Tea at Trianon: A Brief Introduction to the Iconography of St. Teresa of Avila as Doctrix Ecclesia

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, October 18, 2020

A Brief Introduction to the Iconography of St. Teresa of Avila as Doctrix Ecclesia

From Liturgical Arts Journal:

It might be shocking to some (in particular those outside of the Hispanic world) to come upon an image of St Teresa wearing the biretta, which generally considered an exclusive item of clerical vesture. We must nevertheless remember that the biretta is the common ancestor of today’s varied academic headdress, including the iconic mortarboard used throughout the English-speaking world.

The characteristically Spanish stiff 4-horned biretta did not fully develop until the 17th century, which at this time is restricted to ecclesiastical, academic and judiciary circles. A code was developed to denote each of the main disciplines taught in university using the tufts and mozzettas worn: white for theology, red for law, yellow for Medicine and blue for philosophy, etc.

It was Pope Paul VI who in 1970 finally granted the Title of Doctor of the Church to St Teresa, finally answering a request that was first elevated in 1597 by all the cathedral chapters of Spain to Pope Clement VIII. The petition had been repeatedly denied by Rome dryly arguing Obstat sexus (her sex prevents it).

The devotion of the Spanish people was too great to be contained, and while the title of doctor of the church could not be used, this did not stop her receiving other titles such as doctrix seraphica or doctrix mystica. (Read more.)