An Early Image of a Mass of St. Gregory and Devotion to the Holy Blood at Weingarten Abbey

Abstract

This paper examines a miniature of the legend of St. Gregory and the Doubting Matron produced at Weingarten Abbey at the end of the twelfth century. Like the more familiar scene of the Mass of St. Gregory, which appeared for the first time only in the fifteenth century, this miniature depicts a miraculous mass. In response to the doubts of a skeptical woman, a bloody finger materialized on Gregory's altar in order to confirm that the host had truly been transformed into Christ. The image is rare and possibly the earliest representation of this story. It was introduced at Weingarten because of circumstances peculiar to that monastery. In 1094 the abbey allegedly received a relic of Christ's blood from the Countess Judith of Flanders. As a result, Weingarten became one of the first and foremost centers of devotion to the Holy Blood. Viewed in this context, the singular appearance of the scene of the Doubting Matron does not seem accidental. The miniature presented an affirmation of the eucharistic reality of Christ's body and blood in a manuscript made at a monastery devoted to a historical relic of Christ's blood.

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