Crescentia Höß of Kaufbeuren and her Vision of the Spirit as a Young Man
- Among the mystical experiences of Crescentia Höß (1682-1744), Franciscan nun in the Kaufbeuren Maierhof Monastery, the best known is her vision of the Holy Spirit as a young man. In her time, the anthropomorphic Spirit was already looking back on a tradition stretching back to medieval times, so there was nothing particularly new about the type of Spirit as it was described by Crescentia, and subsequently disseminated in paint and print; a type to which by no means all anthropomorphic Spirits in South German art of the time belong. The most immediate influences on Crescentia probably were similar visions of St Teresa of Avila and Maria Anna Lindmayr, member of the Munich Carmelite convent, which stood in contact with the Kaufbeuren Franciscan nuns. When Crescentia's spirituality, which had won her numerous followers and admirers, came under close scrutiny by church authorities shortly after her death, the Spirit issue also played a major role. Although Pope Benedict XIV eventuallyAmong the mystical experiences of Crescentia Höß (1682-1744), Franciscan nun in the Kaufbeuren Maierhof Monastery, the best known is her vision of the Holy Spirit as a young man. In her time, the anthropomorphic Spirit was already looking back on a tradition stretching back to medieval times, so there was nothing particularly new about the type of Spirit as it was described by Crescentia, and subsequently disseminated in paint and print; a type to which by no means all anthropomorphic Spirits in South German art of the time belong. The most immediate influences on Crescentia probably were similar visions of St Teresa of Avila and Maria Anna Lindmayr, member of the Munich Carmelite convent, which stood in contact with the Kaufbeuren Franciscan nuns. When Crescentia's spirituality, which had won her numerous followers and admirers, came under close scrutiny by church authorities shortly after her death, the Spirit issue also played a major role. Although Pope Benedict XIV eventually ruled in a brief that Crescentia's Spirit was not in accordance with church doctrine, numerous works of art prove that Benedict's injunctions often went unheeded. The first painting made after Crescentia's description of the Spirit was burnt (under circumstances which have not yet been fully elucidated) as late as 1928, after Rome had issued another ban on anthropomorphic Spirits, possibly called into action by Severini's Trinity fresco in the church of Semsales.…