Rosary and Pearl Necklace Yan, Jiayu; Chen, Wei; Chen, Yajun
Gastroenterology (New York, N.Y. 1943),
December 2022, 2022-12-00, 20221201, Volume:
163, Issue:
6
Journal Article
Studies on the Rosary in the late Ming and early Qing usually focus on works written by Jesuits and mostly stem from an artistic aspect. This article, however, shifts the focus to The True Peace of ...Humankind, a manuscript written by the Dominican missionary Arcadio del Rosario in the seventeenth century, the first comprehensive book on the Rosary in Chinese. It first summarizes the early-stage propagation of the Rosary in China by the Jesuits and then examines the structure and content of The True Peace of Humankind. It is noteworthy that the manuscript repeatedly uses an analogy with flowers to highlight Mary’s intercession. Dating back to the Catholic tradition in Europe, the propagation of the Rosary through analogy with flowers resembles the propagation of reciting Buddhist prayers in Chinese society. This article applies contextual studies to explore two main questions: how is del Rosario’s manuscript different from the previous texts on the Rosary written by the Jesuits? What is the significance of the manuscript in the context of the Chinese Rites Controversy?
Approaching the interplay of medieval prayer and artificial light, my article shows how artificial light had multiple levels of meaning and functions pertaining to the situation, the subject, and the ...intention of praying. It served practical purposes such as illuminating and highlighting spaces of prayer, thus enabling the devotees to read. What is more, artificial lighting contributed to orchestrating places of prayer, especially in church buildings, as spaces removed from everyday life, thereby emphasizing the sacredness of liturgical prayers and acts. In this context light also visualized the divine counterpart of prayer and the supernatural par excellence. Furthermore, it enveloped the praying person, who through his baptism regarded himself as a child of light, as it were. The goal of prayer, God’s love and care, seemed to be fulfilled in the here and now and materialized in the light. Artificial lighting was therefore immanent and transcendent at the same time. It communicated the divine and how this reality could reveal itself to human beings in the light – like a medium of salvation.
In Part I of this article, we discussed an English caplock pistol that reportedly belonged to the Easter Island (Rapa Nui) King Nga‘ara (? – ca. 1859) and the birdmen motif found on the pistol grip, ...comparing the pistol’s birdmen figures to similar figures found carved on boulders and rock surfaces on Easter Island. In Part II we turn to a consideration of another seminal individual in the history of the island, María Angata Veri Tahi – the Rapanui ‘Prophetess’ and chief organizer of the 1914 rebellion against the Compañía Explotadora de la Isla de Pascua. Thanks to the generosity of the current owner, we have been allowed to study a nineteenth-century artefact that was once in the possession of Angata – an 1849 English Holy Bible. This Bible is of note as (1) in contrast to Angata’s conversion to Roman Catholic beliefs, it is a Protestant Bible, and (2) it features a short inscription in vernacular Rapanui on the inside of its back cover which may have been penned by Angata herself or by another Rapanui under her direction. The present analysis of the Bible (and other associated objects) suggests a number of hypotheses regarding the historical context in which Angata lived and operated, while shedding light on various aspects of the prophetess’s life and activities. Whether raising the spirits of her Rapanui followers against foreign institutions and shifting powers or fuelling a new brand of syncretic religion on the island, Angata’s historical importance merits the attention of modern scholarship.
In Part I of this article, we discussed an English caplock pistol that reportedly belonged to the Easter Island (Rapa Nui) King Nga'ara (? - ca. 1859) and the birdmen motif found on the pistol grip, ...comparing the pistol's birdmen figures to similar figures found carved on boulders and rock surfaces on Easter Island. In Part II we turn to a consideration of another seminal individual in the history of the island, María Angata Veri Tahi - the Rapanui 'Prophetess' and chief organizer of the 1914 rebellion against the Compañía Explotadora de la Isla de Pascua. Thanks to the generosity of the current owner, we have been allowed to study a nineteenth-century artefact that was once in the possession of Angata - an 1849 English Holy Bible. This Bible is of note as (1) in contrast to Angata's conversion to Roman Catholic beliefs, it is a Protestant Bible, and (2) it features a short inscription in vernacular Rapanui on the inside of its back cover which may have been penned by Angata herself or by another Rapanui under her direction. The present analysis of the Bible (and other associated objects) suggests a number of hypotheses regarding the historical context in which Angata lived and operated, while shedding light on various aspects of the prophetess's life and activities. Whether raising the spirits of her Rapanui followers against foreign institutions and shifting powers or fuelling a new brand of syncretic religion on the island, Angata's historical importance merits the attention of modern scholarship.
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