The Liberties of December and Gonzalo de Berceo's Miracle of St. Ildefonsus

OVER the years, critics have shed considerable light on the sources and cultural context of Gonzalo de Berceo's most enduring work, the Milagros de Nuestra Senora (c. 1246-1252). They have identified Latin models for nearly all the miracles, and related their content to the frontier setting of thirteenth-century Rioja. (1) Recently, James F. Burke has also called attention to the liturgical framework of the Milagros. He points out that Berceo sets his first miracle, "La casulla de San Ildefonso," during the twelve days of Christmas, a time when the penitence of Advent gives way to end-of-the-year merriment; and brings the collection to close by telling the story of Theophilus, a legendary figure whose sin, penance, and final redemption can be seen as reflecting the annual cycle of Carnival, Lent, and Easter. Burke's findings suggest that the Milagros could have been written to accompany winter and springtime feasts when Christians gathered to commemorate key events in the lives of the Virgin and her Son. On these occasions, medieval worshipers were known to not only engage in acts of piety, but also irreverent festivities such as the Libertate Decembris or "Liberties of December." In the pages that follow, I will show how Berceo evokes this particular tradition in "La casulla de San Ildefonso," and consider how its meaning fits into the Milagros text as a whole. In his study of the first miracle, Joseph T. Snow demonstrates that Berceo does not just translate, but recreates with "dramatic detail and presentation" a version of the eleventh-century De veste quam ipsa attulit Hildefonso archiepiscopo (10). (2) More recently, Matthew A. Wyszynski has found that the poet employs Ciceronian rhetoric to build on this earlier text. (3) What has yet to be fully explored is the way in which the Castilian legend evokes the Yuletide season and the Feast of the Annunciation as a setting for the Marian apparition and bequeathing of the heavenly alb: "una fiesta en deciembre mediado ... essa festa cerca de la Natal ... festa muy general" (52b, 55b, 57b). (4) The Latin writer, on the other hand, only mentions December 18 as part of a cause-andeffect sequence of events: for having written his Marian treatise, De virginitate, Ildefonsus receives a vision of the Virgin holding his book; for having moved the date of the Annunciation from Lent to Advent, she gives the Archbishop a tunic; finally his unworthy successor, Siagrius, is miraculously strangled for daring to wear this vestment (223-24). (5) Berceo elaborates on source material by inserting a description of the Angel Gabriel visiting the Virgin: "Quando Gabriel vino con la messageria, / quando sabrosamientre disso 'Ave Maria,' / e dissoli por nuevas que parrie a Messia" (53abc; Luke 1.28). Medieval audiences would have been well aware that Mary celebrated the Good News with her Magnificat, the Biblical canticle that was sung in preparation for the nativity of Christ, the new King of Jews, and the symbolic dethronement of Herod the Great: "He hath regarded the humility of his handmaid ... He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble" (Luke 1.48, 52). (6)