The Penitent Saint Peter and the Cult of Penitent Saints of the 16th Century
by Michael Mallory (Fall 2010)
My first encounter with El Greco was in Madrid at the museum, El Prado. The elongated figures were flames reaching to heaven like our souls reach out to God. The heavenly realm would open up and it was if I was looking through a window into the great Mystery. In the Cathedral of Toledo was when I first saw the painting Tears of St. Peter, by El Greco.The painting was not very large, nor was it prominently placed. Nonetheless, the image impressed itself upon me and caused me to respond to it in an uneasy and emotional way.Maybe I was experiencing a kind of psychological transference, but the effect was entirely spiritual. Because in the tear-filled eyes of this penitent saint, I saw into the heart of my own naked guilt-ridden soul and understood the immeasurable promise of God’s grace. In the background of the painting, is the promise of this grace in the image of open sepulcher, the angel of light, and Mary Magdalene rushing off to tell Peter that Christ had risen. This paper will explore the historical context of El Greco in regards to the Counter-Reformation which led to the emerging cult of penitent saints of which Tears of Saint Peter is an example.
The image of Peter as penitent is difficult to find before the period following the Council of Trent, especially as a image made for devotion. The image on the left is from the Westminster Abbey in London. It is a gothic mural from the 13th century.[1]The head facing downward with sorrow in his eyes indicates that he is penitent. It is not entirely clear out of context.Another image, however, from the 12th century is “one of the carved alabaster columns from the tabernacle of the high altar in St. Mark’s Basilica, showing scenes of the life of Christ.”[2] It seems to me that depictions of the penitent Peter may have represented more in scenes from the life of Christ—historical rather than devotional. While looking at a Holy Bible that was printed in the 20th century but contains medieval art and illuminations I discover a penitent peter deep in the background of a crucifixion scene (below left).[3] Typically, the image of a crow becomes the symbol that represents the denial of Peter as in the image from this Byzantine Mosaic of the 6th century (below right).[4]
The emphasis of these images of Peter are in the context of the drama of the life of Christ. They are pedagogical in nature, instead of devotional. Devotional images of Saint Peter as penitent took shape and became popular primarily after the Council of Trent in the 16th century. This appropriation and promulgation of devotional art dedicated to penance has a lot to do with the historical realities of this time.
El Greco was born in Crete, an island in the Mediterranean south of Greece. Although a property of Venice at the time of his birth, the art being generated was more faithful to the Byzantine art and “had little in common with the secular and ‘realistic’ art of Renaissance Italy.”[5] In his mid-twenties, Domenicos Theotocopoulus, moves to Venice and works with Titian. Titian, like other Renaissance artists of his time, began to focus on religious art for the Catholic church. The influx of religious and devotional art became a form of propaganda for the Roman Catholic church to instill in their laity the reforms of the Council of Trent.
These reforms, according to Hans Kung, “was most clearly visible in its decrees on the sacrament… the sacraments were defined, under threat of excommunication, as seven, the medieval number.”[6] Kung emphasizes the disharmony of the church, especially with the Protestants, and the consequent “acts of violence, battles of faith, and wars of religion.”[7] The realities of this tension had real effects on the lives of many devout people looking for meaning in a shifting world. Robert E. McNally claims, “self-defense and self-assertion fill the ecclesiastical atmosphere of the Tridentine age. The old had indeed passed away, but not totally; and the new, which had been discovered in the hard crucible of trial and error, held great promise of an incredible future.”[8] He claims that Catholic response was more of a spiritual, inward journey rather than a organizational, or institutional reform. This spiritual renewal “depended, therefore, on prayer, penance, [and] the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.”[9]
The rise of new monastic orders coincided with this era of spiritual renewal—particularly the Carmelites from St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Avila and the Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius of Loyola. These orders symbolize the move towards mysticism and intellectualism, respectively. Arising especially in Spain, this is the atmosphere and historical context of El Greco as he settles in Toledo in the year 1577. Toledo, the seat of the Spanish Inquisition, was devoutly Catholic as was the rest of Spain. The demand for images to impress upon the laity the importance of the sacraments were in high demand.
The Protestants were challenging everything, it seemed, that the Catholic devout held as precious. Particularly, according to Daniel Unger, “The position of the saints had been undermined and persuasion was needed to restore and even maintain the legitimacy of their role as mediators between the celestial and the terrestrial worlds.”[10] The demand for devotional images of saints emphasizing the sacrament of penance became a widespread phenomena.
Unger explains that “the concept of penance (poenitentiae) is of such centrality to Catholicism that it… is one of two sacraments that the believer is required to observe at least once a year, the other being the Eucharist (Eucharistiam).”[11]
This political maneuvering, according Unger, had to do with increasing the power of the priest over the penitent and “was exploited as a vital instrument to bolster religious control over those areas that were still under Catholic hegemony [like Spain]… This is why not only the most known penitent saints were repeatedly depicted by artists of the period after the Council of Trent, but even saints such as St. Francis who is not primarily associated with penance suddenly became role models for penance.”[12] Notice in the image the wilderness in the background and the skull in the foreground. The skull is often used as an attribute of penitent saints and is “a symbol of the transitory nature of life on earth.”[13]
Another example of the cult of penitent saints, although she has always been depicted as a penitent saint, is the subject of the Magdalene. Although the Church has repudiated the link of Mary Magdalene to the repentant prostitute of the New Testament, the “widespread currency in the Middle Ages, however, made Mary Magdalene patron saint of penitent sinners and of repentant prostitutes.”[14] During the time after the Council of Trent, her image gained even more in popularity as devotional art. El Greco produced many renditions of her in the late 16th and early 17th century.
The image of the Magdalen by El Greco has some parallels to other penitent paintings, especially to his Tears of St. Peter.Notice in this painting the cave, symbolic of the place of penitence. The skull, or Memento Mori, is the reminder of the transitory life. The turbulent sky is akin to the wilderness. Her tear-filled eyes, hands clasped in prayer, provokes us to empathize with her. Her attribute, the ointment jar, is to the left near the skull (difficult to see in this copy.)This image of St. Jerome is yet one more example of the cult of penitent saints made popular during the 16th century.[15]Painted by Jan Sanders van Hemessen in 1547, the attribute of penitent saint, the skull, is visible as well as being interred in a cave. The contortion of the mouth and the gesture of the body expresses deep emotion and grief. These images of St. Francis, St. Mary Magdalene, and St. Jerome are meant to establish the historical pattern of this type of devotional art in the 16th century following the Council of Trent.
The image of the penitent Peter is a theologically important message to comprehend. Some scholars, such as Jane Dillenberger, point to the fact that Protestants tend to view Peter as “the Apostle who denied Christ whereas for Roman Catholics, and El Greco, Saint Peter was the first pope and the tears shed after his repentance became a symbol of the sacrament of confession.”[16]
The biblical passage that surrounds this scene begins with Jesus foretelling the fact of Peter’s denial. Close examination of the text, however, reveals that Jesus said to them, “You will all become deserters; for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’”[17] Peter then says, “Even though all become deserters, I will not.”[18] The emphasis on all becoming deserters is in the other synoptic gospels as well. The only story of desertion and denial is that of Peter; yet, because Christ says that all will become deserters it stands to reason that Peter is metonymic to all of Christ’s followers. Therefore, the rock of the Church, the pope, the man is also susceptible (perhaps even more so) to missing the point and falling into sin. Dillenberger says as much when she points out that men were also expressed as penitent, contrary to how some of her contemporaries felt. They mistakenly thought that only women, particularly Mary Magdalene, were portrayed as penitent. Prior to the 16th century, this was largely the truth.
In the apocryphal account, the Acts of Peter, written in the 2nd century, Peter says to his brethren, “I denied our Lord Jesus Christ, not once, but thrice; for those who ensnared me were wicked gods… but the Lord did not lay it to my charge; he turned to me and had mercy on the weakness of my flesh, so that I wept bitterly; and I mourned for my little faith.”[19]
In this image of The Tears of St. Peter by El Greco, we can discern some of the qualities of the Council of Trent. The most obvious, of course, is the specifically devotional nature of this penitent Peter in contrast to earlier renditions of his penitence or denial in the context of the life and passion of Christ.The other quality that I would like to connect is the connection between the celestial and terrestrial realm. On the right of St. Peter, in the background, is the Resurrection scene. The angel is sitting on the empty grave and Mary Magdalene is running to find Peter to proclaim the risen Lord. The background is the celestial realm of grace and mercy. The foreground depicts the agony and bitter tears of St. Peter as he laments his denial of Christ. Now, what about grace. Apparently, there are contradicting views about how grace is received that Dillenberger articulates from the words of Martin Luther: “St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Mary Magdalene are examples to strengthen our trust in God and our faith, by reason of the great grace bestowed on them without their worthiness, for the comforting of all men.”[20] Dillenberger writes with emphasis that Luther wrote in favor of grace rather than penitence. He reminds us that Jesus said to the penitent prostitute “Go in peace; your faith has saved you.” The distinction between grace only and grace by penitence is unclear to me. What is clear to me, at least from the way that El Greco communicates it to me is that Grace was already on the way to meet me even while my heart was distressed by my sin. In other words, the promise of the empty tomb comes to find me in my deepest sorrow.
[1] http://www.lessing-photo.com/dispimg.asp?i=16010325+&cr=8&cl=1 (accessed 10/15/2010)
[2] http://www.lessing-photo.com/dispimg.asp?i=15010262+&cr=22&cl=1 (accessed 10/15/2010)
[3] Detail of Folio 163 verso in Latin manuscript 381 in the Barberini Collection of the Vatican Library
[4] http://www.lessing-photo.com/dispimg.asp?i=15030239+&cr=11&cl=1 (accessed 10/15/2010)
[5] John F. Matthews, El Greco, Portfolio Edition (New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.), p. 4
[6] Hans Kung, The Catholic Church. A Short History( New York, NY: Modern Library, 2003) p. 136
[7] Ibid. p. 137
[8] Robert E. McNally, The Council of Trent, the “Spiritual Exercises,” and the Catholic Reform (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970) p. 2
[9] Ibid., p. 3
[10] Daniel M. Unger, “The Restitution of the Terrestrial Iconography of St. Francis in the Post-Trent Era: Annibale Carraci's St. Francis in Penitence,” Analecta Husserliana. The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research 81 (2004): 385
[11] Ibid. 386
[12] Ibid. 387
[13] George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art (New York, NY: Oxford Press, 1961), p. 50
[14] Elizabeth Hallam, Saints. Who They Are and How They Help You (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1994) p. 41
[15] http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4953555 (accessed 12/12/2010)
[16] Jane Dillenberger, “The Magdalen: Reflections on the Image of the Saint and Sinner in Christian Art,” in Women, Religion and Social Change, ed. Yvonne Haddad (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), page 136
[17] Mark 14:27, NRSV
[18] Mark 14:29, NRSV
[19][19] Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Scriptures (New York, NY: Oxford Press, 2003) Acts of Peter Chapter 7, p. 139
[20] Dillenberger, p. 136