The good thief and the good death
Our third " Débat d'histoire " finds its theme in a magnificent book that Christiane Klapisch-Zuber has just published with Alma, éditeur. The title is Le voleur de Paradis. Le bon larron dans l'art et la société (XIVe-XVIe siècle). Its aim is to understand why and how one of the two thieves crucified with Jesus became almost a saint in the West, a model of repentance that grants the penitent sinner divine mercy and entry to Paradise. This is true even if it is uttered in the final moments of life.
Two traditions have shaped the cult of the Good Thief in Eastern and Western Christianity. The first is textual. Over the centuries, it has enriched and commented on the verses of Luke's Gospel, which recount the words of Jesus promising one of the two crucified men, the one who accepts his punishment and shows mercy, that he will accompany him this very day to Paradise. The second tradition is iconographic. It includes both the good and the bad thief in representations of the crucifixion. Numerous paintings, frescoes and engravings depict the Calvary, interpreting the texts, inventing a story and provoking emotion and devotion.
In the company of Patrick Boucheron, we present Christiane Klapisch-Zuber's investigation, which forges a close link between representations of the Good Thief and the experiences that inform or are transformed by them. For example, the last moments of the condemned, assisted in Italy by the brotherhoods of mercy who, by obtaining confession and repentance from those about to be hanged or beheaded, ensured their salvation. Pilgrims to the Holy Land, for example, who wanted to rediscover the crucifixion sites seen in images and read in texts, and who compensated for the difficulty of doing so by bringing back material traces (pieces of stone, a little earth, fragments of wood) invested with sacredness.
Never beatified or canonized, Dismas, the good thief, became an almost saintly figure, represented with a halo and venerated as an intercessor. He was given a life of his own late in life, which brought him into contact with Mary and Jesus, and the relics of his cross give him a presence in various parts of the Christian world.