Capital Virgins
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Lucas_Cranach_d.%C3%84._-_Die_mystische_Verm%C3%A4hlung_der_heiligen_Katharina_%28Budapest%29.jpg/220px-Lucas_Cranach_d.%C3%84._-_Die_mystische_Verm%C3%A4hlung_der_heiligen_Katharina_%28Budapest%29.jpg)
The four capital virgins, Latin: (quattuor) virgines capitales, are a group of virgin martyrs of the early church. In literature they are also called main virgins or excellent virgins. These are: Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Margaret of Antioch, Saint Barbara and Saint Dorothea of Caesarea. Three of them - i. e. Saint Katherine, Saint Margaret and Saint Dorothea - belong to the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
In iconography these four capital virgins are often depicted together or around the Virgin Mary. Occasionally, instead of the classical formation, St. Ursula is pictured instead of Saint Dorothea. Alternatively, Saint Dorothea is depicted with the attribute of Saint Ursula, an arrow, in her hands.[1] Paintings of the four main virgins usually represent a form of the type Virgo inter Virgines, where several virgin martyrs beside the Virgin are sitting, on a bench or bank or on the ground, usually in a garden setting within an enclosure of some sort, a hortus conclusus.
The great veneration of the four capital virgins testifies that the Missale Cologniense (Missal of Cologne), printed in 1494, contained the votive mass Missa de sanctis quatuor virginibus capitalibus.[2]
References
- ^ Krauss, Heinrich; Uthermann, Eva (1998). Was Bilder erzählen: die klassischen Geschichten aus Antike und Christentum in der abendländischen Malerei [What pictures tell: the classic stories from antiquity and Christianity in Western painting] (in German) (4. ed.). Munich, Germany: Verlag C. H. Beck. p. 399. ISBN 9783406440748. OCLC 802058272.
- ^ Weed, Stanley E. (Winter 2010). "Venerating the Virgin Martyrs: The Cult of the "Virgines Capitales" in Art, Literature, and Popular Piety". The Sixteenth Century Journal: The Journal of Early Modern Studies. 4 (41). Kirksville, Missouri: Truman State University Press: 1065–1091. ISSN 0361-0160. OCLC 887140492.
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