Christ in Limbo

Here is a fresco by Fra Angelico (1395–1455) entitled Christ in Limbo. It was completed in 1441-2 and is on the wall of Cell 31 in the Convento di San Marco in Florence.

It depicts the event alluded to in the Apostles' Creed when, after His crucifixion and death, Christ descended into hell (descendit ad inferos).

The radiant figure of Christ recalls the Transfiguration  when his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow [Matt. xvii. 2]. The red cross on the banner He is bearing represents the triumph of His sacrificial death on the Cross. He has just smashed down one of the gates of hell and one devil lies crushed beneath His feet whilst others are fleeing in terror. His radiance illumines the sepulchral shadows of Limbo and He stretches out His right arm to welcome a man commonly identified as Abraham, for this is the Limbo of the just, Abraham's bosom [Luke xvi. 22-23]. The figures represented here by Fra Angelico have been variously identified but it is interesting to consider Dante's account of the incident as reported to him by Virgil in Canto IV of the Inferno:

“Let us go on, for the long way impels us.”

    Thus he went in, and thus he made me enter

    The foremost circle that surrounds the abyss.

There, as it seemed to me from listening,

    Were lamentations none, but only sighs,

    That tremble made the everlasting air.

And this arose from sorrow without torment,

    Which the crowds had, that many were and great,

    Of infants and of women and of men.

To me the Master good: “Thou dost not ask

    What spirits these, which thou beholdest, are?

    Now will I have thee know, ere thou go farther,

That they sinned not; and if they merit had,

    ’Tis not enough, because they had not baptism

    Which is the portal of the Faith thou holdest;

And if they were before Christianity,

    In the right manner they adored not God;

    And among such as these am I myself.

For such defects, and not for other guilt,

    Lost are we and are only so far punished,

    That without hope we live on in desire.”

Great grief seized on my heart when this I heard,

    Because some people of much worthiness

    I knew, who in that Limbo were suspended.

“Tell me, my Master, tell me, thou my Lord,”

    Began I, with desire of being certain

    Of that Faith which o’ercometh every error,

“Came any one by his own merit hence,

    Or by another’s, who was blessed thereafter?”

    And he, who understood my covert speech,

Replied: “I was a novice in this state,

    When I saw hither come a Mighty One,

    With sign of victory incoronate.

Hence he drew forth the shade of the First Parent,

    And that of his son Abel, and of Noah,

    Of Moses the lawgiver, and the obedient

Abraham, patriarch, and David, king,

    Israel with his father and his children,

    And Rachel, for whose sake he did so much,

And others many, and he made them blessed;

    And thou must know, that earlier than these

    Never were any human spirits saved.”

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The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen. 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv. 30-31.