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So Thomas arrives late:
Then the apostles with great honour laid the body in the tomb,
weeping and singing through exceeding love and sweetness. And suddenly
there shone round them a light from heaven, and they fell to the ground,
and the holy body was taken up by angels into heaven.
Then the most blessed Thomas was suddenly brought to
the Mount of Olivet, and saw the most blessed body going up to heaven, and
began to cry out and say: O holy mother, blessed mother, spotless mother,
if I have now found grace because I see thee, make thy servant joyful
through thy compassion, because thou art going to heaven. Then the girdle
with which the apostles had encircled the most holy body was thrown down
from heaven to the blessed Thomas. And taking it, and kissing it, and
giving thanks to God, he came again into the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
He found all the apostles and another great crowd
there beating their breasts on account of the brightness which they had
seen. And seeing and kissing each other, the blessed Peter said to him:
Truly thou hast always been obdurate and unbelieving, because for thine
unbelief it was not pleasing to God that thou shouldst be along with us at
the burial of the mother of the Saviour. And he, beating his breast, said:
I know and firmly believe that I have always been a bad and an unbelieving
man; therefore I ask pardon of all of you for my obduracy and unbelief.
And they. all prayed for him.
Then the blessed Thomas said: Where have you laid her
body? And they pointed out the sepulchre with their finger. And he said:
The body which is called most holy is not there. Then the blessed Peter
said to him: Already on another occasion thou wouldst not believe the
resurrection of our Master and Lord at our word, unless thou went to touch
Him with thy fingers, and see Him; how wilt thou believe us that the holy
body is here? Still he persists saying: It is not here. Then, as it were
in a rage, they went to the sepulchre, which was a new one hollowed out in
the rock, and took up the stone; but they did not find the body, not
knowing what to say, because they had been convicted by the words of
Thomas. Then the blessed Thomas told them how he was singing mass in
India--he still had on his sacerdotal robes. He, not knowing the word of
God, had been brought to the Mount of Olivet, and saw the most holy body
of the blessed Mary going up into heaven, and prayed her to give him a
blessing. She heard his prayer, and threw him her girdle which she had
about her. And the apostles seeing the belt which they had put about her,
glorifying God, all asked pardon of the blessed Thomas, on account of the
benediction which the blessed Mary had given him, and because he had seen
the most holy body going up into heaven. And the blessed Thomas gave them
his benediction, and said: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity!
Attrib. Joseph of Arimathea, The Passing of the
Blessed Virgin Mary
This story rather neatly counterpoints the one in John's
Gospel. There, he didn't believe the Apostles; here they don't
believe him. The light was too bright for them to see the Assumption, but
Thomas was able to, and when the tomb was discovered to be empty they had
to rather shamefacedly apologise to him.
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Sorry I'm late!
Sebastiano Mainardi:Assumption of the
Virgin with the Gift of the Girdle
Santa Croce, Florence
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Ridolfo Ghirlandaio: The Virgin of the
Sacred Girdle with SS. Thomas, Francis, John the Baptist, Ursula and
Elizabeth of Hungary.
San Marco, Florence
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Bernardo Gozzoli: Madonna della Cintola
Pinacoteca, Vatican
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Where is it now?
In some ways, the Jews of these narratives had their way; relics of the
Virgin are few and far between. There are claims in various places for
items of clothing belonging to the Virgin, and - that girdle. So, where is
it? Well, that's not easy to answer. Three churches claim to have it, and
another (in India, where St Thomas was said to preach) has a tiny scrap of
it. Greeks will tell you it is in the Greek Orthodox Monastery of
Vateopedi on Mt. Athos. Others claim it for the Church of the Girdle
of Our Lady, in Homs, Syria, (not a happy place for it to be at the time
of writing) while Italians say, certainly not, it's in the Duomo at Prato.
Actually, the Vateopedi Monastery isn't that happy a place either; in 2011
the Abbott was jailed for fraud, though I'm not suggesting any connection
with the girdle!
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Reliquary of the Girdle, Monastery of
Vateopedi
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The Girdle in Homs - still there?
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It's this one! - August 15th in
Prato
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