Monthly Archives: March 2013

Medieval Easter

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Ruth

On Saturday night before Easter, with all fires extinguished at the church, the priest started a new fire and the villagers came to light lamps and candles to take the holy flame home. Medieval Easter began very early at the … Continue reading →

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Re-enacting the death of Jesus: medieval Good Friday

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Ruth

Medieval churches tried to dramatize the death of Jesus; their idea of re-enactment was liturgical, symbolic, and heavily loaded with music. In Biblical dramas staged publicly during the summer, an actor might play the role of Jesus, tied and faux-nailed … Continue reading →

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Maundy Thursday

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Ruth

Maundy Thursday, in the Middle Ages, was a day for charitable acts. Some kings made a practice of washing the feet of beggars. Louix IX of France, later St. Louis, washed the feet of lepers. In more ordinary aristocratic and … Continue reading →

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Easter season

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Ruth

By the week leading up to Easter, medieval people were certainly tired of the Lenten fast. Milk could be turned into cheese, but nobody was allowed to eat it; they only had butter if their region had a papal indulgence. … Continue reading →

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Royal burials

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Ruth

Some of the normal rules, such as masses said and bells rung, applied. But there are some pretty bizarre exceptions among royal medieval burial stories. Chiefly, any European tradition of embalming comes straight from them. Lacking Lenin-type methods, they just … Continue reading →

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Memorial images

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Ruth

While most people vanished into the silence of the countryside, historians are grateful that some took pains to be remembered. Remembrance is easiest when burials took place indoors. Priests were buried inside the church, in its crypt. Their bones helped … Continue reading →

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Typical funerals in medieval England

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Ruth

Medieval funerals could be simple paupers’ burials, similar to the monastic or leper colony burial, or they could be elaborate on a scale beyond modern imagination. It all depended on who had died and what message the family wanted to … Continue reading →

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A monastic funeral

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Ruth

Records from the past are limited, so the few records we have take on disproportionate importance. The monastic order for Christian burial was carefully written down; we must assume that burial in general followed this pattern, though we know a … Continue reading →

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Coffins, shrouds and bones

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Ruth

Early medieval Europe was thickly forested, but by the late Middle Ages, even Sherwood Forest and the Black Forest had thinned and dwindled. As iron became the primary building material, more and more wood was devoted to charcoal production for … Continue reading →

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Early medieval burials

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Ruth

The Medieval period is generally counted from around the end of the Western Roman Empire, sort of 500-600ish, to the end of the Eastern Roman Empire with the fall of Constantinople. One of the major dividing lines within this period … Continue reading →

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