Poetry
Miracles of Our Lady
Milagros de Nuestra Señora
Gonzalo de Berceo · 1252
Synopsis
Twenty-five verse narratives of miracles of the Virgin, preceded by an allegorical introduction in which the poet himself appears in an ideal landscape, an image of Mary's virtues. The stories follow: the chasuble given to Saint Ildefonsus, the dissolute sacristan, the little Jewish boy, the pregnant abbess, the cleric Theophilus. Sometimes the Virgin rewards or punishes, sometimes she forgives and saves her devotees, even sinners, sometimes she draws them out of a crisis of conscience. Each narrative closes with a moral that recalls the benefit of devotion.
Context
The poet drew twenty-four of his stories from Latin collections of miracles that circulated in Europe, and the last from a local tradition. He puts them in cuaderna vía, a learned stanza of four alexandrines on a single rhyme, but borrows from the minstrels direct speech, humour and comparisons drawn from the countryside. The text was made to be recited before an audience, and it also served to make known the monastery of San Millán, close to the Way of St James. Its exact dating remains debated, but it is placed in the middle of the thirteenth century.
Who it is for
A collection of short, independent narratives, in medieval Castilian; it is best read in an annotated or bilingual edition.
Prizes and reception
The best-known work of its author, and the most studied in Castilian clerical poetry; translated into English in 1997.