Triple deity#Triple goddesses
Three Holy Women and Three Virgins denotes a complex of ideas, which refers to pictorial representations and worship testimonies of three females in the Middle Ages and early modern period and its interpretations in modern esoteric currents.
The pattern of the Trinity is also common in male saints whose worship but most remained in a regional context and, therefore, are less well known.
Origin
The origin of some saints triplicities pre-Christian goddesses are often suspected. At least the preference of triplets seems to pre-Christian customs and ideas about how to return the Celtic matrons. Also the part until today still visible ancient stone monuments have sometimes been interpreted later as Christian saints and included in the cult. A direct continuity of figures or names has been able to at least not yet be proven.
The portrayal of the Holy triplets in the Catholic Church is a phenomenon of Western Europe. In the Orthodox Church and in Scandinavia, there are, however, mainly representations of groups of four, especially the holy Sophia and her daughters Pistis, Elpis and Agape or Fides, Spes and Caritas.
The preferred representation of triplets meant that initially individual saints often merged in the course of time in groups of three or five, for example, Holy were reduced to three. In some Patrozinien of three young women are not even the name of the sitter known. Some groups created by the custom to visit three places of pilgrimage during a pilgrimage, whose patron saints were venerated together over time.
Individual saints Groups
The number of groups of three young women is large and their composition inconsistent. The most important are:
- Fides, Spes and Caritas
- Einbeth, Wilbeth and Worbeth
- The Three Marys
- Three young women
- Three sisters: Bertilia, Eutropia, Genoveva
- Three tavern gutters
- Three Heilrätinnen
Fides, Spes and Caritas
They are personifications of the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love, and come from the Eastern church tradition in which they are worshiped as daughters of the Holy Sophia, the personification of wisdom, together. The group was known before the 6th century in the West and found primarily in Cahors France as the center and in Luxembourg distribution. In German-speaking her cult focused on the Rhineland north of the Moselle.
Einbeth, Wilbeth and Worbeth
The origin of the three names is unclear, it is believed to be Germanic personal name. The Legend is one of the companions of Ursula. They should have died on the return journey from Rome already in Strasbourg, during the rest of the crowd Ursula was murdered in Cologne by the Huns. The cult of Einbeth has been demonstrated since the mid-12th century until the second half of the 13th century and their Wilbeth Worbeth seem to have been settled is, in some places it was still revered to the 16th century alone. Since Einbeth in Strasbourg first occurred, it is believed that their example has been a historical person of that name or their grave slab in the local church of St. Peter. Other early examples are found in the 14th century in Worms, Meransen and shield Thurn. In the late Middle Ages, her cult spread primarily in Upper Bavaria and South Tyrol.
Because of their unclear origin especially this group has drawn speculation about a pagan origin to itself. In his treatise The Three Eternal - A study of Germanic peasant faith Hans Christoph Scholl in 1936 developed a comprehensive theory of the " three prayers ", which returns the three names directly on Germanic or Indo-European already Urgöttinnen. Since the whole theory is based on demonstrably false partly phonetic similarities without linguistic methodology, it was immediately rejected even by fellow scientists, but has found yet in esoteric circles to this day widely disseminated.
The Three Marys
The Adoration of the first two, later three Marys was built in 13-14. Century in Provence and spread to the collection of their relics in Saintes -Maries- de -la -Mer in the 15th century in France from. It is Mary Magdalene, Mary Salome and Mary Jacobi, sometimes with Mary, the Mother of the Lord, and Mary the sister of Lazarus. From France, her cult spread in the Rhineland and to southwest Germany, isolated to Saxony (eg Härtensdorf ).
Three young women
On strong folk roots have Patrozinien of three virgins out different, but often also bear no name. The legends about the three young women who are set to escape miraculously through a rocky valley or taken from a rock, come from similar legends, which have been linked to corresponding locations. By usually no longer comprehensible circumstances these legends have passed into the religious cult.
The three holy Madel Barbara of Nicomedia, Margaret of Antioch and Catherine of Alexandria belong to the group of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. There are saints who were both virgins and Märtyrinnnen. To imprint of the saints and their attributes, there are the popular mnemonic: " Margaretha with the worm, Barbara with the tower, Catherine with the bike, these are the three sacred Madl. "
Three sisters: Bertilia, Eutropia, Genevieve
The cult of the three early medieval, but separate each surrounded by 100 year Saints was formed in the 17th century in Limburg and Brabant with the cult center Zepperen and remained essentially limited to this region. One third of the chapels of the three sisters was built in the 19th century.
Three tavern gutters
The common property of several municipalities in a forest was in popular Sage often called mostly on donations from three wealthy sisters, in Bavaria " Heilrätinnen " returned. In popular belief, these benefactors of the community were sometimes regarded as a saint since the second half of the 16th century and integrated into the religious cult. However, there are several cases, supporting documents for transfer of ownership of that forest to the communities, which show that the saga does not coincide with reality.