St. Bernard, Dante’s final guide, now begins to point out to him several of the major Saints who occupy significant places of honor within the Heavenly Rose. Seated below the Virgin Mary is Eve, and below her is Rachel. Beatrice sits to her right. From the Virgin Mary in a direct line downward through the Rose sit famous Hebrew women. This line separates one side of the Rose from the other. To the left of these biblical women the seats are filled with souls from the Old Testament era who placed their faith in the future coming of Christ. All the seats here are filled. To the right are souls from the New Testament era who placed their faith in Christ already come. There are still empty seats on this side, but both sides will be equally filled at the end of time. Directly opposite the Virgin Mary sits John the Baptist, and down from him is a long row of saintly men. Seated to Mary’s left is Adam, and to her right is St. Peter, with Moses to his right. Directly across from St. Peter is St. Anne, the mother of Mary, and opposite Adam sits St. Lucy, who sent Beatrice to save Dante when he was lost in the Dark Wood. St. Bernard also explains to Dante that the lower portion of the Rose – on both sides – is filled with the souls of innocent children who died before reaching the age of reason. Dante wonders why some of these innocents are seated higher or lower than others. St. Bernard explains that there is no particular merit involved on their part, but simply the gracious love of God and the movement of grace which, in the end, is beyond our comprehension. Following these explanations, Dante witnesses a downpouring of love and joy upon the Virgin Mary from all the angels who soar above the Rose, and the angel Gabriel stands before her saying ‘Ave, Maria!’ Seeing that Dante’s time is running short, St. Bernard tells him to look into the brilliance of the godhead and to join him in praying to Mary, who will strengthen him for the final part of his journey.
(To read a footnote, click the number in the text. To come back from a footnote, click the up arrow at the note number.)
Filled with holy love, St. Bernard graciously assumed his role as my guide and began to explain in holy words what I was seeing there before me. “She who opened the wound of sin that Mary would close and heal sits lovingly at her feet. Directly below her, in the third tier, sits Rachel. And there to her right you can see your beloved Beatrice in glory. Below Rachel is Sarah, the wife of Abraham; and below her Rebecca, then Judith, and Ruth, the great-grandmother of David who, seeking forgiveness for his grievous sin, prayed ‘Miserere mei.’ Thus, moving down through the Rose row by row, you can see them as I name them.[1]Having replaced Beatrice as Dante’s guide, St. Bernard begins to explain the structure of the Rose arena in “holy words.” By saying this, Dante reverences both the speaker and the place where … Continue reading
“And continuing from the seventh row all the way down are seated generations of famous Hebrew women. Depending on which way their faith viewed the Christ, they form a dividing line up and down the ranks of this sacred amphitheater. On this side, where all the seats are filled, sit those whose faith yearned for Christ still to come. On that side, where you see empty seats among its tiers, are those who set their faith on Christ already come.[2]As St. Bernard continues, he gives Dante some information about the “seating chart” he (and we) may not have considered. One can infer here that the arena is divided in two equal parts, one side … Continue reading
“Just as on this side, from the throne of Heaven’s Queen downward there is a dividing line, so directly across from Mary on the other side is the throne of holy John the Baptist who lived in the desert, was martyred by Herod, and then spent two more years in Hell. Below him, in the line that divides the Rose on this side, sit Francis, Benedict, Augustine, and other saintly men descending all the way to where we stand.[3]Explaining more, St. Bernard tells Dante that the line of Saints starting with the Virgin Mary and down, and then back up the opposite side, divides the Rose arena in half. To Mary’s left (St. … Continue reading
“Furthermore, enjoy another wonder of God’s divine plan: both sides of this great garden of faith – those who looked forward to Christ and those who rejoice in his coming – will be filled with equal numbers of holy souls. And know further that in the lower portion of this amphitheater, on both sides of the dividing line, are souls who earned their seats through the merits of others, not their own, under certain conditions. Every one of them was absolved of any sin before reaching the age in which they could make free choices. Look at their sweet faces and listen to their children’s voices to see this for yourself.[4]So far, St. Bernard has identified the Virgin Mary and 11 other Saints in the Rose arena, and he has shown Dante how it is divided into two main parts: those righteous souls who lived before Christ … Continue reading
“But now you are perplexed, and I can read your doubts. So let me loosen the knot which your straining thoughts have bound you with. In this vast and eternal realm nothing happens by chance. Just as you have seen that there is no sorrow, hunger, or thirst here, so everything else is governed by eternal law and fits as perfectly as the ring on your finger. And thus it is that all these young souls, who arrived here before their elders, are not without cause ranked higher or lower because of their merits. No. Rather, our King, whose love fills us with such delight in this place that no soul could wish for more, in creating all souls out of sheer joy, variously bestows on each one as much grace as He pleases. Let this fact settle your thoughts. Holy Scripture clearly lays this out in the story of the twins, Esau and Jacob, who wrestled with each other within their mother’s womb, and who came out very differently. Thus it is fitting that God’s highest light should fill these young souls with as much grace as He pleases. In the end, they are not ranked according to the merit of their works, but simply by the gift of God’s grace, whose workings are beyond our ability to comprehend.[5]Having just pointed out that the lower part of the Rose arena, all around, is filled with children who died before reaching the age of reason, have been absolved of all sin, and are here through the … Continue reading
“During the first age of man on earth, the salvation of children rested on the faith of their parents. When that age ended, it was by virtue of circumcision that innocent souls could reach Heaven. But when Christ ushered in a new age, salvation came through baptism. Without it, innocent souls were remanded to Limbo. Now, then, raise your eyes to the splendor of that countenance which most resembles Christ. Only through her power will you be fortified to look upon her Son.”[6]Here, now, St. Bernard brings to a close his explanation of the presence of children in the Rose arena. Apart from their innocence, he tells Dante, all of the children here filled one of three … Continue reading
At that moment, all the angels who soar within the heights of that immense gathering of souls poured down upon her such a rain of joy that nothing I had seen up to this point could have held me in greater wonder, or shown me so close a likeness to God! Then that loving spirit, who had long ago bowed humbly before her, now stood before her with his great wings spread wide and sang to her again: Ave, Maria, gratia plena. From every side of that blessed Court the joyful souls joined him in hymns of praise, their faces growing brighter as they sang.[7]As Dante looks upon the Virgin Mary, a spectacular scene ensues in which countless angels send down upon her a flood of such joyful splendor, the likes of which he could never have imagined. Perhaps … Continue reading
Once again, I turned with respect to that kindly guide whose loving devotion to Mary caused him to shine like the morning star at sunrise. “O holy father, for my sake you willingly descended far from your eternal throne to stand down here with me. Tell me who that glorious angel is who, with such joy stands before the Queen of Heaven burning with love and looking directly into her beautiful eyes?”
And he replied: “He is filled with as much light and grace as an angel or a soul might possess, and we would have it this way. For he is the one who brought the palm of blessing to Mary when, in her own body, the Son of God willed to become human like us.[8]Note here how St. Bernard answers Dante’s question, not by telling him the name of this angel, but by telling him what this great angel is famous for. Christian readers, familiar with the story of … Continue reading Now follow with your eyes the words I speak and I will point out to you the great patricians of this most just and holy kingdom. Those two most blessed souls who sit on either side of our Empress are, as it were, the two roots of this Rose.[9]Dante uses high language here as he continues his visual tour of the Who’s Who of the holy kingdom, with its patricians and its Empress (the Virgin Mary). In the Italian, Dante uses the word … Continue reading The one sitting to her left is Adam, whose reckless appetite still causes mankind to taste the bitter shame of sin.[10]Adam’s reckless appetite is a reference to the “Original Sin,” his eating of the forbidden fruit that Eve had taken from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (see Genesis 3). This act, … Continue reading The one on her right is the Father of our Holy Church, he to whom Christ gave the keys to this splendid Flower.[11]This is St. Peter. The story of the “keys” is recorded in Matthew 16:18-19:“And I say to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not … Continue reading Next to him sits the beloved disciple who, before he died, wrote about the troubled years ahead for the lovely Bride Christ won for himself when he died upon the Cross.[12]This is St. John the Evangelist. The book St. Bernard refers to here is the Book of Revelation, the last book in the New Testament, believed to have been written by St. John. It is filled with … Continue reading Beside the one on the left sits Moses, who led the stubborn Israelites, though God fed them with his holy manna.[13]Moses sits just to the left of Adam. He liberated the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt (Book of Exodus) and is considered the greatest of the prophets in the Hebrew Bible. The holy manna was a … Continue reading Directly across from Peter you will see Anna, who looks with joyful love upon her daughter as she sings Hosanna. Opposite Adam sits Lucy, who sent your Beatrice to you when you were headed on the path to ruin.[14]Tradition tells us that the parents of the Virgin Mary were Anna and Joachim, but they are not mentioned in the New Testament. They are mentioned, however, in the 2nd century apocryphal Gospel of … Continue reading
“But now that your journey is nearing its end, let us stop here as a good tailor would who cuts the cloak from the cloth he still has, and let us fix our sight upon the First Love so that, gazing at Him, you may penetrate as far as possible the radiance of His glory. And to prevent you from falling backwards when you think you are rising, we need to request in prayer the grace we need from she who has the power to help you. Follow me now with your heart’s devotion and attend to my words.”[15]The visual tour of the Rose arena is now complete, and as a reminder of Dante’s mortality, St. Bernard urges him, with his simile of the tailor, to make the most of the little time left to reach … Continue reading
And he began to say this holy prayer:[16]This is a most unusual canto ending. Properly speaking, we might expect it to be the first line of the next canto. Instead, it stops the action momentarily (as we turn the page), allows us to take a … Continue reading
Notes & Commentary
| ↑1 | Having replaced Beatrice as Dante’s guide, St. Bernard begins to explain the structure of the Rose arena in “holy words.” By saying this, Dante reverences both the speaker and the place where they are, and calls forth this same reverence in the Reader. (See the “Seating Chart” for the Rose arena in the Art section for this canto in the website.) Using metaphorical language, St. Bernard refers to Eve. She “opened the wound of sin” by eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and offering it to Adam. This is referred to in later Christian theology as “The Fall” or the “Original Sin.” In the “seating chart,” Eve sits in the second tier of the Rose arena, just below Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary healed the wound at the Annunciation, when she accepted the Archangel Gabriel’s announcement that she would be the mother of Jesus. Directly below Eve, in the third tier of the Rose, is Rachel, the second wife of the patriarch Jacob, son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham (see Genesis 29). Her first child was Joseph, Jacob’s favorite son, who was sold by his jealous older brothers as a slave and became the savior of Egypt, second only to the Pharaoh. His story, one of the most famous narratives in the Hebrew Bible, is found in Genesis 27-50. We met Rachel in Canto 27 of the Purgatorio, where she is a symbol of contemplation. This symbolization is again important here in this place, where contemplation of the Beatific Vision is the reward of all the Saints seated in the Rose. St. Bernard, as noted in the previous canto, was also considered one of the greatest contemplatives of his time, and an appropriate guide here in the Abode of God. At last, St. Bernard points out Beatrice, still in the third tier and seated just to the right of Rachel. Recall Canto 2 of the Inferno where Beatrice appeared to Virgil and commissioned him to be Dante’s first guide. She told him that Mary was concerned about the Poet’s salvation and sent St. Lucy to look into it. St. Lucy came to Beatrice who was sitting next to Rachel: “Lucia, enemy of all that is cruel, hastened to make her way to where I was, sitting by the side of the ancient Rachel, and said to me: ‘Beatrice, God’s true praise, will you not help the one whose love was such it made him leave the vulgar crowd for you? Do you not hear the pity of his weeping, do you not see the death which threatens him…’?” (ll. 100-107) Dante’s presence here in the Empyrean is evidence that he is, for all practical purposes, saved because of the Virgin Mary’s intervention. Beatrice attested to this just before the passage quoted above: “A gracious lady [Mary] sits in Heaven grieving for what has happened to the one I send you to, and her grief breaks the stern decree of Heaven” (ll. 94ff). A further insight about Beatrice comes from Robert Hollander’s commentary here where he quotes Gustavo Costa who makes the point that “Beatrice’s presence in the Rose scotches any attempt to conclude that her status in the poem is merely ‘allegorical’.” Interestingly, if one consults the “Seating Chart” in the Art Section for this canto, it’ll be seen that Lucia also sits in the same top row as the Virgin Mary. St. John the Baptist is directly opposite her and St. Lucy is next to him on his left. As St. Bernard continues identifying the placeholders in the Rose arena, next down from Rachel is Sarah, the wife of the patriarch Abraham. Though he had been promised by God countless offspring, he and his wife remained childless until they were very old – Abraham was 100 and Sarah 90 when Sarah gave birth to Isaac, the second patriarch. Isaac’s wife was Rebecca, who sits next down from Sarah. Judith, a virtuous widow and a great heroine, is seated below Rebecca. She saved Israel from destruction by the Assyrian army by seducing and beheading its general Holofernes. This amazing story is found in chapters 8-16 in the Book of Judith. Lastly, seated below Judith is Ruth, the great-grandmother of King David. The glancing reference to David seeking forgiveness relates to the story of his infidelity. He committed adultery with the beautiful Bathsheba and, when she became pregnant, he sent her husband to the front line of an on-going battle where he was killed. David married Bathsheba, but as a punishment for his adultery and murder, the child died. David repented for his sins and is said to have written Psalm 51 (known as “the Miserere” – “Have mercy on me”) as a confession. The full story – well worth reading – is found in 2 Samuel 11–12. The Reader will also recall that Dante’s first words in the Poem were from the first line of this Psalm when he encountered Virgil in Canto 1 of the Inferno (l.65). Thus, we have a line of great Hebrew women, starting with the Virgin Mary at the top and moving down beyond Judith and Ruth. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | As St. Bernard continues, he gives Dante some information about the “seating chart” he (and we) may not have considered. One can infer here that the arena is divided in two equal parts, one side completely filled, and the other side with still-empty seats. Again, consulting the chart in the Art section for this canto, Dante and St. Bernard are most likely standing in the middle of the Rose, at its base, looking up from Ruth to Judith and all the way up to the Virgin Mary at the top. When St. Bernard says to Dante, “On this side, where all the seats are filled…,” he’s most likely pointing toward his right (Mary’s left) and taking into view that entire side/half of the arena. These seats, he tells Dante, are completely filled with those who lived before Christ and looked forward to His coming. Then, most likely pointing to his left (Mary’s right), St. Bernard takes in the other half of the arena, which has lots of empty seats, and tells Dante these are seats for those who believed in Christ after His coming. It should be clear that the “audience” we’re being shown is from both a Medieval perspective, and a strictly Judeo-Christian one. Half the arena is filled with devout Hebrews (representing the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament), and the other half with devout Christians (representing the New Testament). |
| ↑3 | Explaining more, St. Bernard tells Dante that the line of Saints starting with the Virgin Mary and down, and then back up the opposite side, divides the Rose arena in half. To Mary’s left (St. Bernard’s right) are all those Saints from before the birth of Christ. To her right (St. Bernard’s left) are all those Saints from the time of Christ onward. As the last and greatest of the prophets of the coming of Christ (Matthew 11:11), St. John the Baptist occupies the top tier, directly opposite the Virgin Mary on the other side. John was a cousin of Jesus, and the Gospel tradition records the details of his miraculous birth (Luke 1:5–25, 57–80) and his prophetic ministry and preaching of repentance (Matt. 3:1–12; Mark 1:2–8; Luke 3:1–20; and John 1:19–34). He publicly denounced King Herod for the scandal of marrying his brother’s wife, and his subsequent martyrdom at the command of Herod is found in Matthew 14:1–12 and Mark 6:14–29. That John spent two years in Hell (actually Limbo) is both a reference to the fact that he died two years before Christ, and a reference to an old theological term called “the harrowing of Hell.” According to the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, “the harrowing of hell is the Christian belief that Jesus Christ, after his crucifixion, descended to the underworld to save the souls of the righteous who were held captive there since the beginning of the world.” The term “harrowing” implies the violent and triumphant act of breaking open or destroying the gates of hell, and bringing to freedom those who were waiting for salvation before Christ’s death. This would have included, among countless others, major figures in the Hebrew Bible like Adam and Eve, Moses, the patriarchs and prophets, etc. This event is seen as a key part of Christ’s complete victory over death and sin, and it is a core tenet of Christian theology found in some biblical passages, the Apostles’ Creed, and numerous other traditions and writings. Just below St. John is St. Francis of Assisi, noted for the simplicity of his life, the founding of his Order, and being the first one to receive on his own body the stigmata, the marks of the wounds on Jesus’ body when he was crucified. St. Benedict, long before St. Francis, is noted as the founder of western monasticism and for his Rule, which has been used by many other Religious Orders apart from his own. And finally, we are pointed to St. Augustine, a Doctor of the Church, a famous theologian, and one of the most brilliant minds in Christian history. Dante had a great appreciation of his writings, and his placement here in the Rose is especially appropriate. Writing as a man in exile, Dante would have felt the force of Augustine’s famous words, “You have made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” Augustine’s insight into the soul’s restless longing for its true home offers a fitting spiritual parallel to Dante’s own experience of wandering and ultimate repose in God. |
| ↑4 | So far, St. Bernard has identified the Virgin Mary and 11 other Saints in the Rose arena, and he has shown Dante how it is divided into two main parts: those righteous souls who lived before Christ on one side, and those who lived after Christ on the other side. We also learned that all the seats are filled on the side of those who lived before Christ, but that there are still empty seats on the “since Christ” side. But St. Bernard, somewhat surprisingly, also tells Dante that both sides will be filled “with equal numbers of holy souls.” About this, recall that toward the end of canto 30 we first learned from Beatrice that there are not many seats left to be filled: “Behold,” she said, “how vast is the white-robed council of Saints. Look upon the limitless expanse of our city. It is nearly full and only a few seats remain.” As I noted in the commentary there, “Dante and many of his contemporaries believed that they were living at the end of an age, when the world would come to an end. He actually wrote about this in his Convivio (2,xiv,13), saying: ‘We are already in the final age of the world’.” Reading this, one is tempted to ask the question, “When?” But note that, while Dante sounds quite definite here, he leaves the matter alone. His purpose is not so much to create a mathematically perfect Empyrean (which it is) as it is to leave the numerical details to the mystery of God’s divine plan, which has existed for all eternity. Nevertheless, we need to keep in mind that Dante the theologian was well-read and that what he writes in the Comedy, particularly here, has roots in his reading of St. Augustine’s City of God and the way it was understood at his time. Augustine taught that the angels who fell (we read about them in Canto 29) were replaced by human souls in heaven so that the heavenly city would ultimately attain its full and predestined number. As Dante envisions the Empyrean, its fixed structure and pre-determined number of seats aren’t only a matter of symbolic symmetry, but this is his theological conception of restored cosmic harmony, in which redeemed humanity completes what the angelic rebellion diminished. On a cosmic level this is similar to what the Incarnation did relative to The Fall. Following this, St. Bernard explains a further division in the Rose arena. We already know that, were we standing on the ground in the middle, it is divided into two parts or halves vertically. Now, he tells Dante that the arena is also divided horizontally across the two halves. In the lower half are children who died before reaching the age of reason and were absolved from sin. They are here in Heaven, not because of their own merits but through the merits of others and additional conditions that he will later explain. |
| ↑5 | Having just pointed out that the lower part of the Rose arena, all around, is filled with children who died before reaching the age of reason, have been absolved of all sin, and are here through the merits of others, St. Bernard sets out to answer Dante’s unspoken questions. Obviously, the Poet is wondering how this can be the case. Interestingly enough, and Dante must be wondering about this himself, nothing is said about baptism. The central point St. Bernard makes, and we have heard this explained by Beatrice in previous cantos, is, first, that nothing in Paradise happens by chance. The fact that some children seem to be seated higher or lower than others has nothing to do with their merits (Dante was probably wondering about this, too). Rather, God scatters His love and grace in mysterious ways and completely fills each soul according to His pleasure. This answers the questions about merit and rank. Simply stated: God’s ways are beyond our ability to comprehend. To add weight to his explanation, St. Bernard refers Dante to the biblical story of Jacob and Esau in Chapter 25 of the Book of Genesis. The two were twins and were said to have fought in the womb. As the story proceeds, both men had radically different destinies. The most likely reason Dante the Poet uses this story here is because of his reading of Chapter 9 (vv 10-15) in St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, where the Apostle clearly lays out what St. Bernard is saying here: God works in unfathomable ways: “Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad – in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls – she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’” |
| ↑6 | Here, now, St. Bernard brings to a close his explanation of the presence of children in the Rose arena. Apart from their innocence, he tells Dante, all of the children here filled one of three conditions: (1) From the time of Adam until Abraham, their salvation depended on the righteousness of their parents; (2) after Abraham, their salvation depended on whether or not they (the males) were circumcised; and (3) after Christ, it depended on whether they were baptized. Apart from these three conditions, the souls of children who died before reaching the age of reason would be remanded to Limbo (see Canto 4 of the Inferno). It’s worth noting that Dante takes a different view here from St. Thomas Aquinas and other contemporary theologians, who claimed that there was no difference in childrens’ reward in Heaven since they had no personal merits. The presumption here is that, visually, to Dante, they would somehow all appear equal and their placement would simply be by chance. But we’ve been told clearly that nothing in Heaven happens by chance. Their placement by love and grace has been determined from all eternity. Bosco and Reggio also note in their commentary that Dante differed from Aquinas and others about the age of those in Heaven. The general view was that all the souls in Heaven would appear to be at their prime – about 33 years old – the same age as Christ when he died. Not having children among the adult Saints, and not having the old St. Bernard, would have limited the Poet’s imagination to a kind of happy sameness among the citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom. (And it would have prevented his doubts and questions which led to a fuller picture of Heaven’s population.) Having finished his explanation of how the Rose arena is structured, and as a preparation for the climax of the Poem, St. Bernard asks Dante to look at the face that “most resembles Christ” – a clever way of directing his gaze to the Virgin Mary. She will enable him to look upon the face of her Son. |
| ↑7 | As Dante looks upon the Virgin Mary, a spectacular scene ensues in which countless angels send down upon her a flood of such joyful splendor, the likes of which he could never have imagined. Perhaps the only previous experience that comes close to this was when he and Beatrice entered the Heaven of the Fixed Stars in Canto 23 and he saw the triumphant procession of Christ and the Virgin Mary and all the Saints. And now, coming from God, the angels pour out upon the Virgin Mary a rain of God’s own light. Enthralled by this unparalleled sight, the Poet feels as if he is virtually seeing God Himself. Then out from that celestial crowd comes the glorious figure of the Archangel Gabriel to honor her once again as he had done at the Annunciation (Luke 1:28 and in Canto 23). “Hail, Mary, full of grace,” he sings to her, and the whole of Heaven joins him in this last song in the Comedy. This re-enactment of the Annunciation is theologically significant here because it brings full circle, for Dante, the goal of the Incarnation that Gabriel first announced: the redemption and salvation of all creation in Jesus Christ, Mary’s Son. |
| ↑8 | Note here how St. Bernard answers Dante’s question, not by telling him the name of this angel, but by telling him what this great angel is famous for. Christian readers, familiar with the story of the Annunciation in St. Luke’s Gospel recognize him as the Archangel Gabriel (Luke 1:26-38). The Reader might remark that it’s curious that Dante doesn’t recognize him in the grand spectacle that is taking place. But it is Dante the Pilgrim who asks the question and Dante the Poet who puts him up to it both to repeat and then celebrate again the marvel of the Incarnation that began with Gabriel’s announcement. Furthermore, by identifying Gabriel as filled with “as much light and grace as an angel or a soul might possess,” St. Bernard wants Dante (and us) to understand that, next to Mary, he is the most exalted of God’s creatures! Not only this, but he tells Dante that everyone in Heaven is in agreement. Interestingly enough, Gabriel actually made a prior annunciation to Zachariah, a temple priest, telling him that, even though he and his wife were quite old, they would soon have a son, John the Baptist (see Luke 1:5-25). I’ve already noted that John the Baptist was the greatest and last of the prophets of the Bible, a contemporary of Jesus and the one who announced Him as the Savior. Keep in mind that he sits in the top row of the Rose arena directly opposite the Virgin Mary, who will, momentarily, play the final great role in the Comedy. Before proceeding, here is an interesting textual detail. St. Bernard tells Dante that the Archangel Gabriel “is the one who brought the palm of blessing to Mary when, in her own body, the Son of God willed to become human like us.” The focus here is on the palm. A great many famous paintings of the Annunciation show the Archangel Gabriel holding a lily as he tells the Virgin Mary that she is to be the mother of Jesus. The lily is a symbol of purity and, in this case, an added symbol of virginity. But St. Bernard here tells Dante that the angel brought a palm to Mary, and a careful exploration of Annunciation paintings will indeed show some with Gabriel holding a palm. A perfect example of this is The Annunciation by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in Siena (see the Art section for this canto in this website). Why a palm and not a lily? Relative to the text here, Dante was most likely familiar with The Golden Legend by Jacopo da Voragine, written not long before he was born. This was a widely-read Medieval Lives of the Saints, filled with fascinating stories and legendary details. In his entry on the Assumption of Mary, da Voragine writes that shortly before her death: “…an angel came before her with great light, and saluted her honorably as the mother of his Lord, saying: ‘All hail! blessed Mary, receiving the blessing of him that sent his blessing to Jacob, lo! a bough of palm of paradise, Lady, which I have brought to thee, which thou shalt command to be borne before thy bier.’” Recall that, according to Roman Catholic teaching, Mary was assumed into Heaven body and soul. Dante the Pilgrim sees her there seated in glory. As we know, the palm branch is an ancient symbol of victory and triumph, and the story da Voragine presents highlights this when the angel Gabriel gives Mary the palm of victory over death. Though the Gospel says nothing about this, we might suggest (artistically) that Gabriel arrived in Nazareth bearing a lily and announcing to the Virgin Mary the beginning of our salvation with the Incarnation of Jesus. Here in the text, Dante repeats the scene of the Annunciation, and with a palm instead of a lily Gabriel celebrates her triumph over bodily death. |
| ↑9 | Dante uses high language here as he continues his visual tour of the Who’s Who of the holy kingdom, with its patricians and its Empress (the Virgin Mary). In the Italian, Dante uses the word Augusta to refer to her, a term used in imperial times to refer to the wife or mother of the Emperor (in this context, Jesus). Recall that in Canto 32 of the Purgatorio, Beatrice called Heaven “that Rome where Christ Himself is Roman.” |
| ↑10 | Adam’s reckless appetite is a reference to the “Original Sin,” his eating of the forbidden fruit that Eve had taken from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (see Genesis 3). This act, known also as The Fall, resulted in the loss of original innocence and the human tendency to sin. |
| ↑11 | This is St. Peter. The story of the “keys” is recorded in Matthew 16:18-19: “And I say to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven: and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” The keys are a symbol of St. Peter’s authority as both head of the Apostles and the head of the community of the Church that would grow after Pentecost. Not only do they open Heaven for the faithful, they can also lock others out. This is clearly the case, for example, with Peter’s forceful condemnation of unworthy popes in Canto 27. As Adam is the father of humankind, Peter is the father of the Church. St. Bernard calls them the two “roots” of the heavenly Rose. Adam represents the root or father of all those who believed in Christ to come (all those seated below him), Peter the root or father of those who believed in Christ already come (all those seated below him). (Oddly, it might seem, these roots are above the flower, the Rose, not below. |
| ↑12 | This is St. John the Evangelist. The book St. Bernard refers to here is the Book of Revelation, the last book in the New Testament, believed to have been written by St. John. It is filled with visions and coded apocalyptic language that early Christians would have understood about the trials and persecutions of the early Church. (The Church is often referred to in religious writing as the Bride of Christ.) It also contains magnificent scenes of heavenly triumphs celebrating those who persevered in their beliefs. Recall Canto 32 of the Purgatorio where Dante witnessed seven tableaux which depicted in allegorical form the trials and persecutions of the Church mentioned above. |
| ↑13 | Moses sits just to the left of Adam. He liberated the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt (Book of Exodus) and is considered the greatest of the prophets in the Hebrew Bible. The holy manna was a mysterious substance that God provided to sustain the Israelites during their wanderings in the desert after their liberation. It would appear each morning on the ground and has been variously described as being like fine flakes, frost, or a seed. It could be made into a kind of bread. |
| ↑14 | Tradition tells us that the parents of the Virgin Mary were Anna and Joachim, but they are not mentioned in the New Testament. They are mentioned, however, in the 2nd century apocryphal Gospel of James. Anna is also mentioned in The Golden Legend referred to above. Here is part of the narrative about her as an example of popular Medieval hagiographical writing. De Voragine tells us that she was aunt of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, as well as the mother of Mary. She bore to two subsequent husbands two further daughters named Mary, who gave birth to six of the apostles! St. Lucy (Lucia) of Syracuse, whose name means “light,” was a Christian martyr who died in 304 AD during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian. She is the one who sent Beatrice to save Dante in Canto 2 of the Inferno, and in Canto 9 of the Purgatorio, she carried the sleeping Dante from the Valley of the Princes to the Gate of Purgatory. |
| ↑15 | The visual tour of the Rose arena is now complete, and as a reminder of Dante’s mortality, St. Bernard urges him, with his simile of the tailor, to make the most of the little time left to reach the goal of his journey – the vision of God – so that he might enjoy to the fullest the experience that awaits him. Charles Singleton, in his commentary here, notes that “…Dante the pilgrim, though in this Empyrean heaven he has been made ready for the final vision of God by all he has seen, has been seeing by reflected light all the while and has never actually ventured to look directly upwards into the descending light of glory through which alone the vision of God face to face can be had.” In other words, Dante cannot complete his journey only having seen the reflected Light of God. He must aim for the highest experience – to see the Light Itself, “as far as possible.” But he cannot do this on his own (no matter the summits to which his poetry can take him, as we will soon see). To do this he will need the help of Mary, the Mother of Jesus (the mother of the Emperor). And here the Poem begins to come full circle. It was Mary herself who, at the beginning, seeing that Dante was in danger of losing his soul, sent Beatrice to Virgil. About the Virgin Mary she told Virgil: “Her compassion is so powerful that it can break Heaven’s rules.” By the heavenly grace that she mediated on his behalf Dante has arrived at her throne to ask for one last privilege, and it is now to her that he and St. Bernard will pray for the grace to proceed. |
| ↑16 | This is a most unusual canto ending. Properly speaking, we might expect it to be the first line of the next canto. Instead, it stops the action momentarily (as we turn the page), allows us to take a breath, and puts St. Bernard and his prayer directly in focus for the last canto of the Poem. A final word from the commentary of Bosco & Reggio: “When Bernard urges Dante to attend closely, to ‘follow with your heart’s devotion’ (more than with intellect) the prayer he will offer to the Virgin, he underscores yet again the necessity of grace: if Dante tried to advance merely on his own wings – the wings of reason, even theological reason, even exegetical [scriptural] reason – he would in fact go backward, just as he did in his youth. Not by chance Bernard echoes Purgatorio XI: ‘he goes backward who tires himself most to go forward.’ In the very heart of the final prayer Bernard will insist: whoever wants grace and does not turn to Mary ‘wants his desire to fly without wings.’ Dante’s journey ends in simple prayer, the prayer he had already described in Canto XXIII as part of his daily life.” |