Commentary on the image
[The numbers in brackets [ ] are cross-references to text at the end of the commentary]There are many similarities between the details in the image and The Prophecies and Revelations of Saint Bridget (1303-1373). I have included excerpts at the end of this commentary.[1]
The manuscript words are as follows:
Deus in Ad primam
adjutorium meum
inténde. Domine, ad
adjuvándum me fes-
tina.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui S(an)c(t)o.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et
[semper, * et in sæcula sæculórum. Amen.]
At the hour of Prime
O God, come to my assistance;O Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, * and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now,
[and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.]
Two scenes are presented in the image, one earthly and one heavenly. In the foreground, a group of figures surround a little Baby. Above them, God the Father looks down from Heaven towards the scene on earth below.
The divine gaze and the the rays from Heaven point towards the baby and His mother. The figures on earth are also gazing reverently at the Baby. Our own eyes are thus drawn irresistibly to the little Baby, Who is in truth the Word made Flesh, the Second Person of the Triune God become incarnate; one Person uniting two natures, human and divine: Jesus, God who saves us, God with us, the Seed promised in the Book of Genesis, the Messiah, the Christ, the Holy One of God.
His right hand seems as if raised in blessing as He gazes up lovingly towards His mother, Mary. She kneels in adoration before her God, her Lord, her Son.[2] She has laid Him on folds of her own cape; so closely does the artist represent the mother and her Son, whom she wishes to enfold with all the love of her heart. She wears a tunic and a cape, both blue, trimmed with gold. Blue is for the Heaven of which she will be annointed Queen after the end of her earthly life. Gold symbolises the love she has for her royal baby, flesh of David's royal lineage.
A man with a beard has brought a candle to provide, as he thinks, light for Mary. This is Joseph, the fidelis servus et prudens, quem constituit Dominus suae Matris solatium, suae carnis nutritium (the faithful and wise servant, whom the Lord appointed to be the consolation of His Mother, the foster-father of His flesh). Dazzling light radiates outwards from the baby, totally eclipsing the light from the candle.[4] Later in His earthly life, Jesus would say to His disciples:
Ego sum lux mundi : qui sequitur me, non ambulat in tenebris, sed habebit lumen vitae.His divine light is mirrored above in the radiance that emanates from God the Father, who wears a crown and holds an orb, representing our world [Ps 94, 5] His right hand is raised in blessing. The third Person of the Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, is present in the form of a dove and three angels are in attendance around the Triune Godhead. This upper image within the picture forms a trinity when considered with two similar scenes described in the Gospels, namely Christ's Baptism and His Transfiguration. We can almost hear the words of the Father: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
I am the light of the world: he that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life. [John 8, 12]
[16] Baptizatus autem Jesus, confestim ascendit de aqua, et ecce aperti sunt ei caeli : et vidit Spiritum Dei descendentem sicut columbam, et venientem super se.Coming back down to earth, we see a wingéd angel kneeling before Jesus. Three other figures kneel before the Christ child. Although represented on the same scale as the angel, they have no wings. They are not the Kings or Magi and may possibly be the patron and family who gave the artist Vrelant the commission.
And Jesus being baptized, forthwith came out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened to him: and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him.
[17] Et ecce vox de caelis dicens : Hic est Filius meus dilectus, in quo mihi complacui.
And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
[Matt 3]
The ox and the ass are a discrete presence to the left, recalling the words of Isaiah:
[3] Cognovit bos possessorem suum, et asinus praesepe domini sui; Israel autem me non cognovit, et populus meus non intellexit.One sense of the word 'ox' is a castrated bull and some have seen this as a reference to the physical seed of Abraham, the people of the circumcision. Accordingly, the 'ass' represents the nations or gentiles who were to become the spiritual heirs or seed of Abraham.
The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood. [Isa 1]
The animals are themselves kneeling behind the 'manger' containing their hay. 'Manger' derives from a word meaning 'to eat' and here denotes that which provides for the animals their daily sustenance. The manger and stable are in Bethlehem, which word denotes 'house of bread'. Jesus will later reveal through His teaching that He is the 'bread from Heaven' and that His disciples should include in the prayer He teaches them: 'Give us this day our daily [or supersubstantial] bread' [Matt 6, 9]. We may meditate upon the following verses from the beloved Disciple's Gospel when we contemplate the Nativity image:
[31] Patres nostri manducaverunt manna in deserto, sicut scriptum est : Panem de caelo dedit eis manducare.Other features of the picture include three water fowl which may be a little family of swans, themselves traditionally regarded as royal birds, payin g hommage to Christ the King, the Prince of Peace, in the royal city of David.
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
[32] Dixit ergo eis Jesus : Amen, amen dico vobis : non Moyses dedit vobis panem de caelo, sed Pater meus dat vobis panem de caelo verum.
Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you; Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
[33] Panis enim Dei est, qui de caelo descendit, et dat vitam mundo.
For the bread of God is that which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world.
[34] Dixerunt ergo ad eum : Domine, semper da nobis panem hunc.
They said therefore unto him: Lord, give us always this bread.
[35] Dixit autem eis Jesus : Ego sum panis vitae : qui venit ad me, non esuriet, et qui credit in me, non sitiet umquam.
And Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger: and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.[John 6]
 |
| The Vision of St Bridget. Miniature, dated 1530. |
Born about 1303; died 23 July, 1373.
In 1316, at the age of thirteen, she was married to Ulf Gudmarsson, who was then eighteen. The happy marriage was blessed with eight children, among them St. Catherine of Sweden. The saintly life and the great charity of Bridget soon made her name known far and wide. Her husband died in 1344 returning from a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella.
Bridget now devoted herself entirely to practices of religion and asceticism, and to religious undertakings. The visions which she believed herself to have had from her early childhood now became more frequent and definite. She believed that Christ Himself appeared to her (see the image left), and she wrote down the revelations she then received, which were widely read and esteemed during the Middle Ages.
The Vision of St Bridget. The Risen Christ, displaying the wound from Longinus' spear, inspires the writings of Saint Bridget. Detail of initial letter miniature, dated 1530, probably made at Syon Abbey, England, a Bridgettine House. (BL Harley MS 4640, f.15)
St. Bridget founded a new religious congregation, the Brigittines, or Order of St. Saviour. She journeyed to Rome in 1349, and remained there until her death, except while absent on pilgrimages, among them one to the Holy Land in 1373. Bridget made earnest representations to Pope Urban, urging the removal of the Holy See from Avignon back to Rome. She died in 1373 and her remains were conveyed to the monastery at Vadstena. She was canonized, 7 October, 1391, by Boniface IX.
The Prophecies and Revelations of Saint Bridget
Excerpts dealing with the Nativity
A vision that Lady Bridget had in Bethlehem, where the Virgin Mary showed to her the whole manner of her childbearing and how she gave birth to her glorious Son just as the Virgin herself had promised the same Lady Bridget in Rome fifteen years before she went to Bethlehem as can be seen in the first chapter of this book.
Chapter 21
When I was at the manger of the Lord in Bethlehem, I saw a Virgin, pregnant and very beautiful, clothed in a white mantle and a finely woven tunic through which from without I could clearly discern her virginal flesh. Her womb was full and much swollen, for she was now ready to give birth. With her there was a very dignified old man; and with them they had both an ox and an ass. When they had entered the cave, and after the ox and the ass had been tied to the manger, the old man went outside and brought to the Virgin a lighted candle and fixed it in the wall and went outside in order not to be personally present at the birth.
And so the Virgin then took the shoes from her feet, put off the white mantle that covered her, removed the veil from her head, and laid these things beside her, remaining in only her tunic, with her most beautiful hair - as if of gold - spread out upon her shoulders. She then drew out two small cloths of linen and two of wool, very clean and finely woven, which she carried with her to wrap the infant that was to be born, and two other small linens to cover and bind his head; and she laid these cloths beside her that she might use them in due time.[3] And when all these things had thus been prepared, then the Virgin knelt with great reverence, putting herself at prayer; and she kept her back toward the manger and her face lifted to heaven toward the east. And so, with raised hands and with her eyes intent on heaven, she was as if suspended in an ecstasy of contemplation, inebriated with divine sweetness. And while she was thus in prayer, I saw the One lying in her womb then move; and then and there, in a moment and the twinkling of an eye, she gave birth to a Son, from whom there went out such great and ineffable light and splendour that the sun could not be compared to it. Nor did that candle that the old man had put in place give light at all because that divine splendour totally eclipsed the material splendour of the candle. [4]
And so sudden and momentary was that manner of giving birth that I was unable to notice or discern how or in what member she was giving birth. But yet, at once, I saw that glorious infant lying on the earth, naked and glowing in the greatest of neatness. His flesh was most clean of all filth and uncleanness. I saw also the afterbirth, lying wrapped very neatly beside him. And then I heard the wonderfully sweet and most dulcet songs of the angels. And the Virgin's womb, which before the birth had been very swollen, at once retracted; and her body then looked wonderfully beautiful and delicate.[2] When therefore the Virgin felt that she had now given birth, at once, having bowed her head and joined her hands, with great dignity and reverence she adored the boy and said to him: ”Welcome, my God, my Lord, and my Son!” And then the boy, crying and, as it were, trembling from the cold and the hardness of the pavement where he lay, rolled a little and extended his limbs, seeking to find refreshment and his Mother's favour. Then his Mother took him in her hands and pressed him to her breast, and with cheek and breast she warmed him with great joy and tender maternal compassion.
Then, sitting on the earth, she put her Son in her lap and deftly caught his umbilical cord with her fingers. At once it was cut off, and from it no liquid or blood went out. And at once she began to wrap him carefully, first in the linen cloths and then in the woolen, binding his little body, legs, and arms with a ribbon that had been sewn into four parts of the outer wollen cloth. And afterward she wrapped and tied on the boy's head those two small linen cloths that she had prepared for this purpose.
When these things therefore were accomplished, the old man entered; and prostrating on the earth, he adored him on bended knee and wept for joy. Not even at the birth was that Virgin changed in colour or by infirmity. Nor was there in her any such failure of bodily strength as usually happens in other women giving birth, except that her swollen womb retracted to the prior state in which it had been before she conceived the boy. Then, however, she arose, holding the boy in her arms; and together both of them, namely, she and Joseph, put him in the manger, and on bended knee they continued to adore him with gladness and immense joy.
A revelation in Bethlehem at the manger of the Lord, on the same matter as above.
Chapter 22
Afterwards again in the same place, the Virgin Mary appeared to me and said: ”My daughter, it is a long time ago that I promised you in Rome that I would show to you here in Bethlehem the manner of my childbearing. And even though I showed to you in Naples something about this - namely, what state I was in when I gave birth to my Son - nevertheless, know for very certain that I was in such a state and gave birth in such a manner as you have now seen: on bended knee, praying alone in the stable. For I gave birth to him with such great exultation and joy of soul that I felt no discomfort when he went out of my body, and no pain. But at once I wrapped him in the small clean cloths that I had prepared long before.
When Joseph saw these things, he marveled with great gladness and the joy from the fact that I had thus, without help, given birth. But because the great multitude of people in Bethlehem were busy about the census, they were therefore so attentive to it that the wonders of God could not be publish among them. And therefore know for a truth that however much human beings, following their human perception, try to assert that my Son was born in the common manner, it is nevertheless more true an beyond any doubt that he was born just as I elsewhere told you and just as you now have seen.”
It was at the manger of the Lord that this revelation was made to the same lady in Bethlehem: how the shepherds came to the manger to adore the newborn Christ.
Chapter 23
I saw also in the same place, while the Virgin Mary and Joseph were adoring the boy in the manger, that shepherds and guardians of the flock then came to see and adore the infant. When they had seen it, they first wished to inquire whether it were male or female because the angels announced to them that the Saviour of the world had been born and had not said ”savioress.” Therefore the Virgin Mother then showed to them the infant's natural parts and male sex; and at once they adored him with great reverence and joy; and afterward they returned praising and glorifying God for all these things that they had heard and seen.
This revelation she had in Bethlehem, in the chapel where Christ was born. In it, Mary tells her how the three magi kings adored Christ, her Son.
Chapter 24
The same Mother of the Lord also said to me: ”My daughter, know that when the three magi kings came into the stable to adore my Son, I had foreknown their coming well in advance. And when they entered and adored him, then my Son exulted, and for joy he had then a more cheerful face. I too rejoiced exceedingly; and I was gladdened by the wonderful joy of exultation in my mind, while being attentive to their words and actions, keeping those things and reflecting on them in my heart.”
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