La dualidad sagrado/profano en Gonzalo de Berceo

Abstract

Gonzalo de Berceo was a great admirer of the figure of Mary, so one of his most remarkable works is entitled “Los Milagros de Nuestra Señora”. From his life experience in the San Millán Monastery in the thirteenth century, the poet and cleric Gonzalo de Berceo - with both religious and intellectual roles - presents to the reader a work filled with features from his own time. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the characteristics that identify the sacred and the profane in the narrative “El ladrón devoto” and “La boda y la Virgen”. This narrative addresses the figure of the Lady that behaves both as a woman with mundane feelings and as a virgin, that works miracles to save humanity. The dialectical play between the sacred and profane was widespread in the Middle Ages and it influenced the baroque style many centuries later.