name. Two years later he was recruited into Raphael's studio. While collaborating on the Vatican Logge, Perino learned about stucco work and designing grotesques.

After spending two years in Florence to escape the plague, Perino was in Rome again by 1524. His Roman frescoes achieved a refinement and elegance of form by blending Michelangelo's grandeur and power with Raphael's grace. Through contact with Mannerist artists Rosso Fiorentino and Parmigianino, Perino developed a more ornamental style.

The Sack of Rome sent Perino to Genoa in 1528, where he formed an enduring local school and studied Giulio Romano's energetic decorations. Returning to Rome around 1536, he became principal decorator for Pope Paul III. His post-Genoa art profoundly influenced young painters developing the high Mannerist style in Rome. More on Perino del Vaga

There was a history between the two men.  33 years before, during the time of the massacre of the Holy Innocents, as Jesus, Mary and Joseph were fleeing from Herod. Leaving Bethlehem, the Holy Family entered the land of Egypt. They entered a forest inhabited by brigands. Among them was Dismas, a murderer and a thief.


Bartolome Esteban Murillo
The Flight into Egypt, c. 1647 - 1650
Oil, canvas
209.5 x 166.3 cm
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI, US


Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (born late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618 – April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children. These lively, realist portraits of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars constitute an extensive and appealing record of the everyday life of his times. More on Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Hidden from sight, waiting for an unsuspecting victim, Dismas saw the approach of a man and a young woman carrying a Child. The three travelers had some baggage. Dismas judged that this unprotected caravan would not offer resistance. He advanced to harm them.

His eyes fell on the Child Jesus and he stopped, marveling at the glorious beauty and majesty of His countenance. Deeply touched, he protected the travelers instead of harming them, and hosted them in his cave. 

Dismas offered everything he had. Upon seeing the respect of the thief for the Child, Mary solemnly assured him that he would be rewarded for his action before his death. Dismas continued his life of crime, but he always conserved the memory of that promise, trusting that it would be fulfilled. More on their first encounter

Master of the Aachen Altar
 Aachen Altar  centrepiece: Crucifixion, circa 1515 and circa 1520
Oil on panel
Height: 143 cm (56.2″); Width: 242 cm (95.2″)
Aachen Cathedral Treasury, Cologne, Germany

The Virgin Mary, in blue, is attended by Mary of Clopas and Mary Salome. St John the Evangelist is in red, with long, ginger hair. Mary Magdalene kneels at the foot of the cross. Longinus pierces Christ’s side. The good thief is on Christ’s right; the bad thief on his left. Christ on the road to Calvary is shown bottom left. Bottom right are Roman soldiers; top right is the Harrowing of Hell; and topmost right is the hanging of Judas. More on this work

The name Master of the Aachen Altar is given to an anonymous late gothic painter active in Cologne between 1495 and 1520 or 1480 and 1520, named for his master work, the Aachen Altar triptych owned by the Aachen Cathedral Treasury. Along with the Master of St Severin and the Master of the legend of St. Ursula he is part of a group of painters who were active in Cologne at the beginning of the sixteenth century and were Cologne's last significant practitioners of late gothic painting. More on Master of the Aachen Altar

The Roman Martyrology places his commemoration on 25 March, together with the Feast of the Annunciation, because of the ancient Christian tradition that Christ and the Good Thief were crucified and died exactly on the anniversary of Christ's incarnation.

The Good Thief was crucified to Jesus' right and the other thief was crucified to his left. For this reason, depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus often show Jesus' head inclined to his right, showing his acceptance of the Good Thief.


Russian icon with 5 themes. Fragment: Good Felon enters in Heaven

In the Roman Martyrology, the following entry is given: "Commemoration of the holy thief in Jerusalem who confessed to Christ and canonized him by Jesus himself  on the cross at that moment and merited to hear from him: 'Today you will be with me in Paradise.'"

St. Dismas is considered the patron saint of those condemned to death, of those engaged in dishonest business who would like to make restitution before they die but do not know how, of great sinners and prodigal sons, of those near despair because of irresolvable situations. St. Dismas also assists souls so that they do not die in final impenitence.






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