Weighing the Soul – Medieval Artwork in Churches -

Images of St. Michael weighing the souls in purgatory were used in many medieval churches. The image is designed to act as a warning to worshippers. It illustrates the Archangel Michael weighing souls in purgatory, with the implication that ones actions in life would be judged in the afterlife. Some of the images show the Virgin Mary intervening and asking for mercy. Images such as these are often close to other types of medieval wall art in churches such as Doom Paintings. Together they send a strong visual message to the congregation.

Examples of wall paintings illustrating the Weighing of Souls

St. John the Baptist, Clayton, Sussex.

Weighing the Souls. Part of a Fresco at Clayton Church — Andy Scott, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

St, John the Baptist Church, Clayton, Sussex . The Frescos continue on the north wall with an angel blowing on a trumpet. The lower half is divided by a scroll. The lower part is partly lost but might have had a resurrection scene with uplifted hands near the door. There is also St Michael weighing souls and to the right of the window possibly the four riders of the Apocalypse. On the upper section, next to the angel, it shows the Fall of the Antichrist. Then to the west of the window it shows a procession heading east of kings, wearing crowns, bishops, carrying croziers, and laymen. They are being met by St Peter. One of 21 photographs of the medieval wall art in the church that can be found in this category on Wikimedia.

Slapton, Northamptonshire

Video by Allan Barton who describes the contents of the video as: A very simple, rural parish church, the inside is covered in a series of remarkable wall paintings of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries with images of the saints and iconography that enriched the interior and taught the Catholic faith.

Ribes Valley, Catalonia.

These two side panels from a church in the Ribes Valley are the work of this painter, characterised by the use of backgrounds of very bright colours, generally reds, yellows and greens, on which he draws the figures heavily outlined in black. The scene of the Archangel Michael weighing the souls, called the ‘psychostasis', is very similar to the one that appears on the panel from Soriguerola and is without doubt one of the most popular in Catalan mediaeval art. The archangel is holding the scales with the naked figure of a soul tipping to the side of salvation, while a devil with a hook is trying to make the scales tip over to his side. The other panel, also related to the iconography of salvation, shows the standing figure of Saint Peter, with the keys to Heaven, talking to the apostle Saint Paul. One of the salient features of this master is the capacity for narrative synthesis of the scenes drawn, far-removed from naïf or merely popular art. — St. Michael and the Devil, weighing the Soul. From a church in the Ribes Valley, Catalonia.

St. Mary’s Church. Felmersham. Bedfordshire

St. Mary’s Church. Bartlow, Cambridgeshire

St. Michael Weighing Souls. St. Mary’s Church, Bartlow.

Abbaye Saint-Pierre du Vigeois

Images in Manuscripts

Detail of a bas-de-page scene of the Virgin Mary taking a soul from the devil; an angel stands on the left. Image taken from f. 266 of Decretals of Gregory IX with glossa ordinaria (the ‘Smithfield Decretals’). Written in Latin.

Weighing the Souls. Medieval art by the Master of Sorieguerola. Public Doman, via Picryl.

Featured Image

Detail from a medieval mural in the church of St Nicholas in Burgos. It shows St Michael, whose feast is 29 September weighing the souls of the dead. Laurence OP via Flickr. Some rights reserved

Weighing the Soul – Medieval Artwork in Churches