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Impassioned Mother or Passive Icon: The Virgin's Role in Late Medieval and Early Modern Passion Sermons*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Donna Spivey Ellington*
Affiliation:
Gardner-Webb University

Extract

On 13 April 1403, Parisian chancellor Jean Gerson delivered one of his most famous sermons, a sermon on the Passion of Christ entitled “Ad deum vadit.” That evening, in the second part of the sermon, Gerson set forth the central and most dramatic portion of the Passion narrative, the crucifixion of Jesus. As he had done throughout the story, Gerson sought to recreate the feelings, responses, and very words of Mary as she witnessed her son's suffering. In an anguished question that echoed Jesus’ own, Gerson proclaims that Mary was able to cry to God.

Type
Studies
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1995

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