Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

The Virgin descends from heaven: the chasuble of Saint Ildefonso of Toledo

Toledo (Spain)

Among all the Marian traditions of Spain, few are as beautiful as the Descension of Our Lady en la catedral de Toledo. La protagoniza san Ildefonso, Archbishop of Toledo in the 7th century (m. 667), one of the great Fathers of the Hispanic Church, who had written a treaty on, From the perpetual virginity of Santa Maria, defending the Mother of God against those who denied her.

It tells the tradition that, one night, when Ildefonso entered his church for his offices, he found her bathed in a light from heaven: the Virgin Mary in person, sitting on the Episcopal Chairsurrounded by angels and virgins. And that Mary, in prize for having defended his honor, imposed with his own hands a casulla —una vestidura sagrada para celebrar la Misa—, diciéndole que la usara en las fiestas dedicadas a ella. Aquel descenso del cielo a la tierra es lo que se llama la «Descensión».

In the cathedral of Toledo is preserved, by the door of the Clock, the Capilla de la Descensionand in it a stone that devotion will venerate as the exact place where the Virgin laid her foot. The episode has inspired the greatest: El Greco lo pintó en The imposition of the casulla on San Ildefonso, and the scene is repeated in altarpieces throughout Spain. Toledo celebrates the descent every year, and the Virgin of the Sagrarian is her patron.

It should be said clearly: the descent and the casulla belong to the Pious tradition, transmitted from the Middle Ages, not to the documentary chronicle. But what it is true story is the heart of the story: that Saint Ildefonso loved and defended Mary with all his strength, and that the Church has seen in him the model of the son who honors his Mother. Legend only makes an image of a truth: that one who defends and loves the Virgin is clothed by her with the grace of God.