The Saint-Sever Beatus: An Illustrated Commentary on the Apocalypse (Part 1)

As the Church’s year draws to a close, the book of the Apocalypse becomes very prominent in the Roman liturgy. It is read at the Mass of both the vigil (5, 6-12) and feast of All Saints (7, 2-12), and at Matins of the latter (4, 2-8 and 5, 1-14); at the third Mass of All Souls’ day (a reading of single verse, 14, 3, borrowed from the daily Mass for the Dead); and at Matins of the two dedication feasts on the universal calendar, those of the Lateran basilica on November 9th (21, 9-18), and of Ss Peter and Paul (21, 18-27) on the 18th. It also provides the epistle for the Mass of a dedication generally (21, 2-5), and the Introit and Magnificat antiphon of Second Vespers of Christ the King. In the Mass lectionary of the post-Conciliar rite, it is read on the ferial days of the last two weeks of even-numbered years.

Introitus Dignus est Agnus, qui occísus est, accípere virtútem, et divinitátem, et sapientiam, et fortitúdinem, et honórem. Ipsi gloria et imperium in saecula saeculórum. Ps. 71 Deus, judicium tuum Regi da, et justitiam tuam Filio Regis. Gloria Patri... Dignus est Agnus...

Introit, Apoc. 5, 12 & 1, 6 Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honor. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Ps. 71 O God, give Thy judgment to the King, and Thy justice to the King’s son. Glory be... Worthy is the Lamb...

In the 8th century, there lived a monk named Beatus (730 ca – after 785) at the monastery of St Turibius in a town called Liébana in Cantabria, one of the northern regions of Spain that was never occupied by the Islamic invaders. (This monastery is still an important stop on the Camino de Santiago, since it possesses a very ancient relic of the True Cross.) Very little is known of this man, although he was a prominent figure in his own time, tutor and confessor to a queen named Adosinda, and correspondent with Alcuin of York. He participated in the controversy over Adoptionism, a Christological heresy which caused some trouble in Spain at the time. (Part of the later rejection of the Mozarabic Rite came from fears that it was tainted with this heresy.) He is now recognized as a Saint by the Church, with his feast day on February 19th, and is therefore officially “Saint Blessed of Liébana.”

Nowadays, he is chiefly known for a lengthy commentary which he composed on the book of the Apocalypse. Medieval authors valued originality much less than we do, and this work borrows heavily from a wide range of earlier writers among the Fathers of the Church. It is valuable most of all because it preserves extensive sections of an earlier commentary, now otherwise mostly lost, by an influential African writer named Ticonius, a contemporary of St Augustine. Like much of the literature of its era, it would probably not be very appealing to most readers today.

The Vision of the Lamb, with the four cherubim and the twenty-four elders, depicted in the Beatus of León, 1047 AD, also known as the Facundus Beatus after its illustrator. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.)

It is, however, famous among art historians of the period, because nearly 30 copies of it survive that preserve the original illustrations, which are believed to be the work of the author himself. (There are also several copies without illustrations.) The oldest of these dates to the mid-9th century; there are 8 others from the 10th, and by the middle of that century, some copyists began to expand the repertoire of images. At the same time, one line of these manuscripts was expanded to include St Jerome’s commentary on the book of Daniel, with illustrations in a similar vein. These books are collectively called “Beatus manuscripts”, and named individually either from their places of origin (e.g. “the Tábara Beatus”, produced at the monastery of the Holy Savior in that town), or the libraries that hold them, (e.g. “the Morgan Beatus” at the Morgan Library in New York.)

One of the most beautiful and complete of these is the Saint-Sever Beatus, which is now in Paris, at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. (ms. lat. 8878) It was produced at the abbey of Saint-Sever in southwestern France, in the Duchy of Gascony. The name of the abbot at the time, Gregory of Montaner, is in the frontispiece, which dates the manuscript between 1028 and 1072; according to the BnF’s website, the three artists who executed it were called Stephanus, Placidus, and Garsia. (Stephanus’ signature is supposed to be on folio 6, but I can’t seem to find it.) This is the only illuminated Beatus produced in France; in addition to the St Jerome commentary on Daniel, it includes St Ildephonse of Toledo’s influential treatise on the perpetual virginity of Mary. There are nearly 100 images and decorations, with 20 before the commentary even begins, so I will present these in several posts.

The letters in the center of the frontispiece simply repeat the words “Grigorius (sic) abba nobilis” (Gregory, the noble abbot), with the -lis of the last word in the form of an L with a line through it.

This is followed by pictures of the Evangelists; each is shown sitting in a room with a disciple to whom he is consigning his book, and with his symbol above him. The picture following each of them shows two angels in a similar room holding the relevant book.

Note the heads with tongues sticking out, to either side of the architrave above St John. These seem to have been copied from ancient depictions of Roman actors (often seen in manuscripts of Roman plays), who wore masks very much like these faces.

These are followed by a series of genealogical tables; the bar at the top of this page reads, “In the name of the Holy Trinity, here begins the genealogy from Adam to Christ, through the order of the lineages.” On the left side of this set of pages are Adam and Eve.

In the upper part of the left folio, Noah makes an offering to God on an altar after he gets off the ark.

In the upper part of the right folio, Abraham is shown about to sacrifice Isaac.

The genealogies of Isaac and Jacob.

The continued descent of Jacob, with King David at the far right.

The descent of David himself...

which continues to Christ...

culminating with this image of the Magi adoring “the new-born King of the Jews.”

The appearance of the angel to the shepherds.

A bird killing a snake, as a symbol of Christ’s victory over the devil.

At the upper left, St John the Evangelist, the author of the Apocalypse, is shown holding a scroll, followed by several of the Fathers whom Beatus uses as sources for his commentary: Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose; on the lower level, Fulgentius of Ruspe (a see in north Africa; 462/7 - 527/33);  Gregory the Great, Apringius of Beja, and Isidore of Seville. Ticonius is not included, since he was a Donatist, albeit of a less rigorous school, and thus rejected by the other Donatists. (Apringius’ name is spelled as “Abringius”, reflecting a common phonetic change in the languages of the Iberian peninsula. The Beatus manuscripts also provide valuable evidence of such changes to modern scholars.)