Holy Face of Lucca

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Holy Face of Lucca (Volto Santo di Lucca) is the venerated wooden corpus of a crucifix, located in the free-standing octagonal Carrara marble chapel (the tempietto or "little temple"), which was built by the famous Early Renaissance sculptor of Lucca, Matteo Civitali, in 1484 to contain it; the image in its tempietto stands in the right-hand nave of the Cathedral of San Martino, Lucca, Italy. Medieval legends stated that it had been sculpted by that Nicodemus who assisted Joseph of Arimathea in depositing Christ in the tomb and specifically dated its arrival in Lucca to AD 742. Dante mentions the Volto Santo of Lucca in his work Inferno, Canto XXI, where a demon cries:

Qui non ha luogo il Volto Santo!

qui si nuota altrimenti che nel Serchio.^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 See also 3 Notes 4 References 5 External links

[edit] History

Part of a series of articles on Roman Catholic Devotions to Christ
Overview of Devotions Holy Face Sacred Heart Divine Mercy Eucharistic adoration Holy Name Acts of Reparation Holy Wounds Rosary of Holy Wounds Stations of the Cross Precious Blood Infant of Prague Prayers to Jesus Anima Christi • Shoulder Wound • Vianney's prayer • You are Christ • Perboyre's prayer • Montfort's prayer • Crucifix prayer

The year 742 marks the arrival of the Volto Santo in the Basilica di San Frediano; its transferral to the cathedral, justified by a miraculous translation in the Latin legend, De inventione, revelatione ac translatione Sanctissimi Vultus^[2] may be connected with the episcopacy of Anselmo da Baggio (1060-70), who presented it at the consecration of the new Romanesque cathedral, 6 October 1070. Insistent details of the hagiographic legend (see below) also suggest that the image had previously been at Luni in Liguria, the former see of a bishopric and the early commercial rival of Lucca. Luni was a Byzantine possession that had been sacked by Saracens, disputed between Byzantines and Lombards, and reduced to a village by the eighth century. The sculpture bears no stylistic relationship to Lombard sculpture of the tenth or eleventh century, however. The iconography of a completely robed crucified Christ wearing an ankle-length tunic is more familiar in the East than in the West, although a near life-size Crucifixion, carved in the round, is contrary to Byzantine norms.^[3] Life-size crucified Christs were more common in Germany from the late eleventh century, following the Gero Cross of Cologne Cathedral of about 970, which seems to have been the prototype.

In Lucca, an annual candlelit procession, the Luminara, is devoted to the Volto Santo on 13 September, the eve of religious celebrations on the following day. The procession, which today no longer includes the sculpture as in the past, walks to the cathedral from Basilica of San Frediano, where a fresco cycle commemorates the legend of Nicodemus' sculpting the image from cedar of Lebanon, during which, having completed all but the face, Nicodemus slept, awaking to find the Holy Face completed by an angel. In Eastern Christianity, similar legends accrue round icons said to be acheiropoieta, "not made by human hands"^[4]. Discovered in a cave in the Holy Land by "Bishop Gualfredo", who was guided by a revelatory dream, the image was carried first to the Tuscan port of Luni in a boat without sails or crew.^[5] But the men of Luni, when they tried to board the boat, found that it retreated miraculously from their grasp. Warned by an angel in a revelatory dream that the Volto Santo had arrived in Luni, Johannes, bishop of Lucca, with his clerics and a great crowd of Lucchesi, arrived at Luni, bid a stop to the attempts to retrieve the boat and, by calling upon God, found that the ship came miraculously to Johannes and opened to him its gangplank. When the people saw the Volto Santo they wept tears of joy and cried Gloria in excelsis^[6] Once ashore, the legend brings the image to Lucca in a cart pulled by oxen with no driver, in a further miraculous demonstration of the "rightness" of its possession by the city of Lucca, and having been deposited in the church of San Frediano, it is miraculously translated to the church of San Martino, which was interpreted as the rationale for choosing this church as the cathedral. Thus the possession of the image by Lucca rather than Luni, and its location in its rightful church, were both justified by legend.

Its popularity was expressed in copies as well as legends, to satisfy the pilgrims who made the cathedral of Lucca the goal of their voyages from all parts of Europe. "By the face of Lucca" was the 'customary oath' of William II of England.^[7] The present Volto Santo itself is an early thirteenth-century copy of the original, that is ascribed to the circle of Benedetto Antelami.^[8] It appears the original was chipped away beyond repair by relic-seeking pilgrims. The earliest copies date from the early twelfth century, which may suggest that the original in fact dates only from the 11th century. Its presence in Lucca can only be securely documented from about 1100. Copies of a similar size from the 12th century are found widely spread across Europe, from North Germany and Sweden to Catalonia. The long robe may be a Byzantine influence, although many Western examples also exist, in Ottonian illuminated manuscripts and other media. The belt of the Volto Santo is unprecedented in a Crucifixion from either East or West.^[9]

At the end of the fourteenth century, such a Holy Face inspired miracles and veneration in the Low Countries, Bavaria and the Tyrol^[10] , though its connection with Lucca had been forgotten. The long robe appeared to signify a woman, and to account for the beard, a saint was supposed, who, in order to maintain her virginity against the wishes of her father that she marry a king of Sicily, was granted a miraculous beard, rendering her unmarriageable, upon which occasion her father had her crucified. This saint assumed various local names: Sankt Wilgefortis or Kümmernis in Germany or Sainte Débarras in France,^[11] and was duly entered in the Martyrologium Romanum in 1583, retaining a devoted following as late as the nineteenth century.

[edit] See also

Holy Face of Jesus

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Baracchini, C. and A. Caleca, Il Duomo di Lucca, Lucca 1973, pp 14-15.
• Guerra, Giulio Dante, "La 'leggenda' del Volto Santo di Lucca, Cristianità 10August-September 1982, pp 88-89.
• Pertusi, A, and F. Pertusi Pucci, "Il Crocifisso ligneo del Monastero di S. Croce e Nicodemo di Bocca di Magra" Rivista dell’Istituto Nazionale d’Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte (1979), pp 3-51.
• Schnürer, Gustav and Joseph M. Ritz, St. Kümmernis und Volto Santo, Düsseldorf 1934.

[edit] External links

• Il Volto Santo: leggenda, opera, analisi iconologica, tradizioni (Italian)
• Religious traditions in Tuscany: Volto Santo
• Volto Santo (Holy Face) Illus. with summary of the legends (English).