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Round Church. Medieval.
Bjernede, Inside.
Symbols, Saints. Crusades?
And the Last Supper.
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.Round Church. Medieval.
Bjernede, Inside.
Symbols, Saints. Crusades?
And the Last Supper.
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Bjernede: Which saints, what bird, and a song? Significance?
Issues Overview
.I. For the exterior of the medieval round church at Bjernede, and the churchyard, see http://denmarkroadways.blogspot.com/2011/07/bjernede-round-church-bjernede-kirke.html.
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II. For the interior, a basic question for us is whether this is a Templar-built or otherwise Crusader-purposed (including to accommodate pilgrims who could not get to the Holy Land) church, Templar-inspired (being round is not enough - the Roman Pantheon is round) or not Templar at all. And Last Supper issues.
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Start with this third party video. It shows the upper level that was accessible only by a narrow stone spiral staircase. That staircase was concealed behind a tightly shut big door with a distinctive cross on it (Crusade-related?) no sign or invitation to open. We did not do that, so the video: Martin Pavon, Photographer, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Our23yp8fJo.
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III. We begin with the ground level, the worship level/ Do the symbols and art suggest that Bjernede is a Templar/Hospitaller/other Crusade-related church. That was common with other round churches, as is believed about the several round churches on the Danish island of Bornholm. Clues: Crusader crosses, a Golden Chalice detail in a painting, crescent, Eastern Orthodox in Saints' dedication, perhaps ritual areas above and below the worship level.
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Round churches in themselves are not necesssarily Templar or Crusades. And ordinary traditional rectangular shape churches may be. See this Swedish example of a Cross Church, Forshem Kirke, at http://swedenroadways.blogspot.com/2011/05/forshem-kyrka-kinnekulle-area.html. Scandinavians may or may not have participated actively in crusades, but structures were set up as a kind of pilgrimage-equivalence (Cross Churches) for donations and penance while remaining in one's own country, see Forshem site.
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What might persuade one way or another about Bjernede. Is it copied from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, also known as the Church of the Resurrection (is that an eagle in the photo above, itself a symbol of the resurrection?), round and the dates fit.
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A. Topics Overview
.1. Crusader Crosses, hidden defensible spiral staircase to ambulatory above; someone else to look up placement of windows against sun, moon shine
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2. Structure - granite first, then brick on upper - does not look Templar issue
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3. Seating. Hierarchical toward a priest station. Obviously not original. Is contrived to squeeze a round setting with all the pillars in the way, to an artificial priest-in front hierarchy setup. Better to have left it a round church.
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4. People in paintings -- Dedication to St. Lawrence (note crescent on his hat); and St. Mary; but which St. Mary? Mary of Egypt?
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4.1 Woman at the Last Supper, painting Tryptych.To us, clearly a woman, with female headdress on, to Jesus' left. Is that a medieval married woman's headdress? No hair showing, prim. Looks like it. Research ongoing.
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4.2 Woman in large painting: St. Mary, as in dedication? If Mary Mother of, why the smudged face. Disguise, or to deemphasize her role in an emerging male church. Is the eagle for Resurrection; or to suggest John.
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We believe the painting instead is Mary of Egypt, Saint Mary the Harlot (not Mary Magdalene), Mary of the Desert, Patron Saint of Penitents. Her story takes place in Jerusalem and eastern environs. What does she carry -- music? Scripture to be sung? For Mary Mother of Jesus, could be Magnificat; for Mary of Egypt, she sang the Nunc Dimittis. See notes. Also painting of a 1691 family: The skull and hourglass: Masonic?
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4.3 Saint Lawrence - the Gridiron
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5. Furnishings - Impregnable poor box; or donation box; or for safekeeping. Is that for donations or goods for safekeeping while the person was away? See also the doors where the crosses are found, the width of the planking, pulpit
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6. Tryptych -- More on the painting of The Last Supper.
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6.1 See the focus on the Gold Chalice - put that in context, if you like, of Templars, Holy Grail, or not.
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6.2 See also what appears to be a woman at the Last Supper, part of the group, with head-covering, very close to Jesus. Is it Mary Magdalene at the Last Supper, at Jesus' left hand, at a round table. See notes below. Is this so?
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6.3 Mystery figure #1, last supper. Need better photograph. Is it there?
6.4 Mystery figure #2, partially unclothed. Ewers nearby? Youth, whom Jesus loved? What did Danes understand, believe, why?
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B. Templar question.
After seeing the crosses and the grail-form chalice in the painting,
and other elements,
and other elements,
- Ask if this second floor balcony area, and lower area, was used for purposes other than regular mass. Is it for rituals, whatever, because it is so hard to see anything from there, up or down. Do go to Martin Pavon's video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Our23yp8fJo .
- We are not differentiating between Templars and Hospitallers here, except that it is Templars who are associated with the Grail, secretsl and we find some details of both.
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A. Topics
1. Crusader Crosses
.Start inside with an interest in crosses, and what they might say about the mindset or faith of the commissioner of this find building, Sune Ebeson, or Ebesen, in 1170 or so. What elements of non-Roman Catholic doctrine, as that later developed, are missing; what elements of either Eastern Orthodox faith (the Great Schism was recent - in 1054, and the Crusades began immediately after, in 1065 by Rome's branch alone; and Knights Templar activity ongoing in that context until 1314, when the dismantling and securing of whatever they had went underground. Hospitallers? Did they also have to dismantle?
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Holy Grail (is that a shape, a circular concept like roundtable for living on a higher plane, not a "thing"), mere regular riches, secrets, none of the above. See the Round Churches Roundtables site above. Some early churches were martyria in the middle east, octagonal in shape, see http://www.oodegr.com/english/ekklisia/orthodox_temple.htm. This however is not octagonal.
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For an overview of Templar elements in known Templar round churches, such as in England, go to http://www.scribd.com/doc/51780730/128/The-Templar-Sun-Dial-Church around page 308 ff and before. Find analyses of axes, many symbol and ritual discussions, including sun, moon. Beyond the discussion here.
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1.1. This looks like a Cross Formee.
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The Cross Formee is one of the crusader crosses, see http://www.orderstjohn.org/osj/cross.htm. That site shows all the crusader crosses used by crusading states from the 12-15th Centuries. This is different from a Maltese.
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Cross Formee, Crusader Cross, Bjernede Kirke, top portion, interior doorway, DK
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The entire door shows that the vertical axis is not just continued down the length of the door, but is an equal-sided cross. Even the midline of the door just below the cross has a different linear design to separate it from the cross above. Some illustrations of the Maltese Cross show indentations, making a kind of 4 arrowhead pattern aiming in to the center from the axes. Is that necessary, or just one of the variations?
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Cross Formee, Crusader Cross. Not Maltese because there are not indentations making a V at the end of each axis, full door view, and ritual knocker; Bjernede Kirke, round church, near Soro, Denmark.
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The round knocker is for ritual use, as the door handle that actually opens the door is there at the left..
1.2 This looks like a Cross Ancree, or Cross Moline, a Forked Cross, other names.
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Cross Ancree, or Cross Moline, Crusader Cross, interior doorway, Bjernede Kirke, DKAll doors were tightly shut in the church, no invitation to enter and explore.
Crusader crosses are intersecting equal arms, equal horizontal and vertical axes, and what is behind? The online video of this 1170 church, see sune Ebbeson's work at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Our23yp8fJo, photographer Martin Pavon, shows stairs, and upper chambers.
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The Cross Ancree has a more pronounced curl at the end of the forked axis end, than the Cross Moline. A Maltese Cross, however, is like four arrowheads facing in to the center, each arrowhead itself in a pointed V shape at the end, wider there than at the center.
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There are little anchor hooks that curve on the Moline and Ancree at the end of the axes, make both variations different from a Maltese Cross. Do see the History of the Maltese Cross site for the crosses used by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem prior to the 15th Century, see http://www.orderstjohn.org/osj/cross.htm.
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This cross ancree door is strongly reinforced. There is the same patterned exposed stonework inside and out. I think this was interior. The knocker would signal the participant in the ante room that the time has come to come out, or some such. Outdoor ritual knockers can provide the same service.
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2. Structure. Granite, many colors, interior.
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Interior columns, Bjernede Kirke, multi-granite, DK3. Seating reconformed to put priest in front. Awkward. Contrived. When was the round format altered to the cruciform, hierarchical all eyes in one direction, to the priest?
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First, there is a Roman Catholic cross on the inside over the door now, with a hanging Christ, long vertical axis, shorter horizontal axis. That would be later than the building of the church, is that so?
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Pulpit, interior Bjernede Church, DK. Painted, carved, gilt.
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Seating. It just doesn't work in a cruciform format. The entire arrangement of seating and ritual places is awkward and contrived, with seating requiring awkward angles of neck and poor eyeballs just to see. One's nose touches the pulpit. That is Matthew and Mark there, however. You can't miss that.
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This shape of round is far more suitable for the older in-the-round services, rituals. Matters would have been conducted in the round, and turned later for reasons of ideology into an axis dominated structure. It jars. See what looks like an original and untouched round church structure in Austria near Lienz at http://austriaroadways.blogspot.com/2009/12/lienz-castle-round-church-dolomites.html.
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We see that most of the Danish round churches on the Danish island of Bornholm also have added transepts. See Osterklars Kirke, photographs by Sara Hindenmark, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-Cid4b0yVI. The music is awful. Have they also put altars in them, turning the orientation from the round to the hierarchical? We would like to see whether those were original, or came later when the Roman authoritarian doctrinal version of life became entrenched. See also Henry Lincoln's 1979 documentary cum speculation on round churches, Templars, beginning with findings at Rennes le Chateau, France (Languedoc), and Bornholm, and elsewhere, and moving on to a multi$ industry in Templar objets, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-a_yrBGWYs
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At least in Austria, where we saw a round church structure later turned into an axis-dominated one, they had the sense to remove the round walls and reconstruct the square inside. See Martinskirche, Martin's Church, Linz (not the same as Lienz), Austria, at http://austriaroadways.blogspot.com/2009/11/linz.html
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4. People in the church
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4.1 Identifying figures - St. Lawrence, Saint Laurentii, other?
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Where to start in identifying figures. This looks like someone of high clergy status with the incensor; but look at the hat. Our conclusion will be that this is indeed St. Lawrence, and that he is not carrying an incensor, but it takes a pursuit.
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Saint Laurentii, Saint Lawrence, Bjernede Church, near Soro, Denmark
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Saint Lawrence is one of the two saints honored by this church. There are a number of symbols that help in identifying him, or parts of his story. Are there other St. Lawrences. It cannot be the Archbishop Olaus Laurentii because he died in 1438.
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- The breastplate. Gridiron. Look again at the symbols. St. Laurentii of this church often bears a symbol of a gridiron, the method of his martyrdom. See http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/08/10.html This figure bears a gridiron on his chest..
Crescent on hat of St. Lawrence? Bjernede Church, DK
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Get closer. Yes! We vote for this as the old martyred St. Lawrence. Look at the breastplate.
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Gridiron breastplate, St. Laurentii, St. Lawrence, Bjernede Kirke, Denmark
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Lawrence is said to have said at one point, "You may turn me over. I am done on this side." See site.
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- But there is also a crescent on the headdress.
Crescent, on top of hat of St. Laurentii, Bjernede Church, DK
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On his hat is a crescent moon, or perhaps a horn symbol. For Templars, the crescent moon is part of the iconography, and as a symbol predate the actual formation of that group. This is not to argue that this particular crescent is a harbinger of Crusader symbols, but it would tie in the Church figure to the later effort, is that so? The crescent is also part of the symbolism of the old Mithra, and the form is incorporated in Roman Catholic iconography, see http://www.mindserpent.com/American_History/religion/pope/rc_images.html
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The crescent, or horns, are common symbols in many cultures. Mithraism, for example, was the old State religion of Rome, and it was long in dying out, and horns were part of that ritual. Paul of Tarsus -- Tarsus was a central part of Mithraism, and there are many carryovers from Mithraism to Christianity. See http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/mithraism.html
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Still, a crescent, if seen as the moon and not pagan horns, is a problem. These are generally female symbols. How does that figure into a Christian theology unless this man so predated Rome that he continued to carry the older, non-Christian symbolism. See the mindserpent site: the crescent became a symbol of cosmic conception. And, the female at one time in evolving Christianity (these aspects later deemed heretic and stamped out) was part of the trinity, even the godhead. See gnostic sources, example http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gop.html, truth is the mother, knowledge the father, etc. See also, http://www.aliak.com/content/gnostic-gospels-reading-notes
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Perhaps the crescent means that, as the elvis.rowan site indicates, history is not clear that St. Laurentii was a citizen of Rome. If he were a citizen, he would have been beheaded, not roasted alive. But was he beheaded after all? Nothing is corroborated. And the "incensor" may just be instead just Laurentii carrying his own coals.
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4.2 The smudged woman.
Saint Mary - Other saint? We know that this church was raised in honor of St. Lawrence and St. Mary, see http://www.astoft.co.uk/churchessjaelland.htm#Bjernede, but which St. Mary? There is a large painting of a woman in the church, but it looks like no madonna we have seen.
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Bjernede Kirke, Denmark.St. Mary? Which?
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a. Mary Mother of Jesus? We think not.
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This painting of a woman is prominent in Bjernede Church. But the usual corroborative symbols are not there for this to be Mary Mother of Jesus.
- Garment colors, often blue for Mary; here green gown and a red cloak (those colors sometimes indicated leprosy, see http://www.hebrewoldtestament.com/B03C013.htm#V49); or blood of sacrifice, remission of sin, etc. Also, later, prostitution
- It appears that someone tried to smudge the face. Is that so that it would look male, and not be Mary at all?
- Even the gown does not show a female top particularly (not determinative, many sizes);
- The bottom of the gown also is odd. Is that just bad restoration, or did someone try to make that look more masculine as well, and end up making it look even more female -- leg lines clearly shown.
- The figure is carrying what looks like music - and to mind comes the Magnificat, but that is speculation.
- What is that eagle at her feet?
- Does that eagle persuade us that this woman is really St. John? The eagle is not a gryphon, because there is no body of a lion. St. John is represented by an eagle. If this is John the "beloved disciple" -- this looks cross-dressing. And not male where it counts.
- There is no halo, as would appear for a saint. Or has it been also smudged out?
- The pose carries no clue as to her role. As to Mary and Motherhood, this is not a madonna, not a grieving mother. Is there another Mary? Bottom line: There would have been a large representation of a saint to whom the church was dedicated, and this is the only candidate we see for a Mary. The issue becomes, which Saint Mary. Mary Mother of.
Close up:
- Look closer. Smudge, smudge. The smudges may try, but do not succeed in turning this woman into a man, even with a mustache. If the smudges mean that someone made an effort to purge women from church prominence, as doctrine later required, that might explain it. That concept of the diminution of women's roles would apply from dogma as it evolved in an institution increasingly male-worshiping.
- If it is Mary Mother of, then the and the eagle can symbolize the resurrection idea, but that is a stretch. See http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/symbols/eagle.htm. This one does not even look like an eagle. It looks all white. Then again, a double headed eagle, facing in opposite directions, is a Templar symbol, so is this one of what would otherwise be a pair.
- Why the defacing if this is intended to make a woman look more like a man. Is it because Rome;s evolving doctrine excluded women in such a prominent position. Check Rome's purchase receipts for smudgepots.
Mary with face smudge. Bjernede Rundkirke, DK
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b. We think this is Saint Mary the Harlot. Saint Mary of Egypt. Saint Mary of the Desert. .
There is indeed another Saint Mary - not Mary Magdalene, not Mary the mother of James etc; but Mary the Harlot, known in the Coptic Church particularly, 4th-5th Century, who was also known as Saint Mary of Egypt. She is a patron saint of penitents, one who became a hermit and lived her life events mostly in Palestine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Egypt . See http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/synexarion/maryofegypt.htm. See FN 1
There are many versions of her story, each with inclusions and exclusions that support the ideology being fostered.
- 1275 Roman version. See the Roman Catholic The Golden Legend, Lives of the Saints, Story of St. Mary of Egypt at http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/golden181.htm She went to Alexandria at age 12 says versions that follow this line, and prostituted herself, then to Jerusalem and the salacious life commenced. [If we ask why this church is dedicated to her, the crusader connection may help explain how the idea of this particular saint got to Denmark.]
- 635 Orthodox version. Her life story was written hundreds of years earlier, however, by St. Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem in 635 or so. Find it at the Orthodox Christian site, Russian Orthodox, at http://www.stmaryofegypt.org/life.aspx. That early version also contains the salaciousness but puts it in a context of a total story including about the priest Zosima, who had his flaws as well. Both come across as sinners. When a version was put into Latin as part of the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine, Archibishop of Genoa in 1275, the emphasis is more on her sinner side, not the sinnership also of the men around her.
- In this version, http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/synexarion/maryofegypt.htm. Mary is a woman from the desert, see Images of her with a robe worn toga-style, a sinful woman now penitent. But she becomes the vehicle for the salvation of the priest who was directed in a vision to go seeking grace in the desert. He did, and found Mary, and learned.asked Zosimas the priest (that would be St. Zosimas of Palestine, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Egypt) to lend her his cloak to better cover herself, and he did.
- In this version, She had powers, levitated, "knew" things, and Zosimas the priest became her disciple. She also could walk on water. And she spoke the Nunc Dimittis while taking the sacrament. Is that a book of scripture she is carrying. In those days, couldn't the language of the people be used, and not just Latin? So the script that looks like music could be something else. She had died by the next time he visited, a year later, and a lion helped Zosimas bury her, not an eagle. As to her carrying music here, if the painting is late in time, there are operatic allusions to her, including in Goethe's Faust. She is in Ben Jonson's Volpone. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Egypt
- In this next version, Mary is a pure girl who studied the scriptures under the tutelage of an uncle, named Abraham the Hermit, a holy man relative, each in adjoining cells (she was an orphan), then she was seduced by a monk. See http://www.vitae-patrum.org.uk/page44.html. She became so distraught at the evil she had done with him that she lacerated her face with her nails. There explains the mess that looked like smudges, or bad restoration. She did that to herself. How could she have let herself be so despoiled, etc. So she left, went to another land, changed clothes, and entered a brothel [word "stabulum" also can mean a fixed abode, or hostelry, says site note; translators pick and choose what fits the agenda?]. Meanwhile, the uncle missed her, had visions, sent someone for information, got it, went in disguise to her himself, and ate and drank with her and "rescued her soul from the deeps."
- She is not Mary Magdalene. Mary the Harlot, Mary of Egypt lived about 370 CE.
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She raked her own face with her nails, was seduced by the monk (it took a year for him to succeed, pure girl as she was), regretted having been seduced, self-blamed, either went into the desert or into an inn to live, or a brothel, was found by those who had visions where she was, and why they needed to go to her, and she ended up saving them. Or at least, one of them. Applause, Mary the Harlot. Applause.
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Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Egypt offers more salacious details of Mary's early life -- hardly living in a cell with a holy man uncle on the other side of the wall - in the era that followed her life, it became important for theologians to demonize women, place them beneath the superior blessed male. So, down she went.
4.3 Painting of Family from 1691 (date known from enlarging this to death)
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Family portrait, memorial? 1691, Bjernede Kirke, DK
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What are they holding? The rectangle above the skull and bone looks like an hour glass. What happened to these people? We do not see a record of the Plague here at that time. It looks like they are blessing the little one; one adult holds a rose.
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Family closeup, Bjernede Kirke DK, 1691A clue is the center bottom skull, bone, and hourglass. Those are Masonic symbols, that even found their way into Dan Brown's book, The Lost Symbol, see The Lost Symbol, google book, author Dan Brown, page 155
There are also other sites for the symbolism but without the ability to vet authority, suggest you search independently. Skulls and bones and hourglasses also, of course, appear in non-Masonic contexts, How to discern?
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5. Bjernede Church furnishings, accoutrements
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5.1 Poor box or safe for donations, valuables
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Not just a poor box. This appears too iron-clad, literally, to be a mere poor-box that the priest would check weekly and use for whatever. Yet it would be portable as a safe, for taking to a common collection point. Ordinary clergy, or perhaps Holy Orders holding goods and papers for pilgrims, for literal safe-keeping, and then return' or reversion to the institution if no-one comes back.
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Poor-box, for charitable donations; or property receptacle, to be held for returning crusaders? Bjernede Kirke, Bjernede Round Church, DK
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Well locked. It looks like the property or coin or documents would fall through a hole below for further safekeeping/
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5.2 Pulpit
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Matthew and Mark are on the pulpit, photo at top in the seating section. They are identified by name.
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6. Tryptych, with Golden Chalice featured; and Woman at the Last Supper by J's side. Additional figure?
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Tryptych, Bjernede Church, Kirke, Round Church DKThis Tryptych, a three part and still possibly folding presentation of a Biblical event, with Patrons on either side: routine.
6.1 The Chalice.
A gold Chalice is at the center of this Last supper view, pre-Leonardo
There is a prominent, and held-high, chalice of gold. There is a general buzz going on in the group, and somebody is pointing at the Chalice so we are sure not to miss it. Reading a narrative into the prominence of this golden Chalice, it does fit in the context of crusades and a mysterious holy grail that was handily thought of as a Thing. The Templars found and took that Thing, or that idea, or the riches spiritual or material that it represented, somewhere.
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A Grail allusion right here.
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6.2 The Woman at the Last Supper.
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What is that figure to the right of J? The figure is wearing a head covering, it looks like a married woman's head covering, all the hair covered; and she is is very very close to J.
- Mary? Mary Magdalene? Is that you? The figure to the right side of J, from our viewpoint in front.
- Look back at the gnostic (excluded from the canon as heresy) Gospel of Philip, http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gop.html, and the imagery of bride, bridegroom, and the stories of a marriage having occurred between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, all suppressed as were other gospels depicting the female as part of the trinity, wisdom, possibly totally false (the church said so and banned them and the men took over) but a popular theme and we will never know.
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It is not even clear that John was the beloved disciple; see the references to the youth whom Jesus loved, http://martinlutherstove.blogspot.com/#!/2012/03/vetting-lexicons-thayers-joseph-henry.html
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It is not Judas. We think we see Judas, in front, with his coins held carefully behind his back. Or is that another figure showing at the angle there. Add them all up: all the heads and we have Jesus plus12 people there, including Mary Magdalene. Who else? This was long before DaVinci interpreters looked at his ambiguous presentation. Look even closer.
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Mary Magdalene? Woman in head covering next to J at Last Supper, Bjernede Kirke, Tryptych, DenmarkDoes the painting now need protection? Do we hear the church saying: We can't have Mary at the Last Supper there, nosirree, and not with a married headdress. And certainly not so close, can we, even if she was. We don't care what really happened. We have our dogma to protect. Get rid of her. Now.
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This woman, we think of as Mary, is indeed wearing a head covering, None of the other figures wear a head covering like that. That is a lot of fabric, not just a cap.
6.3 The mystery man, lower right, behind what may be Judas?
It looks like another figure. Not sure.
6.4 The second mystery man, lower left, unclothed beneath
Counting: Do we now have 12 disciples? Count. Yes. Jesus 1, 12 others. But that includes Mary Magdalene. And who is the one seated, partially unclothed as shown in this enlargement.
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John is asleep elsewhere. Who is this?
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Last Supper, tryptych, Bjernede. Additional figure, unclothed.Maybe we are getting too close. Look at the figure above and to the left of the wine. He wears no clothing, lower half. Buttocks. Bottomed out? Have to get to the bottom of that. And whose feet are whose. Feet and bottoms, for heaven's sake. That is really weird.
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On the other hand, stories get sanitized to fit the demands of dogma. Look back at the references to a young man, the youth whom Jesus loved, summarized at the Thayer site lexicon above. The word could have meant a person also in a servant or assistant relationship, is that why the ewers are next to him? Disciple meant "learner" -- need we get hung up on a particular 12?
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B. Templar Questions
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Templars or not, what explanation is thee for the crosses and the focus on eastern saints like Mary of Egypt (born in Egypt, even with all the variations on her story). Gnostic interest in dualism, the female in religious structure. Even Hospitallers, who also became a military order combining role of Knight and Monk, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem is one of those. See discussion at http://kngdv.blogspot.com/2011/02/round-churches-roundtables-labyrinths.html
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This set of ideas will take a return trip. A better camera, time to explore, now that we know what we are looking for. Go to the upper levels. Open the doors, poke around like any obnoxious tourist. Why did we hesitate to open closed doors? Mother's manners.
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In the Martin Pavon video of the other level, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Our23yp8fJo, watch for the part with a cross etched in the wood scaffolding framework. Nothing is ever clear. It does show which door to open, however, we think. In old tales, open closed doors and find who knows what.
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Need to go to the island of Bornholm where several Templar Churches are located.
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FN 1
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Consider. The Golden Legend was written in about 1275. That puts the Roman Catholic version a hundred years after the church at Bjernede was dedicated to here. So this church and the crusaders would have relied for their knowledge of Mary upon St. Sophronius.
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Ask whether the idea of penitence, emphasized in the Orthodox, is overwhelmed by the idea of what she did -- sins of the flesh -- emphasized in the Roman. Did she prostitute herself? And how much was that an element, if she did. Example of issue: Another version of her story says that "stabulum" or "brothel" also means simply fixed place of abode, see below. See the Golden Legend side translated into -- is it Arabic? at http://marymagdalene.blogdrive.com/archive/5.html. Why not translate the Sophronius?
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The role of the focus on her salacious life, rather than the total context and relationship also with Zosima. The 1275 version operates to discredits her as an inspired human being and turns her into a victim of her carnal lusts. Earlier versions did not have her a slave to lust. Somebody needs to do a comparison of the Patriarch of Jerusalem version in 635 against the Archbishop of Genoa version in 1275. Is it just a matter of leaving parts out, or are there other changes. It looks more like parts just left out.
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She is in the Orthodox calendar for observances, but not the Roman Catholic. She is honored by special events in Crete (Wikipedia site below) so would have had connections with Crusaders going East. How could they miss her.
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Her story is a touching one, but details vary with the teller and translation.
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