Wonders in the Sky (89 page)

This scene has inspired numerous painters, who consistently show a light above Mary, sometimes associated with a bird, and the angel speaking to her. We will return to the question of artistic representation of such events in Part III. Interestingly, the thirteenth-century
Golden Legend
of Jacques de Voragine, an authoritative source on the lives of the Saints and the chronology of Catholic feasts, questions the nature of the star:

“Some say that it was the Holy Ghost, Who had taken this form in order to guide the Magi. Others think it was an angel who also appeared to the shepherds. Still others, with whom we agree, are of the opinion that it was a heavenly body newly created, and that once it had fulfilled its mission, it was absorbed once more into the matter of the universe.”

Ca. 28 AD, Jerusalem: Judas enters a luminous cloud

“Look, you have been told everything,” Jesus says to Judas after whispering secrets to his friend and most loyal follower. “Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star.” Judas lifted his eyes and saw the luminous cloud, and he entered it.

 

Source:
The Gospel of Judas
, a newly-deciphered Coptic codex released in 2006 by the National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.

Circa 249, Britain: A terrible bloody sword in the air

“At his [Decius'] coming to the Throne it Rained Blood in divers parts of this Kingdom, and a Terrible Bloody Sword was seen in the Air for three Nights, a little after Sunset.” (Britton, C.E.,
A Meteorological Chronology to A.D. 1450
, London: H.M.S.O., 1937, 13.) Note that Trajan Decius was emperor from 249 to 251. We conclude this refers to a classic comet.

312, near Verona, Italy
A pagan Emperor sees a cross in the sky

Emperor Constantine and others see a luminous cross in the sky. The emperor establishes Christianity in Rome.

Fig. 46: The vision of Emperor Constantine

Note that luminous crosses in the sky are not very unusual. They are caused by refraction phenomena similar to what one may observe by looking at a bright light through the mesh of a screen door. In this particular case the emperor is said to have seen luminous writing that read “In hoc signo vinces” (
You will win through this Sign
), which would eliminate the optical phenomenon as a simple explanation. However the writing may have been seen (or even heard) in a vision rather than an actual observation in the sky.

In his remarkable book,
L'Atmosphère et les Grands Phénomènes de la Nature
(Paris: Hachette 1905), Camille Flammarion gives many examples of similar phenomena caused by reflexions or refraction due to ice crystals or water droplets in the atmosphere. Whether the cross was a natural phenomenon or not, this case is so important that it deserves special comments. There are two main sources for the story. One comes from Eusebius, the other from Lactantius. They do not provide an exact location, and contain contradictions. (The later sources are historically not very valuable.)

Fig. 47: Cross-shaped atmospheric illusions

Eusebius described the same events in the life of Constantine in two separate books. In the earliest of these he does not refer to the cross in the sky, literally as if it had never happened. In the later book he tells that before Constantine marched to Rome to battle Maxentius, he and all his soldiers witnessed a cross in the sky. That night, when asleep, the emperor had a dream in which Christ instructed him to make a copy of the sign they had seen, for use in all future battles. Lactantius, on the other hand, did not mention the cross in the sky at all. Instead he wrote that Constantine, while in the vicinity of Rome and before the battle with Maxentius, was simply instructed in a dream to use a special symbol, not forever but in the battle at hand.

Eusebius wrote that the symbol consisted of a cross with the Christ monogram (the chi-roh) at the top. Lactantius wrote that the symbol was itself the chi-roh.

Constantine had already experienced a vision in 310 AD, as the appearance of the pagan god, Apollo, whom the emperor worshipped as a sun god. It is odd that he should have met gods from two opposing religions in the space of two years. The inference is that Constantine's only real vision was in 310 AD, and that he or someone else recycled it for the conversion story of 312 AD. Constantine had already used the sign of the cross (even the Latin cross) on his coins before his conversion, in reference to the Sun.

353, Antioch (Antalaya), Syria
Amazing luminous cross

As Constantius the Victorious, proclaimed Gallus as Caesar, he saw a cross in the form of a column of light appear in the western sky over Antioch.

“After these things, the Emperor Constantius having created Gallus his kinsman Caesar, and given him his own name, sent him to Antioch in Syria, providing thus for the guarding of the eastern parts. When Gallus was entering this city, the Savior's sign appeared in the East: for a pillar in the form of a cross seen in the heavens gave occasion of great amazement to the spectators.” (Ecc. Hist. 2.28.2)

 

Source: Chronicle of Michael the Syrian, Jacobite patriarch of Antioch: 1166-1199 A.D.), who took this story from Socrates (
Ecclesiastical History
, Book II).

384, Roman Empire: A pillar in the sky

“A terrible sign appeared in the sky, shaped like a pillar (
columna
). It was in the time of the Roman Emperor, Theodosius.” A number of atmospheric phenomena, or a comet, can produce this effect.

 

Source:
Lycosthenes,
op. cit., 279.

393 (or 390), Roman Empire
Brilliant globes, swarming like bees

A brilliant globe is observed close to Venus. Many others join in, “swarming like bees.” The first reference for this item is Bougard,
Inforespace
no. 22 (August 1975) p.34, quoting Lycosthenes
Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon.