The Lives of the Saints through 100 Masterpieces

Elizabeth

The Lives of the Saints 88 Elizabeth November 5 The mother of Saint John the Baptist is responsible for one of the most well-known prayers in Christianity. Having miraculously become pregnant by her husband Zachariah despite her advanced age, she received a visit from Mary, who had been informed of her pregnancy by the archangel Gabriel when he appeared to her to announce that she would give birth to the Messiah. At the arrival of Mary, Elizabeth’s child “leapt in her womb,” while the elderly woman greeted her visitor with the famous phrase echoed in the Ave Maria (the “Hail Mary” prayer): “Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” According to tradition, Mary remained with her cousin until the elderly woman was delivered of her child. Later, Elizabeth and little John the Baptist also had to flee the massacre of the Holy Innocents ordered by King Herod, and were saved only because a rock opened to conceal them within. One finds Elizabeth often enough in paintings of the Holy Family. However, the Visitation—as the meeting of the two pregnant women is traditionally called—is by far the most frequently represented theme. The popularity of Saint Elizabeth is attested to by the number of queens that have been given her name under its traditional form or in its Iberian permutation, Isabel. Roger van der Weyden (1400–1464) The Visitation of Saint Elizabeth Museum für Druckkunst, Leipzig ...