Sr. Anne T. Hong Nguyen,
LHC
STP 615: Dante’s Divine Comedy
Holy Apostles College & Seminary
June 2rd, 2013
Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP
7/23/2013
1
Dante’s Devotion to Blessed Virgin Mary
In Florence in the Middle Age of Dante’s time, wherever Dante
went, he was aware of places dedicated to Virgin Mary and the
people whose lives were devoted to Mary.
Devotion to Mary permeated personal and social life of the
people: in study, play, dramas, art works, and prayers.
Mary presented in home, in the Church, in the plays at the public
places of the city.
Dante was familiar with hymns, sequences, and antiphons sung
in her honor.
Prayers to Mary permeated throughout Dante’s Divine Comedy.
(Fox, 1958, page 175)
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Mosaic,
Nativity of the
Blessed Virgin
Mary,
Pietro Cavallini,
1296-1300,
Rome, S M
in Trastevere
7/23/2013
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27305838@N04/7379223942/
3
Devotion to Mary in Middle Age
The book “The Mirror of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” believed to be the work of St.
Bonaventure, advocates imitation of Mary’s Virtues.
St. Bernard was well-known for his fervent devotion to Mary as the Mediatrix
between God and man and the Lady of Sorrows.
Saint Albert, Saint Bonaventure, Saint Bernard, Saint Thomas Aquinas and many
theologians advocated devotion to:
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Mary’s Divine Maternity,
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Mary Perpetual Virginity,
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Mary Queen of Heaven,
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Mary Co-Redemptrix,
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Mary Eminence Sanctity…
The Dogma of Mary Immaculate Conception and Assumption were not recognized by
theologians since these dogmas was not officially stated by the Church until 1854 & 1950
respectively.
(Fox, page 178-179; Graef, page 243, Fernandez, 86, )
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4
The Virgins Painted In The 14th Century & Ave Maria by Shubert
http://vimeo.com/39401724
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The Church’s Teaching in the Dogma of
Mary’s Immaculate Conception
 Saint Ambrose (339-397) states that Mary’s virginity in partu &
post partu is part of the authoritative doctrine of the Church
from New-Testament times onward (Graef, 79).
 John Duns Scotus – a famous Franciscan theologian (d. 1308)
asserts the possibility that Mary's Immaculate Conception
could be possible without stating that it is in fact so (Graef,
299).
 Vatican II Council: “From the first instant of her conception
she was adorned with the radiance of an entirely unique
holiness” (LG 56).
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Dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception
On December 8, 1854, Pope Pius
IX, in the bull Ineffablis Deus,
proclaimed:
“The Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first
instant of her conception, by a singular
privilege and grace of the Omnipotent
God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus
Christ, the Savior of mankind, was
preserved immaculate from all stain of
original sin, has been revealed by God,
and therefore should firmly and
constantly be believed by all the faithful.”
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Dante’s Love to Mary “Gracia Plena”-“Full of Grace”
 Dante emphasizes in the eminent sanctity of Mary full of grace by
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turning repeatedly to the meditation on the “Angelical Salutation”.
Dante sets Mary before the souls trying to eradicate the seven capital
sins, as the perfect example of the virtues they are trying to acquire.
Dante stresses the paradox that made Mary the mother of her father
and daughter of her son, bearing the male principle by which she was
begotten. (Par 32:134-135).
Dante thus emphasizes the maidenly youthfulness of her purity which
makes her the central theme of the prayers of the lustful in Purgatory
(Purg. 25: 127-130), recalling her reply to the angel. Therefore, she
becomes the Mother of God and the Queen of heaven (par 23, 105).
Dr. Sebastian Mahfood and his friends adeptly creates a beautiful
Presentation, explaining the “Angelic Salutation” prayers that nurture
our filial devotion to our heavenly Mother for centuries.
(Fox, 181; Shapiro, 111)
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http://www.coriesu.org/synoptics_spring2009/avemaria24601.html
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Dogma of Mary’s Assumption into Heaven
 Pope Pius XII defined the
dogma of Mary’s bodily
assumption into heaven in
Munificentissimus Deus on
November 1, 1950
 Catholic Church teaches that
“When the course of her
earthly life was finished, Mary
was taken up body and soul
into heavenly glory.”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 966)
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In Divine Comedy, Dante has already Proclaimed
Mary’s Assumption
 Dante professes his belief in the Queenship of Mary in Divine
Comedy.
 He shows her Assumption and later her enthronement in the
court of the Most High, where angels and saints honor her as
befits her dignity.
 Beatrice’s devotion to Blessed Virgin Mary and the description
of her ascension into heaven at her death calls to mind Our
Lady’s assumption into heaven.
(Fox, 182; McInerny, 9)
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Dante Highlights that Mary’s Glory is Christ’s
 The Mary in Dante’s Divine Comedy never speaks except in words
taken from the Gospel.
 Whatever Dante says of her is grounded in Scripture, the Church
fathers, the great doctors of the Church in the middle ages, and in
the liturgy, art, and music of the Church.
 St. Bernard of Clairvaux said,
“There is no doubt that whatever we offer in praise of the Mother, pertains to the Son;
and, when we honor the Son, we do not take away from the glory of the Mother. For if, the
wise son is the glory of the father, as Solomon says, how much more glorious does that
make the mother of Wisdom.?”
(McInerny, 3)
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Pope Benedict XVI’s and Pope Francis’ Filial
Loving Devotion to Blessed Virgin Mary
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Pope Benedict XVI Devotion to
Blessed Virgin Mary
Pope Benedict XVI has taken to ending his encyclicals
with an explicit reference to the Blessed Virgin.
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Pope Benedict XVI Devotion to
Blessed Virgin Mary
 The final paragraph of Spe Salvi (Saved in Hope) is entitle
“Mary, Star of Hope.”
 Benedict begins with a discussion of the Ave Maris Stella and
links Mary’s role to the stars by which sailors would navigate
the sea.
 Life is a journey, and “Who more than Mary could be a star of
hope for us?
 With her “Yes” she opened the door of our world to God
himself; she became the living Ark of the Covenant, in whom
God took flesh, became one of us, and pitched his tent among
us (cf. John 1:14).”
(McInerny xvi)
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Pope Francis: the Love of Mary in Popular Piety
Vatican Radio
5/6/2013)
Dear friends, in the Year of Faith I leave you this icon of
Mary the pilgrim, who follows Jesus the Son, and goes
before all of us in the journey of faith.
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Pope Francis
“Mary, give us the grace to be signs and tools of life!”
The whole existence of Mary is a hymn to life, a hymn to love and
to life: * she generated Jesus the man
* she accompanied the birth of the Church
(on Mount Calvary & in the Cenacle).
The “Salus Populi Romani”
 is the mother that looks after our growth,
 she helps us face and overcome problems,
 she gives us freedom when we make important decisions;
 she is the mother who teaches us to be fruitful of good, joy, hope,
to give life to others, both physical and spiritual life.
(Vatican Radio 5/4/2013 - When Pope Francis visited the patriarchal basilica of Saint Mary Major)
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Divine Comedy – Dante’s Devotion
to Blessed Virgin Mary
Dante declares his fervent prayers to Virgin Mary “day and night” every day (Par 23.8890).
Dante’s devotion favors Mary’s corporeal assumption into heaven (Par 25:127-129) and
her divine maternity (Par 23:136-137), all of which are suitable to a conception of Mary
in direct opposition to human frailty.
Mary in the Comedy is indeed the divine Mediatrix who performs her acts of mercy
vicariously, even to those who have not asked, as Dante who has not asked when he
was lost in the dark wood. Mary:
 summons Lucia to the aid of Dante (the pilgrim); Lucia in turn speak to Beatrice, and Beatrice
descends to hell and speaks to Virgil to guide Dante (Inf 2: 97-99),
 directing from afar his transformation from elementary to superior levels of consciousness.
A co-redemptress but not independent of the workings of her Son, Mary is a treasurer
of divine favor (Purg 10:42).
Mary is the means by which God’s love for humanity was rekindled.
(Shapiro, 107-109)
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Divine Comedy
Symbolism
Spiritual pilgrimage
of Christian soul
from sin (Hell),
purification
(Purgatory),
salvation (Paradise).
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The Sun: Symbol of One God, Triune God
Dante & Christian Theology built up an symbolic imagery from
analogy between beneficent God and the Sun which radiates
light and heat, the two primal vitalizing forces.
Not only was the Sun accepted as symbol of the one God (Par 10,
52-54), but the active process of the Sun was conceived to
represent the actual procession of the triune God:
 The Father is the Sun itself;
 the Son, its ray or splendor of light;
 the Holy Spirit, the heat emanating from both the Sun itself and its rays.
This triplicity of generating power, light, and heat of the trinity
as the divine Sun is transferred by analogy to lesser illuminating
agencies as Suns (Par 3, 1-2).
(Fletcher, 171)
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The Sun: Symbol of Blessed Virgin
as Proceeding Light & Heat from the Trinity
 Immediately under the Trinity, but above the three hierarchy of the
angels, the Virgin is posited as constituting a hierarchy by herself as
a Sun.
 This Sun proceeds light and heat in the same fashion as from the
Trinity.
 St. Albert says, “Mary is compared to light with manifold
propriety…For she is the light which after the Son illuminated every
light.”
 From Mary the light (St. Lucia) comes to Dante in the dark wood for
he has constantly evoked her name (Par 23, 88-89),
 The light of the Sun of Mary has so healed and purified his eyes, halfblinded with sin, that at last they are able to endure the direct ray of
God-the “Sun of the angels” (Par 33, 25-27).
(Fletcher, 172)
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Secondary Trinity-Marian Trinity
Collaboration of the primal Trinity is called the Marian Trinity:
 Virgin Mary is in herself conceived as a self-active light-giving and heat-giving
Sun.
 Lucia is the symbol or the hypostasis of the light which emanated from Mary.
 Beatrice is the symbol or the hypostasis of the heat deriving from Mary and
Lucia.
Extending the analogy into a symbolic identity:
 Virgin Mary is the divine Mother-human but Mother of God
 Lucia is the Word of Mary
 Beatrice is the Love of Mary
Their respective functions in Dante’s salvation are developed from
the dramatic application of this symbolic identity (Par 13, 79-81).
(Fletcher, 171-179)
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Secondary Trinity-Marian Trinity
In the dramatic action:
 The Word of Mary was passed to Beatrice by Lucia .
 Beatrice, first through Virgil, and then directly, manifests the Word to
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Dante.
So Beatrice may also be said to represent the Word.
Christ is properly speaking the Word of the Father.
So Beatrice, manifesting the Word of the Mother of Christ, may be
figuratively identified with Christ.
She is about to expound the Incarnation and Passion of Christ in response
to Dante’s desire unspoken through timid reverence (Par 7, 13-15).
Dante’s capability to see divinity is improved since Mary is the
source of the healing light; Lucia, the healing light itself; and
Beatrice, dispenser of the healing light.
(Fletcher, 171-179)
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The Three Blessed Ladies of the Divine Comedy
Standard interpretation of the Three Ladies:
 Virgin Mary: symbolizes divine Mercy
 Lucia: symbolizes Illuminating Grace
 Beatrice: symbolizes for Revelation
Standard interpretation is false to Dante’s theology and errs for some reasons:
 It attributes to God a direct action which according to Catholic theology He does not exercise.
 It ignores the all-dominant divinity of the Blessed Virgin after God, surpasses that of the angels.
 It impoverishes the roles of St. Lucia, Beatrice and Virgil.
In fact, God knows & wills His providential plan, but deputes the execution
of it to second causes, “intellectual creatures,” in a descending scale.
The Virgin, St. Lucia, Beatrice, Virgil The Virgin, St Lucia, Beatrice, Virgil
constitute such a descending scale of “intellectual creatures,” who Dante says
did personally influence him for good in the degree and kind of their
respective illumination.
(Fletcher, 124)
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Love for Beatrice inspires Dante the Poet:
From the beginning, poetry and life had the most intimate connection for Dante:
 Dante was inspired to become a poet because of his vision on the streets of Florence of a
girl named Beatrice : the girl whom Dante knew very slightly but who nevertheless
aroused in him the most active poetic life.
 He called his life from this point forward a Vita Nuova, a new life.
 He wrote a number of poems to the God of Love in celebration of this ecstatic experience.
 When Beatrice died, Dante discovered that even the most intense earthly experience,
celebrated in the most intense of earthly love poetry, could neither satisfy the thirst of the
human soul nor the demands of a poetic vocation: the two are inseparable.
 For Dante, in order to consummate one's love for a Beatrice it is not adequate to live a
routine, have glimpses of a pretty girl, and then retire to one's study and write love poetry.
 It will require that the soul should, with the utmost vigor, investigate every part of reality;
it should be shaped by and take into itself those overwhelming facts of love with which it
was, in the beginning, only superficially infatuated.
(Richard 12-13)
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Dante’s Love for Beatrice Transcends to Divine Love
 At first Beatrice is a woman: Dante writes a book to her memory, La Vita
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Nuova, begun in 1283 and finished in 1292.
In it, Dante mentions her name 4 times in the prose and 19 times in the
poetry, and Dante refers her to the God of love more than 100 times.
Slowly, Beatrice becomes more Dante’s own state of mind: he has
incarnated her.
She is the figure 9 who dies in the 9th day in the 9th month with the perfect
number (10) had completed 9 times in the century (Vita Nuova 29).
Beatrice is a "nine," he once explains, because the root of nine is three and
that is the number of the Holy Trinity: loving Beatrice was Dante’s way of
finding Christ in his "new life."
This relates us to St. Paul's frequent insistence on our conversion from the
old way of being to the new.
Dante makes this love transcendence: she becomes “the glorious woman of
my mind.”
(Rubin, 155; Hollander , 30)
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Dante’s Love for Beatrice Transcends to Divine Love
 Poetry then is a contemplative act of praise; at its highest
it simultaneously sees and celebrates.
 In Heaven Dante praises Beatrice because of the infinite
beauty which he sees shining in her: in it Dante gives to
God his recognition of, assent to, and gratitude for the
Love which informs and sustains all creation.
 Dante cannot love Beatrice without also loving God, and
every time she bestows her smile on him he is propelled to
the next heavenly sphere and therefore closer to God.
(Richard 12-13)
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Dante’s Love for Beatrice Transcends to Divine Love
 Dante always affirms and never loses
sight that Beatrice is a real flesh-andblood woman.
 But for Dante she is also the image of
the kingdom of God & with
unmistakably Christological language
and imagery.
 In the Vita Nuova: Dante’s love for
Beatrice is filtered through the
requirements of courtly love and only
gradually transcends them.
 In the Divine Comedy: Beatrice’s role
in Dante’s conversion & salvation is
given immortal expression: Divine
Love.
(McInerny, Page 2; Thomas 575; Freccerio, 1218 )
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Dante’s Love for Beatrice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dekRIPAFCCU
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Divine Comedy - Dante’s Spiritual Journey
helped by Blessed Virgin for His Salvation
 The greatest love poem was written for Beatrice-and her role in it is
exceedingly important; but the central role in this spiritual journey is
played by the Blessed Virgin Mary.
 The Divine Comedy is an account of Dante's own journey through the
afterlife (hell, purgatory, and paradise). A journey toward salvation.
 Dante’s story of salvation starts with Mary’s intervention in his moral need,
and ends with her securing for him in foretaste the final reward of
beatitude.
 From Blessed Virgin’s compassion, Dante is guided by the Roman poet
Virgil (1st c. BC), later by Saint Lucia, Beatrice, and Saint Bernard.
 Dante’s journey for salvation thanks to the intercession of the Blessed
Virgin Mary represents our spiritual journey for our salvation.
(Shapiro, 109-111; Richard, 12-13)
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Dante’s Spiritual Journey for His Salvation
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Dante’s Spiritual Distress at Midway of Life
 When the Divine Comedy opens, Dante was at "midway on our life's
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journey" (Inf 1, 1), that is, he was thirty-five years of age.
He found himself alone in the valley of spiritual death, “so bitter, death is
hardly more” (Inf 1, 7), face to face with moral disaster.
He was lost in a forest from which he could not escape because his way was
blocked by three animals: a leopard, a lion, and a wolf, those represent the
bad habits he gradually acquired from the way of life.
He has lost not only moral strength but even moral courage. He makes
desperate attempts to save himself, but always the old habits, ingrained
after ten years of carelessness and indifference, return like savage beasts to
drive him back to the old life.
In despair he is about to give up the struggle, and as the poem opens he is
already rushing to spiritual destruction in the valley in which there is no
light.
(O,Connor, 491; Tucker, 204)
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William Blake: illustration to Dante The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto I, 1-90
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Source of Human Misery:
Evil Passion & Perverted Habits
 According to the “Ethics” of Aristotle and the Commentary of
St. Thomas, two things in the soul are the beginning of vicious
activities, namely evil passion and perverted habits.
 The course of the tears are flowing out from the fissure by
which all the parts of the Old Man of Crete are cleft except his
head. (Infer 14, 103-114),
 Tears flowing from rock to rock down through the infernal
valley even to its depth represents the disorderly movement of
the sensuous appetite, to which man is subjected to since the
corrupt state always desires to the original pure state.
(Flamini, 70)
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Cause of Man’s Misery: Human Passion
That is the disorderly movement of the
lower forces of the soul:
 the movement of the sensuous
concupiscent appetite (Acheron),
 the movement of the sensuous irascible
appetite (Styx),
 the movement of the sensuous appetite
denaturalized by the perverted will so as
to become disorderly after the fashion of
the beast (Phlegethon).
(Flamini, 70)
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Virgin’s Aid to Dante even before he asks for help
 While in distress, Dante met Virgil and called for help.
 Virgil assured Dante that divine aid would be given; he himself who would
guide Dante through hell and purgatory is the messenger and instrument of
Beatrice.
 Beatrice in turn has been incited to aid Dante by Lucia; Lucia by the Virgin
Mary. Mary alone has seen Dante’s plight, and has acted upon her own
initiative.
 Virgil, the author of the Aeneid, said of himself: “In the last day of Julius I
was born/ and lived in Rome under the good Augustus/ in the time of the
false and cheating gods” (Inf 1, 70-72).
 Nevertheless, the truth of God was in some measure known to Virgil,
especially in his prophetic Fourth Eclogue, which was believed to be a
prediction of the birth of Christ.
(O,Connor, 492; Fletcher, 115)
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In Dante’s presentation,
Mary is, like God the Father, immobile
 As befitting the Queen of Heaven and Empress of the Celestial,
and Infernal Kingdoms, Mary summons Lucia to her presence,
and briefly commends Lucia to care for distressed Dante (Inf
2, 97-99).
 Execution of her merciful providence is left to her agents,
Lucia and Beatrice, she herself remains aloof in her heaven,
watchful perhaps, but personally inactive.
 Dante merely voices contemporary belief, as defined by leading
theological writers, when he attributes to the enthroned
Mother of God effective control of human destiny “Whatever
comes to us must have passed through her hands.”
 She is accredited with “omnipotence” coequal with Christ’s.
(Fletcher, 121)
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Mary’s Role in Divine Court
 In the divine court, there are two jurisdictions: one of justice, and
one of mercy.
 Mary presides over the court of mercy; and when she chooses to
intervene, her decision is final.
 Indeed, it is only filial obedience for Christ to yield to his mother’s
will, especially in a case of mercy.
 The natural consequence of this extension of Mary’s saving power
was to make her the final arbiter of human fate.
 To gain her grace assured salvation, as Saint Bernard advices Dante
(Par 32, 85-87).
 When Virgil reprimands Charon’s natural reluctance to ferry the
living Dante, by declaring it willed on high, he means that Mary
wills it (through Beatrice who is sent by Mary) (Purg 1, 91-93).
(Fletcher, 116)
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Power Of Blessed Virgin in the Ante-Purgatory
In the Ante-Purgatory, another episode shows the power
of Mary over Satan:
 The negligent princes in the lovely valley carved out of the
mountainside have gone to rest after having finished
Compline.
 They sung the Salve Regina (Purg 7, 84) to ask the
protection of Mary during the night.
(Fox, 183)
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Purgatorio, Canto 7: The spirits singing “Salve Regina” in the dell
http://www.danshort.com/dc/page1.php?p=87
Nor in that place had nature painted only,
But of the sweetness of a thousand odors
Made there a mingled fragrance and unknown.
”Salve Regina,” on the green and flowers
There seated, singing, spirits I beheld,
Which were not visible outside the valley.
(Canto 7 Purgatory)
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The Hymn Salve Regina-Video “Mary, Beatrice, Dante, and the Christian pilgrim”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QfXSIiseZxA#!
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Purgatory: Time for the Process of Purification
 The angelic porter at the top of the three stairs leading to the purgatory is
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the father – confessor who carries the sword of justice, whose vestments
are the color of ash, and who inscribes the seven Ps (Peccatum: sin) on
Dante’s forehead.
In this action Dante is submitting himself to the process of purification,
which he will undergo on each of the seven terraces of Purgatory.
The first step is the symbol of confession, the second of contrition, the third
of satisfaction; the threshold of adamant may perhaps signify the authority
of the Church.
After successfully passing through each terrace, the appropriate P
representing that sin will be removed.
Once they all have been removed Dante will be prepared to enter the
Earthly Paradise; he will have been returned to his original sinless nature:
"Free, upright, and whole is thy will," says Virgil, "wherefore I do crown and
miter thee over thyself" (Purg. XXVII, 139-142).
(Fox, 185; Tucker, 116; Quinones, 110)
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Purgatory: sharp sense of Time & Change,
suggesting Possibility & Hope
 The purgatory is marked by a sharp sense of time and change. The very fact
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of time and change suggests possibility and hope: the possibility of renewal,
of spiritual regeneration, of communion and continuity.
The Purgatorio represents life on earth; the Christian life is continuous
purgation process, for baptism does not take away the inclination to sin.
Dante himself had sinned in life, and like the rest of mankind, was obliged
to practice penance in order to obtain mastery over his innate evil
tendencies.
So up the steep slopes of purgatory he must drag his tortured body,
expiating for his transgressions on each of its seven terraces.
A man ought so to live that he need not spend time after death in purgatory.
He should when he dies be ready for Heaven.
In fact, any man who co-operates perfectly with all the graces he receives,
as Mary did, will not go to Purgatory.
(Fox, 185; Tucker, 116; Quinones, 110)
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Sense of Time & Change in Purgatory
Ship of Souls by Gustave Doré
The honorable old man cried,
“What’s this, you sluggish souls! Get to the hill!
What lingering, what carelessness down here!
Hurry to scape away the scales that keep
The Lord from being manifest to you!”
As when a flock of pigeons in a field,
Without the usual strut to show their pride,
If something should appear which scares’em, they
All of a sudden leave their feed behind,
For they’re assailed by more important careSo did I see that newly gathered flock
Scatter as men who go they don’t know where,
Leaving the song and fleeing to the rockNot with less haste did we depart from there.”
(Purg. 2, 119-133)
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The Role of Mary in Purgatory is Prominent
 In the ante-Purgatory island, the level of the excommunicated and the level of the late
repentant, Buonconte died repentance with the name of Mary in his lips and become the
thief of heaven thanks to the intervention of Mary (Purg 5, 100-107).
 The angel came in effect as the messenger of Mary. We are made aware of the power and
efficaciousness of the Mother of God. Buonconte’s case is that of most of us, no a rare
exception.
 Augustine laments, Late have I loved thee. Every conversion must seem to come late and
after deeds we would rather not remember. Those deeds leave their mark on the soul.
Buonconte must mount all seven levels of the mountain of Purgatory proper before his
soul is fit to see God.
 The words Ave Maria will be heard increasingly as the poem continues, and we may
remember the second haft of the prayer as it developed, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray
for us sinners, now and ta the hour of our death.” It thus becomes a prayer for a happy
death. And who could not take comfort from Buonconte’s near escape from the realm of
despair.
(McInerny, 37)
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Saint Bonaventure uses Mary’s Virtues
as the Antidotes of Cardinal Sins
 In Lectio 15 of the Speculum Beatae Mariae Virginis, a medieval work attributed
to St. Bonaventure, the author comments on the angelic salutation,
“Blessed art thou amongst women” in the virtues makes one blessed or
happy, and further acclaims,
“The words incurred malediction by the seven capital vices; but Mary obtained
blessing by contrary virtues. Mary is blessed for her humility; which is opposed to
pride; for her charity, which is opposed to envy; for her meekness, which is opposed to
sloth; for her liberality, which is opposed to avarices; for her sobriety, which is opposed
to gluttony; and for her chastity, which is opposed to lust.”
 Mary is thus a compendium of the Christian virtues, the highest created
model.
(McInerny, 58; Fox, 184)
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Mary’s Virtues as the Antidotes of Cardinal Sins
 In order to acquire perfect love, the prerequisite for the Beatific
Vision, a man must cast out on the cornices the seven capital sins
(pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust), supplanting
them by the virtues opposed to the sins.
 In the purification of souls in the Purgatory of the seven capital sins
Mary plays a fundamental part. To urge a man to fidelity to grace, to
teach him how to acquire the virtues, Dante selects seven events
from Mary’s life and shows how in all of them she is a model to be
followed.
 Procedure on the terraces is fairly consistent. At first we are given
positive exempla, of which the first is always taken from the life of
Mary, and the others alternately relative to biblical, pagan, and
mythological lore. These are instances that represent the proper
exercise of the virtue which counters the sin being purged.
(Quinones, 117; Fox, 183)
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Mary’s Virtues as the Antidotes of Cardinal Sins
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Mary’s Virtues as the Antidotes of Cardinal Sins
 It seems that Dante’s ideas for using the life of the Virgin to present
the perfect example of the virtues which serves as the antidote for
the capital sin the soul is striving to overcome was also suggested by
the Speculum, since Dante follows the order of Saint Bonaventure .
 The similarity between Dante’s Purgatory and Bonaventure’s work is
striking, but they have some differences:
i.
Dante always relies on the New Testament in calling attention to the
appropriate virtue in the Blessed Virgin.
ii. Speculum always illustrates the virtue of Mary by finding it in some figure
from the Old Testament who prefigures Mary.
 Though on each cornice, Dante cites several examples of those who
have practiced with heroism the virtue opposed to the capital sin,
Mary always cited first; for she alone practiced the virtue perfectly.
(Fox, 184; McInerny, 57)
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Mary’s Virtues as the Antidotes of Cardinal Sins
Dante bases his presentation of Mary as the model of each of
the virtues opposed to the capital sins on the following
biblical texts,
1.
Luke 1:38 - humility as opposed to pride (Purg. 10. 34-45)
2.
John 2:1-11 - mercy or generosity as opposed to envy (Purg. 13. 28-30)
3.
Luke 2:41-46 - meekness as opposed to anger (Purg. 15. 85-92)
4.
Luke 1:39 - zeal as opposed to sloth (Purg. 18. 97-100)
5.
Luke 2:7 – poverty as opposed to avarice (Purg. 20. 19-24)
6.
John 2:1-11 – temperance as opposed to gluttony (Purg. 22. 142-144)
7.
Luke 1:34 – chastity as opposed to lust (Purg. 25. 127-128)
(McInerny, 58)
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Annunciation
(Lk. 1:26-38)
Since man’s salvation lies in the
Incarnation, and since Mary’s
assent to Gabriel’s message made
the Incarnation possible, Dante
persists in keeping before us
Mary’s Divine Maternity, the
source of all her prerogatives and
of our Redemption.
(Fox, 189)
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Antidote for Pride: Humility of Mary at Annunciation
 On the first terrace of the proud, Dante uses eighteen-feet-high sculptured figures carved
into the mountainside to give examples of humility. The first example of humility is Mary,
the Mother of Jesus, and the episode in her life chosen to convey this is the Annunciation.
The figures carved are so realistic that Dante seems to hear Gabriel say “Hail” and Mary
respond “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.”
 The scene gives us the exquisite occasion to ponder the way in which God humbles
himself in the Incarnation, who “though he was by nature God, did not consider being
equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave, being made like unto men.
He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even to death on a cross” (Phi. 2:6-8).
 The mother of such a son must herself be humble. When announced Mary’s conceive of
God, she simply asks, "How shall this happen, since I do not know man?” (Lk1:34). And
when the angel explain to Mary she will conceive in a miraculous way; her spouse will be
the Holy Spirit, so her child will indeed be the Son of God (Lk1:35), Mary quickly and
humbly respond, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.”
 Thus, Mary becomes the vivid example of humility because she shows us that in humility
the soul is emptied of all desires except to serve the will of God. Before His will, one
becomes as nothing.
(Shapiro, 41. 109; Fox, 186; McInerny, 58)
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Antidote for Pride: Humility of Mary at Annunciation
 The Annunciation is the example purifying the sinners of the allied sin of
pride (Purg 10: 43-45) by Mary humble words. This simple virgin at prayer
is the woman God has chosen from all eternity to save His people. He will
come among us as one of us, human as well as divine, and for that he needs
a mother. Mary was chosen for this singular role, to be the mother of the
Incarnate God, but she must freely accept her role.
 The Incarnation is the ultimate lesson to man’s pride: pondering the
profound humility of Christ and of the young Virgin, who so simply and
completely submitted her intellect and will to the mystery she could not
understand, will teach humility-the foundation of the Christian life.
 Since the love of God is a father’s love, it follows that man as his child must
love God with filial devotion and other men as brothers. Dante describes
the image of the haughty daughter of Saul that contrasts vividly with that
of Mary’s humility in accepting God’s will (Purg 10, 41-44). Her disdainful
gaze is the reverse of Mary’s quick gesture of compliance and meekness
(Purg 15: 88-92) .
(Shapiro, 41. 109; Fox, 186; McInerny, 58)
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Why Dante chooses the Feast of Annunciation
to begin His Journey to Hell?
 The very date Dante chooses for his
descent into Hell is most
significant: March 25, the Feast of
Annunciation.
 March 25 is Good Friday in 1300.
 The Annunciation was the
beginning of the Incarnation of
Christ in Mary.
 The anniversary of Christ’s birth
brought together the two central
mysteries of the Incarnation and the
Redemption.
 The date when Dante himself enters
Hell to make the journey of descent
once was made by Christ for the
salvation of the world.
(Collins, 235)
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The Dark Wood by Gustave Doré
54
Antidote of Envy:
Mary's Charity at Cana Wedding
 On the cornice of the envious where no image was inscribed in the path,
we meet souls who have been blind to the good of their neighbor. In life
these souls saw the good that happened to others as a threat, and they
wanted to remove it rather than rejoice in the happiness of others.
 Dante presents the Madonna of the First Miracle to exemplify fraternal
charity as the antidote for the envious. They are sinning “Vinum non
habent”: “They have no wine.”
i.
The words evoke the scene of Christ’s first miracle, the wedding feast of Cana in John 2.
ii.
The words emerge from Mary compassion for the newly weds who were in dread of
shame from running out of wine for the wedding.
 This first miracle of Jesus is prompted by his mother, as if her intercession
suffices for him to change his mind. His hour has come after all.
(Fox, 186; McInerny, 66 )
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“Vinum non habent,”
They have no wine!
Spirits coming our way, flying above,
Heard them but never saw them, graciously
Welcoming to the wedding fest of love.
The fist voice called aloud as it flew by,
“They have no wine,” and so it made its way,
Continuing the message of its cry.”
(Purg. 13, 25-30)
“And after we’d gone on a little way
We heard them crying, “Mary, pray for us!”
And, “Michael!” “Peter!” “All the blessed, pray!”
(Purg. 13, 49-51)
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Antidote of Envy:
Mary's Charity at Cana Wedding
 With one line Dante brings before us the whole scene: “They have no
wine.” Mary at Cana was alert to the need of the young bride and
groom before they were, and she did something about it.
 What has prompted Mary is the virtue opposed to envy. The
virtuous response is one of sympathy, of sharing the possible pain of
the givers of the feast, and of acting out of that sympathy.
 The good of others is to be rejoiced in; their evil is to be deplored and
alleviated. Mary not only responds to our pleas for help but
sometimes gives her help even before it is asked.
 The perfection of the virtue lies in awareness of the needs of one’s
neighbor, the forethought will save him shame and confusion.
(Fox, 186; McInerny, 66 )
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First Therapy for Anger: Acquiring Christ’s Meekness
 In this cornice, the effects of wrath are gone away by acquiring the meekness of
the Lamb of God when the penitent’s continuously sing the Agnus Dei” “Lamb of
God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us;” it soothes the
vicious breasts of the effects of sins of anger during their earthly lives.
 The mildness of the lamb is contrasted with the rampant passion of the wrathful.
The meekness of the lamb represents the virtue opposed to wrath. Jesus, the
lamb of God, presents himself as the sacrificial victim who willingly accepts the
most humiliating of deaths in order to set us free from all the sins that chain us as
and separate us from God. (Purg 15:85-92).
 Thomas groups clemency and meekness together as parts of temperance in
Thomas’ Summa Theologiae, which governs our natural impulse to anger. He
explains clemency as the leniency of a superior toward an inferior, whereas
meekness can be shown by anyone to anyone. Meekness governs the desire for
revenge, and clemency bears on penalties to be inflicted. Thus, Thomas opposes
meekness to wrathfulness and clemency to cruelty. In both cased they are the
opposite of anger or the irascible (ST IIaIIae, q. 157).
(Fox, 186; McInerny, 68-70)
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Antidote for the Anger-Mary’s Meekness
in the Event of The Finding of Jesus
 To show Mary’s meekness and gentleness, the antidote to anger, Dante chooses the
incident at the temple when, after the three-day search, she finds the Child seated
among the doctors.
 The loss of the child Jesus in the temple, referred to in these lines, is the third of the
seven sorrows of the Blessed Virgin but the fifth joyful mystery of the rosary.
 The sorrows points to those dreadful three days during which Mary and Joseph
sought their missing son, and the joyful mystery to the happy outcome when Jesus
is discovered in the temple, astounding the elders with his interpretations of
scripture.
 Mary’s patient search, her simple question when it is ended so that her Son may
have an opportunity to explain, her humble acceptance of his mystically answer
which goes beyond her capability to comprehend: all these show how practiced
Mary was in the humble submission of her judgment and will.
 Although Mary mastered her annoyance, she nonetheless felt it. “Your father and I
have sought you sorrowing.” The sorrow that Mary naturally feels at the loss of her
Son is subsumed by the virtue of meekness.
(Fox, 186; McInerny, 68-70)
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“And his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou dealt with us?
behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.” (Luke II. 48)
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Antidote for Slothful: Mary’s Visitation to Elizabeth
 To the slothful, the Madonna of the Visitation presents an excellent
example. Mary sets the clear pattern for virtuous action: she “rose up in
haste and went into the hill country” (Lk. 1:39). The promptness of Mary’s
act makes it a model of zeal the virtue opposed to the vice of sloth (Purg.
18:97-100).
 Why did Mary go? Cornelius gives four reasons, based on Mary’s canticle,
the Magnificat (Lk 1: 46-56):
i.
First, in order that the Word conceived within her might be announced to others and
his grace communicated to them.
ii.
Second, the visit had the intention (by Mary’s divine Son in her womb) of absolving
Elizabeth’s child, John the Baptist, of original sin.
iii. Third, the visit was to help her cousin Elizabeth, the old woman in her late pregnancy.
iv.
Fourth, that She-the Mother of God and the Queen of the world- might give to all
future ages an excellent example of humility and charity to us to promptly serve the
poor and the needy among us with loving charity.
(Fox, 187; McInerny, 73)
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Antidote for Slothful:
Mary’s Love at Visitation
“And Mary arose in those days and went into
the hill-country with haste” (Luke I. 39).
Straightway past us on the ring they wept,
For that great throng of spirits ever raced,
And the front-runners shouted as they wept,
“Mary ran to the hill country in haste!”
“Come on, come on, don’t let time slip away
For lukewarm love!” cried those who ran nearby.
(Purg. 18, 97-100&103-104)
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St. Thomas Aquinas’ Thought about the Sloth
 St. Thomas describes sloth as opposed to the joy of charity. The slothful are frigid,
frozen in inactivity because for them all is tedium. It is an intensified sadness that
impedes their action. For St. Thomas, this kind of sadness is always an evil; sometimes
just as such, sometimes because of its effect:
i.
Sadness is as such evil: sadness bears on something apparently evil but truly good;
since spiritual good is the true good, sadness with respect to spiritual good is per
se evil.
ii.
Sadness is evil in its effects: the sadness effects of the evil agitates a man such that
he totally withdraws from good works. (ST IIaIIae, q35, a1).
 The special virtue of charity bears on the divine good, and charity brings with it a joy in
the divine good. Thus, although any sin entails sadness with respect to a spiritual good,
sadness as to the acts consequent upon charity gives rise to the vice of sloth (ST IIaIIae,
q35, a2).
 Sloth is a capital sin, because just as the delights of all the virtues are ordered to that of
charity, similarly, sadness about the latter gives rise to other and lesser sadness’s. Thus,
one who feels sadness with respect to spiritual goods is led to the pursuit of carnal
pleasure in the usual sense stems from fleeing the greatest spiritual good, the joy or
charity. (a4ad2).
(McInerny, 73)
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Nativity
The Poverty of Madonna in Nativity
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Antidote for Avarice: Mary’s Poverty at Nativity
 Dante has in mind Luke’s account of Christ’s birth (Lk2:1-7). Penitents invoke




this scriptural passage to contrast their own sins with the poverty of the
Blessed Virgin. They cry out to Sweet Mary, whose poverty was manifest at the
nativity when she had nowhere to lay her newborn son but in a manger (Purg
20: 16-24).
Mary’s poverty at Bethlehem is a perfect example of the virtue of detachment
and poverty of spirit. In obedience she had left Nazareth and all that she had in
readiness for the birth of her Child.
The kings who came to Bethlehem were wealthy among men of the East. But
they, too, had poverty of spirit: they were not inordinately attached to their
possessions. They gave liberally of themselves and their wealth.
Many have seen in this passage the powerful influence on Dante of St Francis of
Assisi-Dante himself was a member of the Franciscan Third Order, a lay order.
The Franciscan order had lifted poverty to new heights.
The voluntary turning away from possessions and from the goods of this world
was the soul’s opening to the eternal.
(Fox, 187; McInerny 77)
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The Poverty of
Bethlehem’s Crib
& Calvary’s Cross
The Madonna of the Nativity
suggested on this cornice by the
singing of the Gloria in excelsis Deo
marks Mary’s physical maternity of
the Redeemer.
An earthquake like that of Good
Friday suggests her spiritual
maternity of all men begun on
Calvary . The Madonna of Calvary is
known as the mater Dolorosa, the
Mother of Sorrows .
(Fox, 187)
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Two Madonna in Nativity of Jesus Christ
 Here on this fifth cornice there is implicit, hidden, another
Madonna: Mary of Sorrow.
 An earthquake “such as is wont to grip one who is going to his
death” (Purg. 20, 128-130) sends a child through Dante there is
a wealth of symbolism in this earthquake.
 Over the Crib there was the shadow of the Cross. Even as
Mary pressed her infant to her breast she knew for what a
bitter end she nourished him.
 The poverty of Bethlehem’s Crib and Calvary’s Cross are the
same. The participation of Mary in both is what gives her, by a
divine paradox, her riches.
(Fox, 187).
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Antidote for Gluttony: Mary-Madonna of Temperance
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68
Antidote for Gluttony: MaryThe Madonna of Temperance
 The sixth cornice is the place that the gluttony is being expiated, Gluttony is the immoderate desire
for food, not just the consumption of it. Gluttony is the desire for an immoderate amount, followed
for the most part by eating an immoderate amount, but the latter is consequent on the former.
Dante again uses Mary at the wedding feast at Cana, a favorite theme in the middle Ages.
 Temperance does not lie in abstinence but in the rational control of appetite. Because of the
pleasure associated with eating and drinking, whose objects are necessary if we are to live, the
rational moderation of them can be difficult. Gluttony can be a capital sin insofar as the immoderate
desire for food becomes one’s defining goal, one’s ultimate end. Those doing penance for gluttony
are portrayed as an anorexic band, tormented by hunger and thirst and with barely enough flesh on
their bones.
 Here she is the Madonna of Temperance, one who delighted in good company and who did not
want the party to be spoiled. Mary’s concern is the success of the wedding celebration; it was not a
desire for more to drink that prompted her.
 Therefore she asked for what was needed to make the feast “honorable and complete.” Mary’s
request is for more wine. The response of her divine Son is to provide more wine – one hundred
fifty-three gallon more. Now he finds significance in her prompting Her Son to perform his first
public miracle dues the good of others (Purg 22:142-144).
(Fox, 188; McInerny, 80)
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The Seven Cornice:
the Lustful
“How lustrous was thy
semblance in those sparkles”
(Canto XX., line 15)
By Gustave Dore 1833-1883
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70
Antidote for Lust:
Mary-the Immaculate Virgin & Mother
 We arrive at the seventh and last cornice, devoted to atoning for sins of lust.
Dante goes back to the Annunciation. This time, however, instead of stressing
humility he stresses cleanness of heart. Mary, the Immaculate Virgin and
Mother, is the supreme example of chastity.
 Dante sees spirit in the flames; they are singing the hymn, and when they
finish they cry aloud, “Virum non cognosco,” I know not man. This was
Mary’s reply to the angel when he told her she was to become a mother.
 When Mary made the statement “I know not man” quoted here by Dante
(Purg 25:128), she expressed, according to theologians, not only a fact but an
intention solemnized by a vow with which her husband Joseph was in
complete accord.
 Dante praises this case as a unique supernatural incident; but he takes care to
honor also the natural inclination to chastity typified by Diana, and “wives
and husbands who were chaste as the virtue and marriage vow require” (Purg
25: 133-135)
(Fox, 188; McInerny, 83)
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Antidote for Lust:
Mary-the Immaculate Virgin & Mother
 Taken as a vow of chastity, how can
what the angel tells Mary happen
without abandoning that vow? The
answer is that she will conceive in a
wholly miraculous way, be at once
both virgin and mother.
 Dante turns now to the lustful
sinners. They are of two groups, those
who sinners unnaturally and those
who sinned naturally; a division, that
is between homosexuality, on the one
hand, and fornication and adultery,
on the other.
 The spirits then begin the hymn
again, in lower voices. Once more, the
Annunciation as recounted in Luke is
invoked to show Mary as the prime
example of purity.
(Fox, 188; McInerny, 83)
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St. Thomas Aquinas’ Teaching about the Vice of Lust
 Lust, for Thomas, is the vice opposed to temperance that moderates the pleasures of
touch and sex, just as gluttony is opposed to the moderation of concupiscence with
respect to food and drink. Lust is primarily, then a want of ordering, a disorder.
 This disorder may be either in the interior passion or in exterior acts that are of
themselves disordered, and not disordered simply because they come from disordered
passions. One might have a disordered passion and engage in an act that is of itself
legitimate, such as sleeping with one’s spouse.
 But even the conjugal act can be vitiated by lust. A man can commit sin of rape his wife
and verse versa when one force one’s spouse against his/her wishes.
 Some acts are objectively wrong and are not made wrong merely because of the
disordered passion with which they are undertaken, as happen in every use of the
genital members outside the marriage act. That every such act is disordered in itself is
clear from the fact that every human act is disordered when it is not proportioned to its
proper end.
 When our Blessed Virgin Mary appeared at Fatima, her message emphasized the need
for purity and chastity. She was addressing our times. She would lead us out of the dark
wood of our sins, much as she led Dante.
(McInerny, 85)
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Annunciation
by Paolo de Matteis,
1712
The white lily in the
angel's hand is
symbolic of Mary's
purity.
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Dante granted vision of Mary
First Vision of Mary
In the Purgatorio, Dante has walked in
the way of the Virgin by faith; In the last
division of the Paradiso, faith is rewarded
by vision. Dante sees Mary three times in
the three relationships in which she is
honored.
In the Stella Heaven Dante sees Mary in
relation to the Incarnate Word, the Godman, the Redeemer, and the Conqueror
over sin and death. (Par 23: 19-21)
Mary here is the most glorious fruit of
Christ’s Passion, one of the Saints; for
Mary, like the rest of the human race, was
saved by the Savior of the world
(Fox, 191)
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The Cross by Gustave Doré
75
Second Vision of Mary
In the second vision Dante sees Mary in
her relation to the angels and the other
saints, the Regina Coeli, the Queen of
Heaven.
Dante has a vision of Mary, “the fair
garden that flowers under the rays of
Christ” (Par 23.71-72). She is, Dante says,
“the fair sapphire by which the sky is so
brightly sapphire” (Par 23.101-02).
(Fox, 191-192)
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Queen of the Heavens by Gustave Doré
76
Gabriel descends circling and crows the
star, singing of the Incarnation.
Mary & the crowned lights follow the
Sun risen to the Empyrean.
As Mary moves up, all the other lights
sound her name, and as the image of
mother and child, stretching out their
arms to her as infants who have nursed
reach out to their mothers.
Mary passes into the Primum Mobile, the
ninth heaven, like a royal mantle folds in
the eight circling spheres below it (Par 23,
112).
The saints still reach up to May with
remarkable sweetness sing Regina Coeliexact time of Dante’s journey at the Easter
Vesper antiphon, Sancta Maria.
(Fox, 193)
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The Primum Mobile by Gustave Doré
77
Third Vision of Mary
In the last vision, Dante sees Mary in
relation to the Godhead, to each person
of the Blessed Trinity.
Through the vision of the face of Mary,
Dante is prepared for the vision of the
mystery of the divine and human in
Christ.
Dante depicts the Trinity as three
circles of three colors, one reflected by
the other, the third breathed forth by
both.
At last, Dante tells us, his “desire and
will, like a wheel that spins with even
motion, were revolved by the Love that
moves the sun and the other stars”
(Par 33. 143-145).
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(Fox, 193)
The Empyrean by Gustave Doré
78
Conclusion
 The story of the Commedia is essentially the story of the Scripture, that is, the story of Dante’s
spiritual journey for salvation (represents all human’s journey) that is initiated and succeeded
thanks to blessed Virgin Mary’s merciful intervention. The characters and episodes put before
us may not be biblical, but the allegorical meaning of the poem is.
 In the Divine Comedy, just such a death and resurrection are accomplished by the pilgrim's
journey through hell and purgatory, "in the middle of our life's journey"; the poem itself is a
testament to other men of the experience of conversion.
 Allegorical sense that chiefly interests Dante is the moral: the Divine Comedy falls to moral
philosophy; it has a happy ending: from a horrible and fetid beginning, which is Hell, it moves in
the end to the desirable and gracious Paradise.
 That follows from Dante’s announced end or purpose of the work: “The point of the work in
whole and in part is to move those living in this life from a state of misery and lead them to a
state of happiness” (Ep. 13, 10).
 Through Dante’s spiritual journey through Hell, Purgatory to Paradise, it is obvious that Mary
plays unique role in our salvation. She bore the Incarnate God by whose sacrifice we are saved.
Without the mother there would be no son, and without the son, no salvation. No other
creature plays so essential a role in the great drama of salvation as Mary. furthermore, Mary
unceasingly intercede for us even before we pray to her to lead us out of our astray back to God
– our source of eternal happiness.
(McInerny, 18; Freccero, 1216)
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Beatrice may be the “open
sesame” with Cato, Lucy may
transport Dante in a dream to
Peter’s Gate, but by Mary’s
intercession, souls are saved.
The intercession of the saints
is efficacious, but, as
elsewhere in the poem, these
lesser intercessors are
instruments of the Mother of
Mercy.
(McInerny, 38)
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References
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


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




251-254
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Hollander , Robert. 1999. "Dante : A Party of One." First Things no. 92: 30-35.
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and Ward, 1965.
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References
 Lumen Gentium, Vatican Council II, 58.
 McInerny, Ralph. Dante and the Blessed Virgin. Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010.
 O'Connor, Michael Patrick. 1996. "The Universality of Salvation : Christianity, Judaism, and Other
Religions in Dante, Nostra aetate, and the New Catechism." Journal Of Ecumenical Studies 33, no. 4:
487-511.
 Pope Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus (1950): DS 3903
 Quinones, Ricardo J.. Dante Alighieri, Updated Edition. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1997. 140-148
 Ralphs, Sheila. Dante’s Journey to the Center-Some Patterns in His Allegory. Manchester: The University of
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Manchester Press, 1972. 34-44.
Rubin, Harriet. Dante in Love-the World’s Greatest Poem and How It Made History. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 2004. 140-148
Shapiro, Marianne. Woman Earthly and Divine in the Comedy of Dante. Lexington: The University Press of
Kentucky, 1975.
Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologiae: Second and Revised Edition, 1920. Translated by Fathers of the
English Dominican Province. Online Edition © 2008 by Kevin Knight. At New Advent,
www.newadvent.org.
Thomas, Owen C. 1997. "Beatrice Or Iseult? The Debate About Romantic Love." Anglican Theological
Review 79, no. 4: 571-580.
Tucker, Dunstan. 1941. "Baptism in Dante's Purgatorio." Orate Fratres 15, no. 3: 112-122.
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Resources for Images and Video Clips
in Presentation
 Slide 1: http://www.onelittleangel.com/common/images/auteur/Dante_Alighieri_961.jpg
 Slide 3: Mosaic, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pietro Cavallini, 1296-1300,Rome, S M in
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Trastevere. http://www.flickr.com/photos/27305838@N04/7379223942/
Slide 5: The Virgins Painted In The 14th Century & Ave Maria by Shubert.
http://vimeo.com/39401724.
Slide 7: Immaculate Conception Novena. http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/immaculateconception3d.htm.
Slide 9: Video Clip: The Angelic Salutation According to St. Thomas by Fadi Auro, Sebastian
Mahfood & Matthew Warner. http://www.coriesu.org/synoptics_spring2009/avemaria24601.html .
Slide 10: File:Carracci-Assumption of the Virgin Mary.jpg. Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Annibale
Carracci (1560–1609). Painting. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CarracciAssumption_of_the_Virgin_Mary.jpg.
Slide 13: Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI Pray Together.
http://www.priestsforlife.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Pope-Francis-and-Pope-EmeritusBenedict-XVI-Pray-Together.jpg.
Slide 14: http://www.catholicdadsonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Pope-Benedict-XVI010.jpg.
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Resources for Images and Video Clips
in Presentation
 Slide 16: http://www.catholicanada.com/2013/04/papal-prayer-intentions-april-2013-the-great-50
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days-of-easter/.
Slide 19: http://www.darkstar1.co.uk/Taschenp41.jpg.
Slide 28: Dante and Beatrice. Narcisse Lecomte (French, 1794–1882). Date: 19th century. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://dante-alighieri.tumblr.com/image/41025400956
Slide 29: Dante's Love For Beatrice - The Divine Comedy - Part 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dekRIPAFCCU.
Slide 31:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Michelino_DanteAndHisPoem.jpg/30
0px-Michelino_DanteAndHisPoem.jpg.
Slide 33: William Blake: illustration to Dante The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto I, 1-90.
http://faculty.sgc.edu/rkelley/800px-Blake_Dante_Inferno_I.jpg.
Slide 40: Purgatorio, Canto 7: The spirits singing “Salve Regina” in the dell
http://www.danshort.com/dc/page1.php?p=87.
Slide 41: Video clip: Mary, Beatrice, Dante, and the Christian pilgrim.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfXSIiseZxA.
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Resources for Images and Video Clips
in Presentation
 Slide 44: Ship of Souls by Gustave Doré.
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http://www.worldofdante.org/media/images/purg/051129c_004.jpg.
Slide 51: http://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/annunciation-mid.jpg
Slide 54: Dante’s Inferno – Dark Wood Gallery by by Gustave Doré.
http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/gallery01.html.
Slide 56: http://worryisuseless.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/wedding_cana.jpg
Slide 60: http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/the-finding-of-the-savior-in-thetemple-william-holman-hunt.jpg
Slide 62: The Visitation of Elizabeth by Mary. Oil and Tempera Painting, The Mische Technique
2005. http://www.brigidmarlin.com/Images/JoyfulMysteries/Visitation.jpg
Slide 64: http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/1353185536_Birth-of-Jesus-Christ.jpg
Slide 66: The Lorenzo Lotto Nativity Scene. (1523).
http://deprofundisclamaviadtedomine.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/lorenzo-lotto-nativity-withcrucifix.jpg?w=232&h=300
Slide 68: http://marshmk.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/wedding-at-cana-3.jpg
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Resources for Images and Video Clips
in Presentation
 Slide 70: By Gustave Dore 1833-1883 https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos
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ash4/s320x320/333_25193212229_2043_n.jpg
Slide 72: The Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Virgin Cycle icon of the Cathedral of
Christ the Saviour. 194 x 128 cm, oil on wood, 2002 .
http://www.vnesterenko.com/I_spiritus/_index.htm
Slide 74: by Paolo de Matteis, 1712.
http://michelinewalker.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/paolo_de_matteis_-_the_annunciation.jpg
Slide 75: The Cross by Gustave Doré. http://www.museevirtuel-virtualmuseum.ca/sgccms/expositions-exhibitions/annodomini/THEME_16/IMAGES/J980330.jpg
Slide 76: Queen of the Heavens by Gustave Doré. http://www.markmallett.com/blog/wpimages/Queen%20of%20Heaven.jpg
Slide 77: The Primum Mobile by Gustave Doré.
http://www.worldofdante.org/media/images/purg/full/PQ4315_13_C3_1868pg230c.jpg
Slide 78: The Empyrean by Gustave Doré.
http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/paradiso/gallery/1007rose.jpg
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