Wisdom’s Feast
“Wisdom has built a house, hewn of seven pillars.”
This is a 16th C. icon from the Cathedral of Athanasius and Cyril of the Alexandrian Kirillov Monastery near Novgorod, now in the Russian Museum. Needless to say, there’s a lot going on in this image, but it becomes much easier to read when you recognize that the key theme is taken directly from Proverbs 9, and seeks to depict the activities of wisdom as she is described in that context. This is juxtaposed with the depiction up top of the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom in Constantinople — the great mother church of the Eastern Tradition — serving as the copula beneath which the Seven Ecumenical Councils are simultaneously depicted.
Wisdom is larger figure on the left hand-side, bedecked with the eight-sided halo (associated with eternity, and the eighth day — the day of resurrection) indicative of the Divine Nature in its ultimate inscrutability. The inscription beside her head reads
Божия Сила Божия Премудрость
Bozhiya Sila Boshiya Premudrost’
Power of God — Wisdom of God
She sits upon a seven-pillared throne (per Prov 9:1), with the four winged Thrones (a traditional class of angel) beneath her in the red aureole surrounding the darkness in which she sits. (Also within the layer of red — although they are barely visible — are faint figural depictions of the four Evangelists). In the darker, outer circle , we see depicted six pairs of angelic beings, as well the Eucharistic Table and a vessel of wine.
Beneath Wisdom Enthroned the depiction of the text continues: “She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town, ‘Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” to him who lacks sense she says, ‘Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.’” Thus so, from left to right along the bottom of the image, we see (1) the slaughtering of the beasts, (2) the mixing of the wine, and (3) the maiden’s distributing from Wisdom’s feast to the rabble of simple people.
In the tower above Wisdom’s fair entourage of maidens is the figure of Solomon, who, with the scroll of his sayings open, dispatches them to their task. The figure of Mary seated with Jesus on her lap adorns the upper right corner of the scene, a deliberate echo of the primary figure of Wisdom already introduced — appropriate, since what we meet in Christ is Wisdom Incarnate. Beneath her, standing among the simple, is a figure of the great 8th C Greek liturgist and hymnographer, Cosmas of Maiuma, who holds a section of one of his hymns:
The Cause of All, Giver of Life, the immeasurable Wisdom of God, created for himself a temple from the pure, husbandless Mother: for clothed in the temple of the body, gloriously has been glorified Christ our God.
And so, in this chaotic image, a dialogue between earthly foolishness and heavenly Wisdom takes place in the catacombs, beneath the seven-domed church where the seven ecumenical councils are taking place, presided over by the seven gifts of the spirit in angelic figuration.
As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.
— John 6:57
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Texts for This Week
Prayer
Keep your Church, O Lord, by your perpetual mercy; and because without you the frailty of our nature causes us to fall, keep us from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable for our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Hymn to Wisdom
Michigan-born, Millennial musician Lizzie Shell on her debut album Seed (2017) offers a Hymn to Wisdom. While the leading theme of the album is “coming of age” rather than faith, Lizzie she writes out of her personal faith formation and commitment as a charismatic Catholic.
