Materiality and Preservation

In Cantiga 50, Alfonso explains the motivations behind the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary, beginning with “This is in praise of Holy Mary, and reveals why Our Lord became incarnate in Her”. The diction used here (and almost all writings about Jesus’ birth) clearly states that the birth of Christ is a materialization of the power of God. By taking physical form in flesh and blood, he brings spirituality to a material level, where humans can more easily comprehend and relate. While Alfonso alludes to the more commonly discussed reason to “judge our bodies and souls”, in addition to this conventional explanation, the lines :“For God in Himself never suffers want nor hunger nor thirst nor cold nor pain nor sorrow. Who then shall pity Him or have compassion or grief for His sake? Even so, He descended to earth from Heaven, without relinquishing it or diminishing His power. He assumed flesh within the Virgin and, moreover, allowed Himself to be killed for us.”indicate that human understanding relied on this degree of materiality when Christ “assumed flesh”. This transition from spiritual to material during the nativity seems to be a type of translation of people’s mode of understanding. Shifting from an imagined and abstract conception of God to a more material one lends itself to a higher degree of resonance in humans and a renewed understanding. For example, in many of the cantigas (such as cantiga 4), Mary’s influence and miracles cause people who are considered wanderers to be guided to the “true path”. Alfonso’s cantigas appear to mimic this property of translation by preserving the troubadours’ poetic form. As Joseph T. Snow notes, “Alfonso was the last monarch with enough prestige as a poet to keep the dying flame alight”.