Jacobus de Voragine (–1298)

Procurai a paz com todos e a santidade, sem a qual ninguém verá o Senhor (Heb 12, 14). Os apelos à santidade, que percorrem todos os Livros Sagrados, ecoaram através dos tempos, encontrando corações entusiastas, nuns séculos mais do que noutros, perante o ideal de perfeição cristã. No século XIII, período em que floresceram tantos e tão grandes Santos que ficou na história como «doce primavera da fé», houve uma famosa obra hagiográfica, constituída por curtas narrativas dos passos mais importantes da vida de Cristo e da Virgem, bem como das vidas de cento e sessenta Santos venerados ao longo do ano litúrgico, que circulou profusamente em toda a Europa e se tornou mesmo no livro mais divulgado depois da Bíblia. O autor, Tiago de Voragine, professou na Ordem de São Domingos e chegou a ser Arcebispo de Génova. O valor intrínseco do seu trabalho, que deve ser hoje entendido à luz do respectivo contexto histórico, fez dele uma fonte de inspiração essencial para os mais famosos pintores do Renascimento italiano, bem como para muitos escritores que marcaram a fundo a produção literária europeia. Por isso, a publicação desta edição contemporânea da Legenda Áurea, destinada a todos os povos que falam a língua de Camões, deve ser saudada com júbilo por quem desejar conhecer mais a fundo o impacto do Cristianismo na cultura e na civilização europeias, e também por aqueles que procuram conhecer as vidas dos Santos e se interessam em analisar melhor o contexto histórico no qual eles viveram, ou aquele em que as respectivas hagiografias foram escritas. A santidade é a dimensão que melhor exprime o mistério da Igreja. Para compreender a Igreja, é necessário conhecer os Santos, que são o seu sinal e o seu fruto mais amadurecido e eloquente.” Cardeal José Saraiva Martins Ex-prefeito da Congregação das Causas dos Santos… (mer)

This year I travelled to Italy for the first time in my life and spent many hours peering at Renaissance and pre-Renaissance art in cathedrals and galleries in Rome, Siena, and Florence. Coming from a Protestant upbringing I felt vastly ignorant of the rich tradition of saints and saints' lives, and I decided on the spot that I would do some remedial reading this year. The short introduction to Renaissance Art that I next read put me on to this text—as the back cover summary says, "The Golden Legend deeply influenced the imagery of poetry, painting and stained glass with its fascinating descriptions of saints' lives and religious festivals."

But, oddly enough, as I have read my way through all 71 of the saints' lives included in this edition, I haven't really found myself thinking back to specific paintings or stained glass portraits, at all. It's quite possibly true that I was simply blind to a lot of visual details, having not had the background traditions at my disposal that would cause me to take notice of specific references. So perhaps the next thing I need to do, if I want to start making some linkages, is look at some big compendia of Gothic and Renaissance art while keeping this text open in one hand.

What I did find very striking was the intensity of the violence perpetrated on the martyrs in some of these accounts. So much commentary has already been devoted to the extreme sado-masochism that seems to run through martyrological narrative but there really is nothing like reading one source text after another to get the full effect of the gougings, burnings, pourings of hot oil and coals, amputations, and so forth. And indeed there is some dark amusement to be found in the way that the various enemies of the faith try all of these tortures to no effect on the willing Christians, only eventually to find the only method of dispatch that seems to have been reliable—beheading.

Reading these narratives really does open a window in a very strange worldview—the benefit was not it was not what I thought it would be, but I'm glad I took the time to read them.… (mer)

This review is all good news and bad news. The good news: finally there is a modern translation of The Golden Legend The bad news is, it really needs to be fuller.

The Golden Legend was one of the most popular books of the Middle Ages, a large and much-copied edition of saints' lives. It contains large sections of the (Vulgate) Bible, and an even larger amount of pious nonsense. Plus some absolutely spectacular mis-translations of the Greek and Hebrew of the original Bible. De Voragine's original is an amazing mix of erudition and bone-headedness.

But the bone-headedness hardly matters, because the book was so popular. Much of what most people knew about the various saints came from this book. It was one of Caxton's earliest publications, and there are very many early editions. That being so, its contents influenced history, simply because so many people learned their theology and church history from the Legend.

So modern scholars have a desperate need for a good solid translation with commentary.

Therein lies the bad news. The commentary. That isn't there. There are no notes on de Voragine's numerous absurd translations, and no citations to tell us when he is quoting the Bible or some other source, as opposed to when he is just making things up. Nor are there sufficient finding helps.

And, frankly, the translation is rather wooden. That's a small objection to such an important work, but it does make one less willing to look things up.

So the bottom line is, this is an important and useful book. But it really requires a separate commentary, and this edition does not supply it.… (mer)