The Feminine Euphrasiana Basilica

Around the year 550, the Euphrasiana Basilica was consecrated in what is today Parenzo, Croatia.

It has the oldest surviving apse mosaic of Mary.

The apse was the sacred space directly above the altar.

What would you expect to find in the mosaics of this basilica

and the very oldest apse with Mary?

In the apse, Mary sits erect, holding her son.

Saints offer martyrs’ crowns and gifts.

Twelve large portraits of female saints encircle the apse.

A mosaic of Mary and the Angel of the Annunciation is to the left of the altar.

A mosaic of Mary and Elizabeth at the Visitation is to the right of the altar.

Look again.

Mary and Elizabeth both wear a pallium, a white sash with a cross.

These mosaics may contain the earliest Christian representation of a pallium—the long white sash with a cross—

worn by bishops and popes.

Did you find what you expected?

Art as Text

By Ally Kateusz

In honor of Rosemary Radford Ruether