Original scientific paper

Patristic Allegoric Reminiscence in Marulic's Second Letter to Katarina Obirtica

Ivan Bodrožić orcid.org/0000-0001-9399-9420 ; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

Marko Marulic, after receiving a fish as a gift from a Benedictine nun, sent her a beautifully composed letter as a gift in return - now known as the Second Letter to Katarina Obirtica. Not being just a courteous note of gratitude, Marulic's letter is above all a contextual moral-spiritual message about the need to educate one's senses, being very useful to people living a consecrated life. Marulic's message is based primarily on texts in the Scriptures but also on allusions to exegetic interpretation of the Holy Fathers in that, compared to the Biblical sources, those of the Fathers' are not referred to specifically by name. In this article the author primarily questions two images, interpreted allegorically by Marulic in the first part of his letter when he speaks of the significance of the senses to human life. The first image parables five senses with five kings that Joshua (cf. Jos 10) kills in the cave after he defeats them in battle. The second speaks of the senses as windows of the soul. Even though in both cases Marulic supports his arguments with texts from the Holy Scriptures, nevertheless the Scriptures themselves do not offer any room for such interpretation. The author therefore shows how the sources of Marulic's exegesis is primarily the great early Christian exegetic Jerome who gives an almost identical allegoric interpretation of the senses be they as the king's or as the window of the soul.
With regard to allegoric interpretation of events described in the tenth chapter of the Book of Joshua, both Jerome and Marulic interpret Joshua as the ancient figure of Jesus Christ, a true leader who leads the saved people into the Promised Land. With regard to the five kings that Joshua defeated when he entered the Promised Land, both agree that they represent the five senses that need to be defeated in the cave of the bodyin order to rule over them. This proves Jerome's influence on Marulic's exegesis of the said passage. Furthermore, observing the difference in their texts and the similarity with Origen's interpretation of the same event in the Book of Joshua, we cannot exclude the possibility that Origen's preaching about Joshua influenced the allegoric interpretation of the five kings.
With regard to the allegoric interpretation of the senses as the window of the soul once again there is an essential coincidence between Jerome and Marulic, confirmed again with the same Biblical text from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. It is obvious then that in the background of their explanations, there is an image of man as a city whose soul is a fortress that is constantly being attacked by the enemy trying to occupy the entire city. Convinced that man can only be free if he controls his senses and keeping a good conscience, both have an identical observation of the aim of ascetic preservation of the senses.
After proper attention is being directed toward Marulic's exegetic-theological sources of patristic provenance from which, this author from the city of Split in Croatia, adopted many ideas applying to them a dose of personal theological gift, this fact shows all the depth of the contextual moral-spiritual messages directed to Katarina Obirtica as well as any other potential readers. Only contact with its exegetic sources does it become clear where his inspirational style full of symbolism and metaphors comes from with which this work is decorated and full of.

Keywords

Marko Marulic; Second Letter to Katarina Obirtica; Jerome; Origen; exegesis; allegory; senses; soul

Hrčak ID:

84375

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/84375

Publication date:

12.7.2012.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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