The Lady Chapel in Winchester Cathedral has some wonderful wall paintings, which represent miracles attributed to the Virgin Mary. I believe that most of them are drawn from the Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso the Wise. Cantiga 4 is clearly illustrated by a frame from the lower section of the North Wall, just behind the altar rail.
Cantiga 4
A Madre do que livrou
The Mother of Him who saved
Esta é como Santa Maria guardou ao fillo do judeu
que non ardesse, que seu padre deitara no forno.
This is how Holy Mary saved from burning the son of the Jew,
whose father had thrown him into the furnace.
A Madre do que livrou |
The Mother of Him who saved |
Previously in Cantiga 4: Abel, the son of a glassmaker from Bourges studied with his friends, who were Christians. This upset his father. He took great pleasure in learning all that he heard, and the Christians accepted him into their group. One Easter, he went into church with them and saw the abbot giving communion. It seemed to him that it was the image of the Virgin and Child on the altar that was administering the sacrament.
The boy returned home and his father asked what he had done. The child told him "the Lady I saw on the altar gave me communion". The father became enraged, caught his son and cruelly shut him into the brightly burning furnace.
The boy's mother, Rachel, loved him and believed that he was burning in the furnace. She ran out into the street, where her cries attracted many people. When they discovered the cause, they went and opened the furnace, where they found that the Virgin had protected the boy. The asked him if he felt any pain and he replied that he had felt none, because he had held with him the child who was being held by the Lady on the altar. |
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In a future episode: Rachel becomes a believer and has Abel baptised immediately. The father who had done the evil deed was put to death in the way in which he had tried to kill his son.