Mass of Saint Gregory

The Mass of Saint Gregory is a subject in

Roman Catholic art which first appears in the late Middle Ages and was still found in the Counter-Reformation. Pope Gregory I (c. 540–604) is shown saying Mass just as a vision of Christ as the Man of Sorrows has appeared on the altar in front of him, in response to the Pope's prayers for a sign to convince a doubter of the doctrine of transubstantiation

.

History of the story and the image

The earliest version of the story is found in the 8th-century biography of Gregory by Paul the Deacon, and was repeated in the 9th-century one by John the Deacon. In this version, the Pope was saying Mass when a woman present started to laugh at the time of the Communion, saying to a companion that she could not believe the bread was Christ, as she herself had baked it. Gregory prayed for a sign, and the host turned into a bleeding finger.^[1]

This story is retained in the popular 13th century compilation the Golden Legend, but other versions conflate the legend with other stories and the finger is changed into a visionary appearance of the whole of Christ on the altar, and the doubter becomes one of the deacons.

The story was hardly seen in art until the

Jubilee Year of 1350,^[3] when pilgrims to Rome saw a Byzantine icon, the Imago Pietatis, in the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, which was claimed to have been made at the time of the vision as a true representation.^[4] In this the figure of Christ was typical of the Byzantine forerunners of the Man of Sorrows, at half-length, with crossed hands and a head slumped sideways to the viewer's left. According to Gertrud Schiller and the German scholars she cites, this has now been lost, but is known from many copies, including the small Byzantine micromosaic icon of about 1300 now in Santa Croce.^[5]

This image seems to have had, perhaps initially only for the Jubilee, a Papal

Penitential Psalms.^[8]

The

Instruments of the Passion

are shown on the altar.

There were several

Aztec feather painting is a Mass of 1539 (see gallery) following one of the van Meckenem indulgence prints (not the one illustrated).^[12] The print illustrated began with a "bootlegged" indulgence of 20,000 years, but in a later state the plate has been altered to increase it to 45,000 years.^[13]

With the

Real Presence

was attractive to Catholics, and the iconography continued to be used.

Gallery

Robert Campin, c. 1440, Brussels
Anon or Hans Memling
Bernt Notke
The Adoration of the Magi in the Prado
Mass of St. Gregory, c. 1490, attributed to Diego de la Cruz (Philadelphia Museum of Art)
Aztec feather painting made by or for Diego Huanitzin, nephew and son-in-law of Moctezuma II to present to Pope Paul III, dated 1539.^[14]

Mass of St. Gregory by Albrecht Dürer
As part of a Spanish Last Judgement
, 1500–1520

Notes

^ Rubin, 121–122
^ Shestack, 214
^ An early fresco version by Ugolino di Prete Ilario in a cycle of 1357–1363 dedicated to the history of the Eucharist in the Chapel of the Corporal in Orvieto Cathedral has been restored but evidently never showed the Man of Sorrows as the vision.
^ Parshall, 58. For a somewhat different chronology, see Pattison, 150
^ Schiller, II, 199. The original seems to have been in Rome since the 12th century (Schiller). For the icon now there, see Treasures of Heaven Archived 2011-12-12 at the Wayback Machine
^ Rubin, 122 and Shestack, 214
^ Parshall, 58
^ Kamerick, 169
^ For example in the Adriaen Isenbrandt panel in the Getty Museum - link below.
^ Last item in this online album
^ Field, 22–-230
^ Pierce, 95–98, see Shestack, 214 for the print used.
^ Parshall, 58 (quoted), and Shestack, 214 (illustrated in both). The indulgences (as with no. 215 below) applied each time a specified collection of prayers, here 7 each of the Creed, Our Father and Hail Mary, were recited in front of the image.
^ Pierce, 96