Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Negotiating The Boundary Between Monastic Seclusion And Apostolic Mission In The Bishopric Of Chur Around The Year 800, Jenny Ataoguz

Jenny Kirsten Ataoguz

By virtue of their lifestyle and learning, early medieval monks were particularly well-suited to serve a pastoral role, yet at the turn of the ninth century, Carolingian efforts at reform reveal a discomfort with monastic engagement with the secular world through the establishment of clerical precedence in matters concerning the laity. But just as reform characterized Carolingian monasticism, so too did diversity, and in a region immediately adjacent to the Bishopric of Chur we have direct evidence of monks playing a pastoral role.

In the Bishopric of Chur itself, the evidence may be less direct, but it is mounting. The …

Altering The Tradition: The Traditio Legis At The Monastery Of Saint John, Jenny Ataoguz

Jenny Kirsten Ataoguz

The main church of the Monastery of Saint John in Müstair, Switzerland preserves on its walls an extensive program of wall painting dating to around the year 800. The half-dome of one of its three apses presents a Traditio legis, a theme that had originated in Rome in the fourth century. Although the composition was firm during the first centuries of Christian art, with Paul on Christ’s right side and Peter on his left, early medieval versions more often reverse their placement. The basis for the privileging of Paul – his reception of the law of the spirit in counterpoint …