Tag Archives: Salome

Doubting Midwife

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In these icons of the Nativity (on the left, a 12th century fresco from Cappadocia; on the right, a Coptic icon), we see the newborn Christ being washed by the midwives (lower right corner of the Coptic icon). In many depictions of the midwives washing the newborn Christ-child (as above), the cistern or tub they use looks similar to the paten on which the Holy Bread is offered in the Eucharist to become the Body of Christ. Jesus as identified as the Lamb of God offered to the Father from the moment of his birth. In the Coptic icon, we also see the shepherds around the midwives watching a flock of white sheep and black goats–the righteous and the sinners Christ is born to save.

“Doubting midwife?” Where did she come from? There is no mention of a midwife in Matthew’s or Luke’s account of Christ’s nativity. This woman is the “Doubting Thomas” of the Nativity cycle.

According to the Protoevangelium, Joseph brings the Blessed Virgin to Bethlehem but as there is “no room at the inn,” he settles her in a stable–a cave, not a barn–as her labor begins. He goes to find midwives to assist in the birth.

Joseph quickly finds a pair of local midwives and brings them back to the stable-cave but none of them can enter because of the brilliant light shining within. As the light gradually fades, they are able to see the Virgin and the newborn baby. They enter and begin to tend to mother and child.

The first midwife washes and examines the new mother and is startled to discover that Blessed Mary is still a virgin. She reports this to the other midwife who doubts this and reaches out to examine Blessed Mary herself. But her hand withers as it nears the Virgin’s birth canal and even feels as if it were burning. She quickly withdraws her hand but it remains paralyzed and withered; as she struggles to assist in washing the newborn baby, she is healed by touching the child or by the water splashing from the tub–different versions of the story report both styles of healing. This second, doubting midwife proclaims that the new mother is indeed still a virgin and that the miraculous withering-healing of her hand is the sign of this and the miraculous nature of the new baby.

The midwife–who is eventually identified as Salome, possibly the same Salome that brings myrrh to Christ’s tomb with Mary Magdalen–has the same experience as Moses at the burning bush. Moses’ hand withers and is struck with leprosy because he asks for proof that it is truly God who is speaking to him. Isaiah is purged by a burning coal from the heavenly altar, just as the midwife’s hand feels as if it is burning. The midwife exclaims, “Woe is me! Because of my lawlessness and unbelief!” just as Isaiah exclaimed, “Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips!” The midwife’s healing is also an allusion to the healing of the woman with the 12-years issue of blood who is healed simply by touching the hem of Christ’s garment in the crowd.

Just as the Apostle Thomas says he will not believe that Christ is risen unless he touches the wounds in Christ’s hands and side, the midwife cannot believe the report of the first midwife unless she also touches the evidence of the miracle. The disbelief of the apostle and the midwife is healed by touch; both Thomas and Salome testify to the truth of God’s action in the world because they have handled the evidence themselves.

Why is it important that the Mother of God remain ever-virgin? Her perpetual virginity is a safeguard of our status as brothers and sisters of Christ; if she had other biological children who were biological relatives of Christ, it would relegate Christian believers to second-rank status in the Church. Some members–the biological relatives–would be MORE the “brothers and sisters of Christ” than other believers who were not biological relatives. In order to avoid this two-tier system in the Church and to prevent a dynasty of Christ’s relatives from ruling the nascent Christian community, it was important that Mary have no other biological children. (We see in the Gospels themselves that she had no other children or Christ would not need to commend her to the care of St. John, the Beloved Disciple, at the Crucifixion. Those people the Gospels refer to as Christ’s brothers and sisters were his cousins or stepbrothers and stepsisters, the children of Joseph’s first marriage.)

Read my prior post about the stable-cave in which Christ was born here.

Read my prior post about the goldfinch often seen in portrayals of the Virgin and Child here.

St. John the Baptist Beheaded

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This Coptic icon for the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, shows St. John ‘in clothing of camel’s hair’, with a cross (here in the Coptic Tau (T) form), beholding his own head. The axe at right refers to this line from his own preaching: “And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” [Mt 3.10; Lk 3.9]

Western and Eastern Christians commemorate of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist on August 29. However, in Italian folklore the story of the daughter of Herodias became attached to June 23, St John’s Eve, which is the night before the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist, June 24. (Usually, a feast day of a saint commemorated the death of that saint to celebrate her/his martyrdom; the feast of St. John the Baptist is one of the very few saints’ days to mark the anniversary of a saint’s birth. Click here for my earlier post about St. John’s Nativity and Midsummmer. Click here for another post about Midsummer and St. John’s Wort.) In Rome, youths would gather in front of the cathedral of Basilica of St. John Lateran on the night of June 23, because Herodias traveled in the air.

“Salome of the Seven Veils” is the name by which the “daughter of Herodias” is generally known in modern American culture. J.B. Andrews in his 1897 folklore article (Neapolian Witchcraft, Folklore Transactions of the Folklore Society, Vol III March, 1897 No.1) wrote:

It is believed that at midnight then [St. John Baptist’s Eve, June 23] Herodiade may be seen in the sky seated across a ray of fire, saying:

” Mamma, mamma, perche` lo dicesti?”
“Figlia, figlia, perche’ lo facesti? “

“Herodiade” or “Erodiade” is the Italian version of the name Herodias.

Sabina Magliocco in her incredible article Who Was Aradia? The History and Development of a Legend, The Pomegranate (see The Journal of Pagan Studies, Issue 18, Feb. 2002) explained what Herodiade was doing in the airs on June 23, the Eve of St. John Baptist’s Feast Day:

According Sabina Magliocco, there was an early Christian legend or folklore derived from the bibical account (Matthew 14:3-11, Mark 6:17-28) of Herodias and Herodias’ daughter. When the head of the saint was brought forth on a platter, she-who-danced-for-the-head-of-the-Baptist had a fit of remorse, weeping and bemoaning her sin. A powerful wind began to blow forth from the saint’s mouth, so strong that it blew the famous dancer up into the air, where she is condemned to wander.

Titus Flavius Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian provides the name of stepdaughter and niece of Herod Antipas as Salome, but Josephus makes no mention of the infamous dance. Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews recounted that after the excution of John that Herod, Herodias, and her daughter Salome were exiled Lugdunum, near Spain.

However, the name “Salome” does not appear in the biblical accounts of the beheading of John the Baptist. In the Latin Vulgate Version, the girl is refered to as the “daughter of the said Herodias.”

At some point, the “daughter of Herodias” and “Herodias” became conflated in folklore in early medieval Europe.

Probably because the holiday of St John the Baptist was widely celebrated during the Middle Ages, a great deal of religious folklore surrounds Herodias. Magliocco also explained:

Diana in the Canon Episcopi, a document attributed to the Council of Ancyra in 314 CE, but probably a much later forgery, since the earliest written record of it appears around 872 CE (Caro Baroja, 1961:62). Regino, Abbot of Pr¸m, writing in 899 CE, cites the Canon, telling bishops to warn their flocks against the false beliefs of women who think they follow “Diana the pagan goddess, or Herodias” on their night-time travels. These women believed they rode out on the backs of animals over long distances, following the orders of their mistress who called them to service on certain appointed nights. Three centuries later, Ugo da San Vittore, a 12th century Italian abbot, refers to women who believe they go out at night riding on the backs of animals with “Erodiade,” whom he conflates with Diana and Minerva (Bonomo, 1959:18-19).

Eventually there developed a widespread belief that Herodias was a the supernatural leader of a supposed cult of witches, apparently asociated with or synonymous with the legendary witch-queens Diana, Holda, Abundia, and many others. In Italy, Raterius of Liegi, Bishop of Veronia in the 9th century c.e. complained that many folk believed that Herodias was a queen or goddess and that they also claimed a third of the earth was under the dominion of Herodias. Herodias was supposed to preside over the night assembly or night flight.

In parts of Italy, the dew formed on St. John’s Eve was often said to represent the tears of the daughter of Herodias. This dew was believed to have healing virtues and promote fecundity. June 23 was also known as la notte delle streghe. It was once customary in Rome to build bonfires outside the Basilica of St. John Lateran in anticipation of the night flight led by Herodias. (Read my previous post on the bonfires of June 23 here.)