ing ritual was reshaped during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when Mar-
ian devotion became prominent.^60 The Christian ceremony, like the Jewish
one, was based on the biblical commandment of the purification in the Tem-
ple and on the description of Mary’s purification after the birth of Jesus:^61
And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they
brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord [as it is written in the law
of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord] and
they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair
of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose
name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout.... Guided by the Spirit,
Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus,
to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms
and praised God, saying, Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have pre-
pared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for
glory to your people Israel.^62The medieval ritual was one aspect of the veneration of Mary and of the at-
tempt to emulate her deeds (imitatio Mariae).^63
The individual churching women experienced after childbirth was com-
plemented by a public celebration of the Feast of the Purification of Mary that
was commemorated every February in public ceremonies and processions. Re-
cent research has emphasized the connections between these two rituals.^64
The Feast of Purification was celebrated in the Byzantine Empire from the
third century onward and is well known in western Europe from the Carolin-
gian period. It is called by a number of different names such as Purificatio,
Hypopanti, and Candalaria as well as by the German Lichtmess.^65 The Jews liv-
ing in Germany were familiar with this ceremony and were aware of its signif-
icance. A thirteenth-century source, Sefer Niz·ah·on Vetus, mentions the Licht-
mess celebration that commemorated the purification.^66
The Feast of Purification was a day of great celebration for women in late
medieval times. They wore white and walked in a procession carrying can-
dles.^67 In the context of our discussion, we might note that Jacobus de Voragine
in his famous Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend) suggested that these expres-
sions were also modeled after an ancient pagan rite dedicated to Februa, the
mother of Mars. He explains that:
The Christians, converted from paganism, had difficulty giving them [the rites] up.
Pope Sergius transmuted them, decreeing that the faithful should honor the holy
mother of the Lord on this day by lighting up the whole world with lamps and can-
dles. Thus the Roman celebration survived but with an altered meaning.^68
The churching ceremony was the individual purification, the way in which
Christian women imitated Mary and purified themselves from the impurity of