at last the lot fell to her. So she went forth to die for the people,
weeping sadly as she walked toward the dwelling of the monster. At this
moment St. George, who was riding by, saw her and wondered why so
fair a maiden should be in tears. He asked her her sorrow and when she
told him, he said: “Fear not, for I will deliver you.” She begged him
to fly lest he, too, perish, but St. George refused, saying, “I will
save thee through the power of Jesus Christ.” Just then the dragon came
forth from his lair and rushed toward them. St. George made the sign
of the cross, and calling on the name of our Saviour, spurred toward
the monster, and after a terrible battle pinned him to earth with his
lance. Then, binding him with the girdle of the princess, he told her
to lead the conquered brute back to the city, and she did, the dragon
following after them like a dog. Seeing this, the king and the people
believed, and were baptised—twenty thousand in one day. St. George
killed the dragon and cut off his head, and the king heaped treasures
upon the knight, but he gave all to the poor, and went on his way to
Palestine.
Seeing there the edict of Diocletian against the Christians on the
gates of the temples and in the market-place, he tore it down and
trampled it under his feet. For this he was seized, and suffered most
cruel tortures for eight days and was finally beheaded. The veneration
paid him in England dates from the time of Richard I., who in the wars
of Palestine put himself and his army under the protection of St.
George. His feast was ordered to be kept as a holiday in England in
1222, and the Order of the Garter was instituted in 1330.
In single devotional pictures St. George is young or in the prime
of life, dressed in armour. He bears in one hand the palm and in
the other the lance, from which sometimes depends a red banner. His
expression is uplifted and triumphant, the slain dragon is at his feet.
This representation is allegorical, showing the victory of faith over
the powers of evil. _St. George and the Dragon_ becomes _historical_
when accessories are introduced, such as the princess, or the walls of
the city and the combat still undecided. The dragon of St. George never
has the human or satanic form, as in the legend of St. Michael.
He is particularly honoured by the Greeks, who gave him the title of
_The Great Martyr_.
=St. Sebastian.= _Lat._ Sanctus Sebastianus. _Ital._ San Sebastiano; or
San Bastiano. _Fr._ St. Sébastien.
St. Sebastian was born at Narbonne in Gaul, of noble parents, and when
very young was made commander of a company of the Prætorian Guards
and was thus brought near the Emperor Diocletian, with whom he was a
favourite. Secretly a Christian, his position as a soldier enabled
him to protect many who were persecuted for Christ’s sake. He had two
friends among the soldiers, who had endured torture bravely for being
Christians; but upon being led forth to die, their families implored
them to recant, and as they were moved by their supplications and
about to weaken, St. Sebastian rushed forward and urged them to die
rather than renounce our Saviour. All present were so influenced by his
eloquence, that the families of the condemned, and even the judges,
became converted and baptised, and Marcus and Marcellinus met their
death gloriously.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
ST. SEBASTIAN.—SODOMA
(Uffizi, Florence.)]
Sebastian was then denounced as a Christian, and the emperor, who
loved him, reasoned with him privately, but Sebastian was firm, and
Diocletian ordered him bound to the stake and shot to death with
arrows, and that there should be inscribed on the stake that he was
without fault except that of being a Christian. The archers pierced
him with arrows and left him for dead, but Irene, widow of a martyred
friend, coming to take his body away, found him still living and
took him home and nursed him back to health. His friends urged him
to flee from Rome, but instead he presented himself to Diocletian
and reproached him for his intolerance and cruelty, and the emperor,
enraged, had him seized and put to death with clubs.
In pictures St. Sebastian is always young and beautiful, undraped,
bound to a tree or column, and pierced by one or many arrows. Arrows
from the most ancient times were the emblem of pestilence, so they
_symbolise_ the shafts of pestilence, and are also the _attribute_ of
the martyrdom and power of the saint, who has been considered from
the earliest days of Christianity as patron saint against plague and
pestilence—there being, according to the legends, hardly a city in
Europe that has not been saved by his intercession.
The pathos of his story, added to his courage, and youth, and
beauty, has made St. Sebastian the favourite saint of Italian women,
particularly the women of Rome.
=St. Christopher.= _Lat._ St. Christophorus. _Ital._ San Cristofero, or
Cristofano. _Fr._ St. Christophe, or St. Christofle. _Ger._ Der Heilige
Christoph.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
ST. CHRISTOPHER.—GIOVANNI BELLINI
(Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice.)]
There was a giant of the land of Canaan, whose name was originally
Offero. Being very proud of his size and strength, he was determined
to serve no other than the most powerful monarch in the world. So
he travelled to the court of a king whose fame was greater than all
others, and the king gladly accepted him as his servant. Before long
Offero noticed that when the name of Satan was mentioned the king
trembled, and he asked him, “Who is this Satan at the mention of whose
name thou crossest thyself?” The king answered, “He is as wicked as he
is mighty, and I fear lest he slay me.” Then Offero knew there was one
greater than the king, and he sought and entered into the service of
Satan.
One day as they journeyed, they came to a cross by the wayside, and
when the devil saw it he turned back and went a long distance out of
his way to avoid it. Offero questioned him as to this, and the devil
replied: “’T was on this cross that Jesus died, and He it is whom I
fear.” Offero said: “Since thou fearest Him, He is greater than thou
and Him will I serve.” So he left Satan and went in search of Christ;
and he came to a hermit who taught him concerning Jesus, and desired
him to fast and pray. Offero would not fast and knew not how to pray,
saying, “Such service is for weak ones, not for me.” So the hermit
said: “If thou wouldst use thy strength, go to a certain river that is
swollen with the rains, and whose current is so swift that many perish,
and help all who struggle with the waves. This is a service for Christ
and He may accept thee.” Offero went joyfully, and built himself a hut
by the side of the river, and rooting up a palm tree, he used it for a
staff, and aided all who wished to cross the stream.
One night he heard a child’s voice calling him. He arose and went out,
but could find no one. Again the voice called and again he searched in
vain. The third time that he heard it, he went forth with his lantern,
and found a little child sitting by the water’s edge, who begged to
be taken over, and Offero placed him upon his shoulders, took his
staff, and began to cross the stream; but a storm arose and the current
became swift as never before, and the weight of the child grew heavier
and heavier, and Offero feared that they both would be lost, but he
struggled on bravely until, exhausted, he reached the other shore,
and putting the child safely down, he cried, “Whom have I borne! Had
it been the whole world the burden had not been heavier!” The child
replied, “Thou hast borne not only the whole world but Him who made
it, upon thy shoulder. Thou wouldst serve Christ, and behold! I have
accepted thee.” Then Offero confessed and worshipped Christ.
From there he went to Samos, where he was taken as a Christian before
the king, who said: “Who art thou?” and Offero replied: “My name was
Offero the Bearer, but now I serve Christ, whom I have borne on my
shoulders, and am called Christ Offero, the bearer of Christ.” St.
Christopher was scourged and beheaded, and as he was about to die
he prayed that all who beheld him, believing in our Saviour, should
not suffer from fire, earthquake, or tempest. The sight of his image
is thought to give strength to the weak, and prevent all evils from
accident. The following inscription often accompanies his pictures:
“Christophori Sancti speciem quicumque tuetur,
Illo namque die nullo languore tenetur.”
“Whoever shall behold the image of St. Christopher
On that day shall not faint or fail.”
In pictures St. Christopher stands above his ankles in water, his
proportions those of a giant, the Infant Christ seated on his
shoulders, usually bearing in his hand the globe, but sometimes
the cross as the Redeemer. The saint looks up at the divine Child,
supporting his steps with the staff, which is often the entire palm
tree. When he is introduced near the Madonna the water is omitted, but
he is never without this staff.
=St. Cosmo and St. Damian.= _Lat._ SS. Cosmas et Damianus. _Ital._ SS.
Cosimo e Damiano. _Fr._ SS. Côme et Damien.
These brothers were Arabians, and lived in Ægae in Cilicia. They
studied medicine and became the greatest and most holy of physicians,
giving their services to the poor and suffering, without fee. They even
cared for sick animals, doing everything for charity and the love of
God. In the time of Diocletian, Lycias, proconsul of Arabia, seized
them as Christians and cast them into prison. First they were thrown
into the sea, but were saved by angels; then thrown into fire, but
the fire would not burn them. Then they were bound and stoned, but
the stones recoiled and fell on those who had sent them, and finally
they were beheaded, “a punishment which no saint but St. Denis ever
survives.”
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF ST. COSMO AND ST. DAMIAN.—FRA ANGELICO
(Academy, Florence.)]
In art they are always together, wearing loose dark red robes trimmed
with fur, and usually red caps. Thus Chaucer describes a physician’s
garb: “In scarlet gown, furred well.” They have a small box of ointment
in one hand and lancet or surgical instrument in the other, sometimes a
pestle and mortar. These saints appear frequently in the old Florentine
pictures, especially of the time of Cosimo de’ Medici.
=St. Roch.= _Lat._ Sanctus Rochus. _Ital._ San Rocco. _Fr._ St. Roch or
Roque.
[Illustration:
FOUR SAINTS—ST. ROCH AND ST. SEBASTIAN; (Academy, Venice.)]
St. Roch was born in Montpellier in Languedoc of wealthy and noble
parents. His parents dying before he was twenty, he gave all that he
had to the poor and the hospitals, and spent his life in healing and
caring for the sick. He went wherever he heard that the plague had
broken out, and nursed those who were most miserable and abandoned.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
ST. AUGUSTINE (?); ST. BERNARDINO, OF SIENA.—CARLO CRIVELLI]
At last in Piacenza he himself became plague-stricken, and a fearful
ulcer broke out on his thigh. The pain was so terrible that, fearing
he might cry out and disturb those in the hospital, he crawled out to
the street, and not being allowed to remain, dragged himself to the
woods to die; but his faithful little dog, who had been his companion
everywhere, trotted to the city each day, returning with a loaf of
bread for his master, and an angel from heaven dressed his wound.
When St. Roch had recovered he returned to his old home, but no one
knew him, so wasted and haggard was he, and he was cast into prison and
remained there five years. One morning, the jailer entered and found
his cell filled with a dazzling light, and the prisoner dead. By his
side there was writing telling his name, and these words: “All those
who are stricken by the plague and who pray for aid through the merits
and intercession of Roch, the servant of God, shall be healed.”
In art St. Roch is represented in the prime of life, dressed as a
pilgrim with the cockle-shell in his hat; wallet by his side, in one
hand a staff, while with the other he lifts his robe to show the plague
spot, or points to it. He is usually accompanied by his dog.
St. Sebastian and St. Roch figure in numerous works of art as joint
protectors against the plague. With St. Cosmo and St. Damian, the
medical saints, the first two are patrons of the sick, and the last two
patrons of those who heal the sick.
An old French legend relates that when St. Roch died he wished to take
his little dog in with him through the gates of heaven. But St. Peter
refused, and St. Roch entered alone, feeling very sad. As he wandered
around, heaven did not seem like heaven to him without his little dog.
No one spoke to him. The saints and prophets were all assembled around
a great white throne, and had no eyes for St. Roch. Still lonely, he
went to the wall of heaven, to see if by looking over he might not
discover his little dog. There he was! looking wistfully at the gate
wherein had passed his master. St. Roch whistled softly, his dog caught
sight of his face, and leaping over the wall, sprang into his master’s
arms. Then St. Roch was happy in heaven.
=St. Nicholas of Myra.= _Lat._ Sanctus Nicolaus. _Ital._ San Niccolò,
or Nicola di Bari. _Ger._ Der Heilige Nicolaus or Niklas.
Of all the saints in Christendom St. Nicholas is perhaps the most
popular and the most universally beloved. While knighthood claims St.
George, St. Nicholas belongs to the children, and to the common people.
The mariner, the labourer, the poor, and the weak all implore the aid
of St. Nicholas.
He was born in Panthera, a city of Lycia in Asia Minor. His parents
were Christians, wealthy, and of illustrious family. It is related that
on the day he was born St. Nicholas stood up in his bath and praised
God for having brought him into the world. His parents, impressed by
the many instances of his early piety, dedicated him to God, and he
became a priest and later Bishop of Myra. In 1084 his relics were
carried to Bari, and thus he is often known as _St. Nicholas di Bari_.
The legends of this saint are almost without number. His proper
attribute, the three balls, is supposed to refer to the three bags of
gold which he threw into the poor man’s window. A certain nobleman
with three daughters, having lost all his money, had no resource except
he sacrifice them to infamous lives. St. Nicholas, hearing this,
considered how he could help them, and one night he threw in a bag of
gold through a window which he found open, and with this the father
portioned his eldest daughter. St. Nicholas did this a second time, and
the father married off his second daughter. Greatly wishing to know
his benefactor, the father watched, and when St. Nicholas came the
third time he flung himself at his feet giving thanks, but St. Nicholas
desired him to tell no man.
Sometimes the attribute is three children in a tub, which refers to the
legend of the wicked man who, during a famine, stole little children,
whom he killed, and served their limbs as meat for his guests. St.
Nicholas visited his house when he was bishop, and having this dish put
before him divined the awful contents. He denounced his host and going
to the tub where the bodies of the children were salted down, he made
the sign of the cross and they rose up alive and whole.
At Nice, St. Nicholas listened to the prayers of some mariners in
danger of perishing; his spirit guided their ship and the tempest
ceased. “And when they were come to his Church, they knew him without
any man to show him to them, and yet they had never seen him” (_Golden
Legend_).
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
ST. NICHOLAS.—TITIAN
(Church of San Sebastiano, Venice.)]
While the province of Myra suffered a great famine, certain ships laden
with wheat arrived at the port, and Nicholas persuaded the mariners to
give him a certain portion, promising they would bring as much to
the emperor as had been measured to them in Alexandria, and this was
indeed so. Yet by this miracle, “the holy man distributed the wheat to
every man after that he had need, in such wise that it sufficed for two
years, not only for to sell, but also to sow.”
In art St. Nicholas is dressed as a bishop with mitre, cope, and
crozier, his robes often gorgeously embroidered. Sometimes he is
beardless, but usually has a short grey beard. The three balls are
placed on his book, or at his feet, or sometimes in his lap. Some say
they represent the loaves of bread, in allusion to his feeding the poor
during the famine, but the more popular version is the three purses or
bags of gold. Sometimes, instead of three balls, three purses are given.
=The Four Virgin Patronesses=: ST. CATHERINE, ST. BARBARA, ST. URSULA,
AND ST. MARGARET.
Mrs. Jameson says, “We owe to these beautiful and glorious
impersonations of feminine intellect, heroism, purity, fortitude, and
faith, some of the most excelling works of art which have been handed
down to us. Other female martyrs were merely women glorified in heaven,
for virtues exercised on earth; but _these_ were absolutely, in all
but the name, Divinities.... Their wholly ideal character, the tacit
setting aside of all human testimony with reference to their real
or unreal existence, instead of weakening their influence, invested
them with a divine glory.... These allegories (which by simplicity
and ignorance were long accepted as facts) should ever hereafter be
received but as one form of poetry ... to which the world listened in
its dreamy childhood, and which, like the ballad or the fairy tale
which kept the sleep from our eyes and our breath suspended in infancy,
have still a charm for our latest years.”
=St. Catherine of Alexandria.= _Lat._ Santa Catharina. _Ital._ Santa
Caterina. _Fr._ Madame Saincte Catherine. _Spa._ Santa Catalina. _Ger._
Die Heilige Katharine von Alexandrien.
St. Catherine represents the highest type of eloquence and intellect
that is found in woman. She is an example of courage and piety; and all
wisdom and good counsel are found in her. She is the Minerva of the
pagan, to whom has been added all the virtues of the Christian martyr.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
ST. CATHERINE.—LUCAS CRANACH
(Dresden Gallery.)]
St. Catherine was the daughter of Costis (half brother to Constantine
the Great) and Sabinella, Queen of Egypt. A glory of light played
around her head from the moment she came into the world, and from
earliest childhood she was remarkable for beauty of person and of mind.
Even while very young, Plato and Socrates were her favourite studies.
She had seven learned masters, but was so marvellously endowed that
she excelled each in his branch. At fourteen her father died, but as
queen she cared not for worldly things and devoted herself to study.
The nobles, discontented, wished her to marry, but she told them her
husband must be as noble, as great, as beautiful, and as rich as she,
and the nobles knew not what to say, for they realised well that no
such man could be found.
Now a holy hermit came to St. Catherine with a message from the Virgin
Mary, telling her that the husband she desired was her Son, and he gave
her a picture of Christ and His mother. And so filled was her soul with
love, that she forgot her books and thought only of Him. One night she
dreamed that she was brought before the King of Glory, but He turned
away His head, saying, “She is not fair nor beautiful enough for me,”
and she awoke weeping.
Then she asked the hermit what she must do to become worthy of her
celestial bridegroom, and he instructed her in the Christian faith
and baptised her. That night as she slept, the Virgin Mary appeared
with her divine Son and a heavenly host, and the Lord smiled upon her
and plighted His troth, putting a ring on her finger, and when she
awoke the ring was still there, and henceforth she considered herself
betrothed of Christ, and thought only of heavenly things.
At this time the tyrant Maximin came to Alexandria and persecuted all
Christians, commanding them to worship heathen gods. St. Catherine
confronted him and argued for the truth of Christianity, and so
wonderful was she, that learned philosophers and scholars were
confounded by her eloquence, and confessed themselves converted. This
so infuriated the emperor, that he had them burned at the stake,
Catherine comforting them to the end. Then she was thrown into prison
and kept without food, but angels ministered unto her, and at the end
of twelve days, the empress visited her and found her cell filled with
fragrance and light; and she and two hundred attendants were instantly
converted and baptised.
Maximin ordered them all to be put to death, and then, sending for St.
Catherine, because he was much inflamed with her beauty, he offered
to marry her if she would give up Christ. Upon her refusal, he had
her bound between four spiked wheels, which, turning in different
directions, would tear her body in pieces. But fire fell from heaven
and consumed the wheels, and three thousand persons were killed by the
flying pieces. Then St. Catherine was cruelly scourged and beheaded,
and angels carried her body to the top of Mt. Sinai. In the eighth
century a monastery was built over her remains, which are revered to
this day.
As patron saint, St. Catherine has several attributes: the palm as
martyr; the sword showing the manner of her death; the crown as a
sovereign princess; the book, signifying her learning; or as trampling
on the pagan tyrant: but her peculiar attribute is the wheel. When
entire it is the _emblem_ of torture, when broken it is the _historical
attribute_ showing the torture meditated, and the miracle by which she
was saved. She is pictured leaning upon it, or it is at her feet or an
angel bears it over her head. She is usually richly dressed, with all
the attributes of royalty.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
ST. BARBARA—LUCAS CRANACH
(Dresden Gallery.)]
The _Marriage of St. Catherine_ is a devotional subject and does not
appear in Italian art until the middle of the fifteenth century.
=St. Barbara.= _Ital._ Santa Barbara. _Fr._ Sainte Barbe.
Dioscorus, who lived in Heliopolis, was noble and very rich, and he
had a daughter Barbara whom he loved so much that, fearing her beauty
(which was very great) would cause her to be desired in marriage and
thus he would lose her, kept her shut up in a high tower away from the
eyes of men. Here she gave herself up to the study of all things which
concern the universe, and grew to believe that the gods of her fathers
must be false gods. Hearing of the famous teacher Origen, she secretly
wrote him for instruction, and he sent her one of his disciples
disguised as a physician, who converted and baptised her. Some workmen
were engaged in putting in two windows in her tower, and she commanded
that they insert a third. When her father questioned her for doing this
thing, she answered, “Know, my father, that through three windows doth
the soul receive light—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and the
Three are One.”
Then her father knew she was a Christian, and drew his sword to kill
her, but she fled to the top of her tower, her father pursuing; there
angels came to her assistance and bore her to a distance. A shepherd,
however, told Dioscorus where she was concealed, and he dragged her
forth by the hair, and beat her, and shut her up; but as she would not
yield, he denounced her to the proconsul, who had her scourged and
tortured. Still she would not deny her faith, and her father carried
her up on a mountain and himself cut off her head. As he was descending
the mountain, a tempest arose, and fire fell on him from heaven and
consumed him utterly.
In devotional pictures St. Barbara carries the sword and palm as
martyr, and when she wears the crown, it is as martyr, and not as
princess. She has also a book and is often reading, to show her life of
meditation. But her peculiar attribute is the tower, usually with three
windows in reference to the legend.
St. Barbara as protectress against thunder and lightning, firearms
and gunpowder, is invoked against sudden death, and those who implore
her aid shall not die without receiving the holy sacraments. Thus she
carries the sacramental cup and wafer, and is the only female saint
with this attribute. She is pictured as dressed magnificently, usually
with red drapery, the tower in the background, or sometimes holding a
small tower in her hand.
=St. Ursula.= _Lat._ S. Ursula. _Ital._ Santa Orsola. _Fr._ Sainte
Ursule.
The Cologne version of the quaint and charming legend of St. Ursula is
the one usually followed by the artists. A portion of it follows.
There reigned in Brittany a king named Theonotus, whose wife,
Daria, was a Sicilian princess. They were both Christians, and had
one daughter, whom they called Ursula, and whom they educated with
exceeding care. She was beautiful, gifted, and accomplished in all the
ways of wisdom and knowledge, so that many desired to marry her, but
she refused them all.
[Illustration:
Photo. Alinari
DETAIL FROM THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. URSULA.—V. CARPACCIO
(Academy, Venice.)]