Stained Glass Windows: Church and Synagogue
(Ecclesia and Synagoga) stained glass windows in the Elisabeth Church
in Marburg, Germany.
Two unique images are found in Christian
art of the Middle Ages. One is a beautiful woman called "Ecclesia"
who holds a staff with a cross at the top and a chalice (cup) that symbolizes
the Eucharist service in Catholicism. In some drawings, she is shown
collecting Christ’s blood from the crucifixion into the cup. By
contrast, "Synagoga" is a woman who is blind folded with a broken staff,
or an upside
down staff, and in the other hand carries an inverted copy of the Ten
Commandments or the Torah. In a few versions, Synagoga holds a knife
and is blinding herself. The two images appear together in Gothic cathedrals
(for example, Strausburg or Bamberg) on either side of the entry portals.
The two together provide a visualization of the idea of the triumph
of Christianity over the Jewish faith. Synagoga has fallen because of
her
rejection of Christ while Ecclesia triumphs. The image was used until
the end of the 15th century.
A question that emerges from such images is how they affected everyday
attitudes toward the Jews. Were they instrumental in a propagandistic
way of maintaining hatred on a religious basis toward the Jews of that
period?
—Dr. Stephen Feinstein, Director
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
University of Minnesota
See also Negative
images of Judaism in Christian Art: Ecclesia and Synagoga from Jewish-Christian Relations.
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