Chapter VI: Part 6

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.

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.

Photo. Alinari

DETAIL FROM THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. URSULA.—V. CARPACCIO

(Academy, Venice.)]

Now the King of England had an only son named Conon, as celebrated for all manly qualities, as was Ursula for her beauty, piety, and wisdom. He became one of her suitors, and not wishing to offend so powerful a monarch, she sent answer that she would accept him if he would do three things: First, he must give her as companions ten virgins of the noblest blood in his kingdom, and to each of these a thousand attendants, and to her also a thousand maids in waiting; secondly, he must wait for her three years, while she and her companions visited the holy shrines of the saints; and third, that the prince and his court shall receive baptism, “for other than a perfect Christian I cannot wed.”

The wise Princess Ursula felt that Prince Conon must refuse these demands, but if he did not, then eleven thousand virgins would be dedicated to the service of God.

Now the ambassadors brought back such reports of her beauty and wisdom, that the king was willing to grant anything, and the prince only too eager to do all she asked. So he was baptised, and the king his father wrote to all the knights of his kingdom, asking that they send the required number of maidens, spotless, beautiful, and of noble birth, to attend on the Princess Ursula, who was to wed his son Prince Conon. And from all parts they came, fair and beautiful and clad in rich garments, and when they arrived in Brittany, Ursula received them with great gladness, praising God that so many of her sex had been redeemed from the world’s vanities.

“Now when Ursula had collected all her virgins together on a fresh and fair morning in the springtime, she desired them to meet in a meadow near the city, which meadow was of the freshest green, all over enamelled with the brightest flowers; and she ascended a throne which was raised in the midst, and preached to all the assembled virgins of things concerning the glory of God, and of His Son, our Lord and Saviour, with wonderful eloquence; and of Christian charity and of a pure and holy life dedicated to Heaven. And all these virgins, being moved with a holy zeal, wept, and, lifting up their hands and their voices, promised to follow her whithersoever she should lead. And she blessed them and comforted them; and as there were many among them who had never received baptism, she ordered that they should be baptised in the clear stream which flowed through that flowery meadow.”

Then they started on their pilgrimage, some say attended by the prince, but others that he remained to comfort her father. They embarked on ships, the virgins steering, but by some mistake they sailed to the north instead of the south, and were driven by the winds into the mouth of the Rhine as far as the port of Cologne. Here it was revealed to St. Ursula that upon her return she and her companions should suffer martyrdom on this spot. They continued their voyage, visited many places, and finally came to Rome.

Now it happened that the prince, by a miracle, who had gone out in search of his bride, arrived in Rome that same day. Being happily reunited, he knelt with Ursula at the feet of Cyriacus, Bishop of Rome, and “he no longer aspired to the possession of Ursula, but fixed his hope on sharing with her the crown of martyrdom on earth, looking to a perpetual reunion in heaven, where neither sorrow nor separation should touch them more.

“After this blessed company had duly performed their devotions at the shrine of St. Peter and St. Paul the good Cyriacus would fain have detained them longer, but Ursula showed him that it was necessary they should depart in order to receive the crown ‘already laid up for them in heaven.’ When the bishop heard this, he resolved to accompany her. In vain his clergy represented that it did not become a pope of Rome and a man of venerable years to run after a company of maidens, however immaculate they might be. Cyriacus had been counselled by an angel of God, and he made ready to set forth and embark with them on the river Rhine.

“Now it happened that there were at Rome in those days two great Roman captains, cruel heathens, who commanded all the imperial troops in Germania. They, being astonished at this multitude of virgins, said one to the other, ‘Shall we suffer this? If we allow these Christian maidens to return to Germania, they will convert the whole nation; or if they marry husbands, then they will have so many children—no doubt all Christians—that our empire will cease; therefore, let us take counsel what is best to be done.’ So these wicked pagans consulted together, and wrote letters to a certain barbarian King of the Huns, who was then besieging Cologne, and instructed him what he should do.

“Meantime St. Ursula and her virgins, with her husband and his faithful knights, prepared to embark; with them went Cyriacus, and in his train Vincenzio and Giacomo, cardinals, and Solfino, archbishop of Ravenna, and Folatino, bishop of Lucca, and the bishop of Faenza, and the patriarch of Grado, and many other prelates; and after a long and perilous journey they arrived in the port of Cologne.

“There the pagans rushed upon their unresisting victims, and one of the first to perish was the prince, who fell pierced through by an arrow at the feet of his beloved princess. Then they drew swords and massacred them all so that the plain ran in rivers of blood. But the barbarians, awed by the majestic beauty of Ursula had no power to strike her, but carried her before their prince, who wished to marry her and make her the greatest queen in all Germany. But St. Ursula repelled him with scorn. Then, seized with fury and bending his bow, which he held in his hand, he, with three arrows, transfixed her pure breast, so that she fell dead and her spirit ascended into heaven, with all the glorious sisterhood of martyrs whom she had led to death, and with her betrothed husband and his companions.”

In devotional pictures of St. Ursula she has the crown as princess; the arrow as martyr; and the pilgrim’s staff, surmounted by a white banner with the red cross, the Christian standard of victory. Sometimes she has a dove, because a dove revealed her burial place to St. Cunibert.

As patron saint she appears alone; is crowned and richly dressed with regal ornaments and wears a green or scarlet mantle lined with ermine; she holds in one hand a book, in the other an arrow; or sometimes the arrow in one hand, and in the other the banner with the red cross.

As martyr she kneels or stands, her golden hair unbound. Sometimes she is crowned, sometimes not; her hands are clasped, her bosom transfixed by an arrow; on the ground about her, her maidens lie dead.

Sometimes she is painted standing, holding open with both hands her mantle, which shelters many maidens wearing crowns. She is here the patroness of young maidens. The date of the martyrdom of St. Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins has been variously given as A. D. 237, 383, or 451. The legend can be traced to the year 600.

=St. Margaret.= _Ital._ Santa Margarita. _Fr._ Sainte Marguerite. _Ger._ Die Heilige Margaretha.

St. Margaret was the daughter of a pagan priest of Antioch named Theodosius, and being a frail child, was sent to a nurse in the country, who was a Christian and who brought her up in the faith. Here she was seen by Olybrius, governor of Antioch, who was so enamoured of her beauty that he ordered her to be brought to his palace and, if she was free-born, he would marry her. St. Margaret refused his offers, and declared herself a Christian, to the horror of her father and relatives, who fled, leaving her in the power of the governor. Olybrius then sought to subdue her by torments so great that even he was forced to cover his face from the sight.

Photo. Alinari

ST. MARGARET.—SCHOOL OF CORREGGIO

(Dresden Gallery.)]

She endured all without flinching. Then she was thrust into a dungeon, and there Satan in the form of a frightful dragon endeavoured to terrify her into subjection; but St. Margaret held up the cross of the Redeemer and he fled before it. A more popular version is, that he swallowed her alive and immediately burst asunder, and she came forth unhurt. Satan then came to her in the form of a man to tempt her, but she overcame him, and placing her foot on his head, she made him confess his vileness. Again she was brought before the tyrant, and refusing to deny her faith, was again tortured. Such constancy in one so young and beautiful induced many to be converted, so that five thousand were baptised in one day and wished to die with her. Alarmed at this, the governor ordered her to be beheaded forthwith.

In art St. Margaret is usually represented trampling a dragon, her peculiar attribute, under her feet, holding the cross in her hand. Sometimes the dragon is bound with a cord, or his jaws are open as if to swallow her; or he is seen rent or burst, St. Margaret standing upon him unharmed.

As martyr she bears the palm and crown. In some pictures she has a garland of pearls in allusion to her name. She is always the type of maiden innocence and the only one of the four great patronesses who is not represented as very learned.

XVIII.—THE FOUR GREAT VIRGINS OF THE LATIN CHURCH

ST. CECILIA, ST. AGNES, ST. AGATHA, AND ST. LUCY

=St. Cecilia.= _Fr._ Sainte Cécile. The name is the same in Italian, German, and Spanish.

St. Cecilia was of a noble Roman family, and brought up in the Christian faith. She early took a vow of chastity, shunning the pleasures of the world. She excelled in music and sang with such heavenly sweetness that angels came to listen to her. She played on all instruments, but as none sufficed to express the harmony which filled her soul, she invented the organ and consecrated it to the service of God.

When about sixteen her parents desired her to marry Valerian, a young Roman, rich and of noble birth. Cecilia accepted him, but beneath her bridal robe she wore a coarse garment of penance and renewed her vow of chastity; and by her eloquence persuaded her husband Valerian not only to respect her vow, but also converted him to the true faith, and he was baptised by the aged St. Urban who, being persecuted by the heathen, had sought refuge in the catacombs.

Photo. Alinari

ST. CECILIA.—CARLO DOLCI

(Dresden Gallery.)]

Cecilia had told Valerian that she had a guardian angel, and upon returning to her chamber, he heard the most enchanting music and beheld the angel standing near her, with two crowns of roses gathered in paradise; with these the angel crowned them as they knelt before him, and told Valerian that whatever he asked for should be granted him. And Valerian replied: “I have a brother named Tiburtius whom I love as my own soul; grant that his eyes also may be opened to the truth.” And the angel answered with a heavenly smile, “Thy request, O Valerian, is pleasing to God, and ye shall both ascend to His presence bearing the palm of martyrdom,” and the angel vanished. Soon after, Tiburtius entered the chamber and perceiving the fragrance of the celestial roses, Cecilia explained all to him and he, too, was converted, and went straightway to St. Urban and was baptised. And all three went about doing good.

Soon after, they were denounced to the prefect as Christians, and the two brothers were cast into prison. They converted their jailer Maximus, who suffered martyrdom with them, and Cecilia buried them together in the cemetery of Calixtus. The prefect, coveting the wealth of St. Cecilia, commanded her to sacrifice to the gods, and when she refused, put her to many tortures; finally ordering her to be thrown into her own bath filled with boiling water. But she came out unharmed, as though “she had bathed in a fresh spring.” Then he ordered her to be beheaded, but the hand of the executioner trembled so that he inflicted three wounds in her neck, and fled. She lived three days, praying and distributing all she had to the poor, and died “singing with her sweet voice praises and hymns to the last moments.” She was buried by the side of her husband, and, according to her wish, her house was consecrated as a church. In the ninth century it was revealed to Pope Paschal where she lay buried, and he had her remains, also the remains of Valerian, Tiburtius, and Maximus, deposited in her church, now St. Cecilia in Trastevere. The little room containing her bath is now a chapel.

Until the beginning of the fifteenth century St. Cecilia is seldom represented with her musical instruments. She has the palm, and the crown of red and white roses, and occasionally an attendant angel. It is thus sometimes difficult to distinguish her from St. Dorothea, who has also the palm, the crown of roses, and the angel. But Dorothea usually carries a book, while St. Cecilia when she has anything besides the palm, carries a scroll of music. Then St. Dorothea, besides roses on her head, frequently has them in her hand, or in a basket. The angel with St. Dorothea carries fruit and flowers in a basket. The angel with St. Cecilia bears a garland, or some musical instrument.

When accompanied by musical attributes, St. Cecilia is readily distinguished. She is richly dressed, wearing jewels, with musical instruments near her or sometimes playing the organ.

=St. Agnes.= _Lat._ Sancta Agnes. _Ital._ Sant’ Agnese. _Spa._ Santa Inez. _Fr._ Sainte Agnes.

“The blessed virgin S. Agnes was much wise and well taught, as S. Ambrose witnesseth, and wrote her passion. She was fair of visage, but much fairer in the christian faith, she was young of age, and aged in wit, for in the thirteenth year of her age she lost the death that the world giveth, and found life in Jesus Christ” (_The Golden Legend_).

Photo. Alinari

ST. AGNES.—SPAGNOLETTO

(Dresden Gallery.)]

The legend of St. Agnes is one of the oldest and most authentic in the Christian Church, and except for the evangelists and apostles there is no saint who is earlier depicted in art.

St. Agnes lived in Rome, and it happened that the son of the prefect Sempronius fell violently in love with her and desired to marry her, but Agnes refused. He then brought her rich presents and promised her all the delights of the world if she would consent to be his wife. But again she rejected him, saying she was betrothed to One greater than any earthly suitor. On hearing these words the prefect’s son fell ill with jealousy and disappointment.

Now the prefect loved his son, and went weeping to Agnes and to her parents and besought them to accept him. But Agnes made to him the same answer. Then the prefect found that she was a Christian, and enraged against her, subjected her to the most cruel tortures, but she remained firm. Then he ordered the soldiers to drag her to a place of infamy and “they stripped her of her garments; and when she saw herself thus exposed, she bent down her head in meek shame and prayed; and immediately her hair, which was long and abundant, became like a veil, covering her whole person from head to foot, and those who looked upon her were seized with awe and fear as of something sacred, and dared not lift their eyes. So they shut her up in a chamber, and she prayed that the limbs that had been consecrated to Jesus Christ should not be dishonoured. And suddenly she saw before her a white and shining garment, with which she clothed herself joyfully. And the whole place was filled with miraculous light.” Her lover entered, and as he approached her, was struck with blindness and fell lifeless. Agnes, melted to compassion, prayed that he might be restored to health, and her prayer was granted.

Then Sempronius, moved to gratitude, would have saved her, but the people clamoured for her death as a sorceress. So fagots were heaped up and set on fire and St. Agnes thrown in their midst, but the flames were miraculously extinguished and she stood unharmed, while the executioners around her were slain by the fire. She was at length put to death by the sword, and thus, looking steadfastly up to heaven, she yielded up her pure spirit and fell bathed in her own blood.

Her parents carried her body to a cemetery outside the city, and Christians assembled there day and night to pray. One day as her parents and others were praying by her sepulchre, “St. Agnes appeared before them all radiant of aspect; by her side was a lamb whiter than the driven snow.” She assured them of her perfect happiness and begged them to rejoice for her, and then vanished. Then the Christians ceased mourning for her and felt joy and thanksgiving instead.

Her pictures abound in every form and every school of art. As martyr she is seated, partly veiled, holding her palm in the right hand, with the other embracing her lamb. The lamb in later times is her invariable attribute, as the patroness of maidens, and maidenly modesty.

=St. Agatha.= _Ital._ Santa Agata. _Ger._ Die Heilige Agathe. _Fr._ Sainte Agathe.

A certain Christian maiden whose name was Agatha lived in the city of Catania, in Sicily. The Emperor Decius, who had strangled his predecessor Philip, reigned at that time, and sent his creatures throughout the empire to oppress and persecute the Christians. To Sicily he sent his emissary Quintianus, and made him king over the whole island.

Quintianus had not reigned long in Sicily when he heard of the great beauty of the maiden Agatha, and sent to have her brought before him; and tried to tempt her with presents, and flatteries; but she rejected him with disdain. Then Quintianus sent for a courtesan named Frondisia, who had nine daughters more wicked and abandoned than herself, and he delivered Agatha into their hands, saying, “Subdue this damsel to my will, and I will give ye great riches.”

Failing in this, because Agatha’s heart was fixed as firm as a rock in the faith of Jesus Christ, Quintianus sent for her again, and upon her refusal to abjure Christ, he ordered her to be most cruelly tortured, and then she was thrown into a dungeon and here St. Peter himself ministered unto her.

She was again brought before Quintianus, and after suffering many further tortures, her prayers were heard, and her pure spirit ascended to heaven.

When represented as patron saint either alone or grouped with others, St. Agatha bears in one hand the palm and in the other a dish or salver on which is a human breast, in allusion to the tortures inflicted upon her. The shears, as instrument of her martyrdom, are sometimes in her hand or beside her. When she wears the crown it is as the bride and martyr of Christ.

=St. Lucy.= _Ital._ St. Lucia. _Fr._ Sainte Luce, or Lucie.

Photo. Alinari

SANTA LUCIA.—CARLO DOLCI

(Uffizi, Florence.)]

Lucia was born in Syracuse, and dwelt there in the time of the wicked Diocletian, who sent one of his creatures, Pascasius, to be governor of Sicily. She was a Christian and had made a secret vow of chastity, but was betrothed at fourteen, against her will, to a pagan youth of great wealth. Her mother, being afflicted with a grievous malady, was induced by Lucia to go on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Agatha, which accordingly they did, and while praying beside the tomb, Lucia beheld a vision of St. Agatha, who appeared to her surrounded by angels, and said: “Well art thou called Lucia, who art indeed a light and mirror to the faithful,” and assured her that her prayers were heard and her mother healed.

Then Lucia persuaded her mother to permit her to remain unwed, and to give her dowry to the poor. When her lover heard this, in his rage he denounced her as a Christian. The governor ordered her to sacrifice to the gods, but she refused, and he then commanded that she be dragged to a place of shame, but when they tried to seize her she became immovable, and neither men, nor oxen with ropes, nor magicians could stir her from the spot.

Then a great fire was kindled around her, but she prayed and it did not harm her. Then one of the servants of Pascasius, to do him pleasure, pierced her throat with a sword or poniard.

The method employed by some of the early painters to express her name Lucia, _light_, by the emblem of an eye or eyes placed near her, seems to have occasioned the legend of the loss of her eyes, another instance of a symbol being converted into a fact, and a story invented to explain it.

The later legend relates that one of her suitors protested that he pursued her because of her beautiful eyes, and Santa Lucia, recalling the words, “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out,” cut out her eyes and sent them to her lover on a dish, and the youth, full of remorse, became a Christian and her eyes were miraculously restored to her.

Devotional pictures of St. Lucia bearing her eyes on a dish are often met with. As her eyes were bored out with an awl, she often carries an awl in her hand. When she stands with her lamp, she is the type of celestial light and wisdom, the character given to her by Dante. Sometimes she has a sword or poniard in her neck—or a wound in her neck from which rays of _light_ proceed, in allusion to her name.

XIX.—LEGENDS OF THE SAINTS MOST FREQUENTLY FOUND IN ART

=St. Stephen.= Protomartyr. _Lat._ St. Stephanus. _Ital._ San Stefano. _Ger._ Der Heilige Stefan. _Fr._ St. Étienne.

“And St. Stephen shone in beauty of body, in flower of age, in fair speech of reason, wisdom of holy thought, in works of divinity.”

Little has been added to the brief account of St. Stephen given in the sixth and seventh chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. His name is held in the highest honour as the first one who died for his faith in Christ. He was made a deacon during the ministry of Peter and before the conversion of Paul. He was accused of speaking blasphemously of the Temple and the Jewish law, and for this was condemned to death, and stoned by a mob outside the city gates.

In devotional pictures, the figure of St. Stephen occurs repeatedly. He is represented young, and of a mild and beautiful countenance wearing the rich dress of a deacon; the dalmatica, usually crimson in colour, and covered with embroidery. He bears the palm as protomartyr. His _peculiar_ attribute, the stones, are in his hand or in his drapery, or on his head and shoulders, or lying at his feet; or sometimes on the Scriptures, signifying that he suffered for the Gospel.

=St. Laurence.= _Lat._ S. Laurentius. _Ital._ San Lorenzo. _Fr._ St. Laurent. _Ger._ Der Heilige Laurentius or Lorenz.

Nothing authentic is known of the early life of this saint, who is honoured in Rome next to St. Peter and St. Paul. He was a Spaniard of Huesca, Aragon, and came to Rome while very young. “He walked so meekly and so blamelessly before God,” that Sixtus II., Bishop of Rome, made him his archdeacon, and put him in charge of the treasures of the Church. When Sixtus was denounced as a Christian and led away to death, Laurence wished to die with him, but the holy bishop told him that in three days he would follow him, and that his battle would be harder, his torments longer and more severe than his; and he bade him distribute all the treasures of the Church to the poor, that they might not fall into the hands of the tyrant. Thus comforted, St. Laurence sought the poor and the sick, the naked and the hungry, and he washed the feet of the Christians and gave them alms. “In this manner he went from one dwelling to another, consoling the persecuted, and dispensing alms, and performing works of charity and humility. Thus he prepared himself for his impending martyrdom.”

The prefect, hearing that the treasures of the Church were in his care, demanded them, and St. Laurence brought all the poor and the sick whom he had helped, before the prefect, and said, “Behold the treasures of Christ’s Church!” The prefect, in fury, thinking that he mocked him, ordered him tortured and cast into a dungeon, in charge of Hippolytus, whom, with his whole family, he converted and who afterwards suffered martyrdom. When the prefect found he could not subdue him, “he ordered a torture more strange and cruel than ever entered into the heart of a tyrant to conceive.” He had him stretched on a sort of iron bed formed of iron bars in the manner of a gridiron, and a fire lighted beneath, and he was roasted alive. And all wondered at a cruelty that would “condemn to such torments a youth of such fair person, and courteous and gentle bearing, and all for lust of gold.” In the midst of these torments St. Laurence said to the tyrant, “Seest thou not that I am already roasted on one side and if thou wouldst have me well cooked it is time to turn me on the other?”

Hippolytus buried his remains in the Via Tiburtina and Constantine built the church known as _San Lorenzo fuori le Mura_ on the spot. The common people of Rome gave him the title of _Il cortese Spagnolo_—“the courteous Spaniard”—because when they opened his sarcophagus two hundred years after his death and lowered into it the body of St. Stephen, St. Laurence moved on one side, giving the place of honour on the right to St. Stephen.

St. Laurence is constantly represented in devotional pictures, and like St. Stephen and St. Vincent he wears the rich dress of the deacon and has the palm as martyr. He is unmistakable, when he bears his peculiar attribute, the gridiron (_la graticola_), which varies in form. When it is the common kitchen utensil, it is no longer an attribute, but simply an emblem of the death he suffered. Sometimes a small gridiron is suspended around his neck, or he holds it in his hand, or it is embroidered on his robe. Occasionally it is omitted and he carries a dish full of gold and silver, representing the treasures of the Church, or he swings a censer, or carries a cross. He is always pictured young.

=St. Vincent.= _Lat._ S. Vincentius Levita. _Ital._ San Vincenzio Diacono, San Vincenzino.

St. Vincent was born in Saragossa in the kingdom of Aragon. During the persecution under Diocletian, the proconsul Dacian caused all the Christians of Saragossa to be massacred. At this time lived St. Vincent. He had been early taught in the Christian faith, and although barely more than twenty, he was already a deacon. The dangers and sufferings of the Christians only aroused his sympathy and zeal; and he encouraged and sustained many of his brethren in the torments inflicted upon them. When he and his aged bishop were brought before the tribunal to answer the charge of being Christians, the latter spoke in so feeble a voice that St. Vincent took the words from his lips, proclaiming his faith loudly and defying his persecutors.

Upon him, for this, were inflicted the most inhuman and barbarous tortures that cruelty could invent. The young saint endured them unflinchingly. His body was lacerated with iron forks, and when left torn and bleeding angels came to comfort him. The proconsul, after St. Vincent’s death, ordered his body to be thrown to the wild beasts, but God sent a raven to guard his sacred remains, and when a wolf approached to devour them the raven obliged it to retire.

Furious at this, Dacian commanded his minions to sew up in an ox-hide——as was done to parricides——the body of the holy martyr, and to throw it into the sea. Placing it thus in a bark, they rowed far out to sea, and flung it, attached to a millstone, overboard. But, to their astonishment, upon returning immediately to land, they found that the body of St. Vincent had preceded them and was lying on the sand. They fled terrified, and the waves of the sea, by the command of God, hollowed a tomb for him in the sands, where he lay protected from all harm, hidden from all human knowledge, until after many years the spot was miraculously revealed to certain Christians, who brought his body to Valencia and buried it there.

The Christians of Valencia, obliged to flee from the Moors in the eighth century, carried with them the remains of St. Vincent. Their vessel was driven by the winds onto a promontory, ever since called the Cape of St. Vincent. The body of St. Vincent remained there—again guarded by ravens—until it was removed to Lisbon by Alonzo I., about 1147. On this journey two ravens piloted the ship, one at the prow and the other at the stern. “Thus after many wanderings the blessed St. Vincent rested in the Cathedral of Lisbon; and the crows which accompanied him, having multiplied greatly, rents were assigned to the chapter for their support.”

This renowned saint is very popular in Spain, the scene of his legend, and has been since the sixth century one of the most venerated saints in France.

Photo. Alinari

ST. ANTHONY.—PALMA VECCHIO

(Church of S. Maria Formosa, Venice.)]

In art, it is sometimes hard to distinguish St. Vincent from St. Stephen and St. Laurence. He, too, is young and beautiful, wears the deacon’s robes, and carries the palm. His peculiar attribute, however, is a crow or raven, sometimes perched upon a millstone. Occasionally the iron fork—instrument of his martyrdom—is introduced. In Italian pictures he rarely has any attribute except the palm, while St. Laurence and St. Stephen are rarely without their respective symbols, the gridiron and the stones.

St. Vincent is often pictured in art with St. Laurence.

=St. Anthony=, Hermit. _Ital._ Sant’ Antonio Abbate, or l’Erémita. _Fr._ St. Antoine l’Abbé. _Ger._ Der Heilige Anton, or Antonius.

Anthony was born in Alexandria, Egypt. His parents died when he was eighteen and left him a noble name, great riches, and an only sister. He was imperfectly educated, knowing no language but his native Egyptian, and was a constant attendant on Christian worship. He had been of a melancholy disposition from childhood, and feared the temptations of the world and the responsibilities of his possessions. One day he heard the sentence, “Go, sell all thou hast, and give to the poor ... and come and follow me.” He took this as a message from heaven, and divided his wealth with his sister, gave his share to the poor, and withdrew to the desert, where dwelt a company of hermits.

Here he lived a life of such sanctity and self-denial that he was the admiration and wonder of all; and Satan, displeased at such amazing virtue, sent his demons to tempt him.[9] They whispered to him of all that he had sacrificed for this weary life of perpetual rigour and self-denial, but the saint prayed till the demon ceased.

Then Satan had recourse to stronger weapons, and clothed his demons in human forms: they plied him with delicious food, and hovered around him as beautiful women trying to allure him to sin. But St. Anthony resisted these temptations, and in anguish fled to a cave farther in the desert, where he lived alone and fasted more rigorously than ever.

But Satan followed him even here and now tortured him with pain, and tried to “affright him with all the terrors that can overwhelm the soul of man,” but in the midst of all these appalling shapes and sounds, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light which fell upon Anthony, and all these terrors vanished at once, and he arose unharmed and strong to endure. And he said, looking up, “O Lord Jesus Christ, where wert thou in those moments of anguish?” And Christ answered, “Anthony, I was here beside thee, and rejoiced to see thee contend and overcome. Be of good heart; for I will make thy name famous through all the world.”

When Anthony had lived in the desert seventy-five years, “his heart was lifted up by the thought that no one had lived so long in solitude and self-denial as he had done.” But in a vision a voice said to him, that there was one holier than he, for Paul the hermit had served God in solitude and penance for ninety years. Anthony resolved to seek Paul, and on the third day he came to a cavern overhung with rocks, with a palm tree, and a fountain flowing near, and there he found Paul. And while they talked there came a raven carrying in his beak a small loaf, which he let fall between them, and Paul blessed the goodness of God, and said: “For sixty years, every day hath this raven brought me half a loaf; but because thou art come, my brother, lo! the portion is doubled, and we are fed as Elijah was fed in the wilderness.”

Then Paul told St. Anthony that God had sent him to receive his last breath, and to bury him; and bade him return to his dwelling for the cloak given him by the holy Bishop Athanasius, and to wrap him in it and to lay him in the earth. Weeping, St. Anthony went to his monastery, took down the cloak, and returned as fast as his aged limbs would permit, and found Paul dead in his cave. Wrapping him in the cloak, he thought how he might bury him, for he had no strength to dig a grave and behold, two lions came, and by their roaring expressed their sympathy, and began to dig in the sand with their paws, and in a short time had dug the grave in which Anthony reverently laid the body of Paul. After this, Anthony lived fourteen years, and died aged one hundred and five.

Figures of St. Anthony occur frequently, and are easily recognised. He wears the monk’s habit and cowl, usually black or brown, and in Greek pictures the letter T, always blue, is on the left shoulder or on the cope. Anthony and his monks bear the T from the Greek word _Theos_, God, signifying, “These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, and in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God.”

The crutch given St. Anthony indicates his age and feebleness. The bell is given him because he had the power to exorcise evil spirits. The devil, according to Durandus, cannot endure the sound of a consecrated bell. The asperges—the rod for sprinkling holy water—as an instrument of exorcism, was also given St. Anthony. The hog represents the demon of sensuality and gluttony which St. Anthony overcame. Flames of fire placed near him, or a city or house burning in the background, signify his spiritual aid as patron saint against fire in this world and in the next. He is found with one or more of these attributes alone or in Madonna pictures.

In historical pictures the _Temptation of St. Anthony_ is the most common subject.

The legend of St. Paul the hermit is interwoven with that of St. Anthony. He is represented in devotional pictures as extremely old and wasted; his legs and arms bare; beard and hair white and very long; garbed only in a mat of palm leaves. When a raven is introduced, bringing him food, it is only by his dress of plaited leaves and his attenuated and aged appearance that St. Paul can be distinguished from Elijah in the wilderness. He does not often appear in Madonna pictures or grouped with other saints, but is usually alone, seated upon a rock, in deep meditation.

=St. Benedict.= _Ital._ San Benedetto. _Fr._ Saint Benoit. _Spa._ San Benito.

St. Benedict was born about 480 in Norcia, a small town in the duchy of Spoleto. He came of noble family and was sent to Rome to study. But even as a boy, he became disgusted with the profligacy of the times, and this, added to the religious enthusiasm of the age, drove him into a hermitage at fifteen. His nurse, who had been with him from infancy, followed him, and insisted upon waiting upon him and cooking for him. Feeling that his penance was not severe enough while thus looked after, St. Benedict secretly fled from his nurse and took refuge in a cave in Subiaco, a wilderness about forty miles from Rome, where he lived three years, supplied with bread and water by a hermit named Romano.

Here he experienced many temptations. Memories of a beautiful Roman woman haunted his imagination, and the desire to rush from his solitude and seek her was well nigh irresistible. But, believing that these thoughts came from Satan to try him, he flung himself naked into a thicket of briars and nettles, which so lacerated and stung the flesh that the temptation vanished, never to return.

Photo. Alinari

ST. BENEDICT.—HANS MEMLING

(Uffizi, Florence.)]

His fame spread, and people came from all over and begged for his prayers and brought their sick to be healed. He yielded to persuasion and became head of a monastery near by, but the strictness of his life filled the monks, who had grown lax, with dismay, and one tried to poison him in a cup of wine. But St. Benedict blessed it as usual and made the sign of the cross, and the cup fell broken, with its contents spilled. He then left them and returned to his cave in Subiaco. There crowds gathered in huts and cells, attracted by the fame of his sanctity and miracles. At length he had built twelve monasteries, in each of which he placed twelve disciples with a superior over them.

Two Roman senators brought him their sons, Maurus and Placidus, to be educated. St. Benedict devoted himself to their care and they became his most famous disciples. (St. Maurus founded a monastery in France, and St. Placidus was sent to Sicily, where he and his young sister Flavia were martyred.) His community became celebrated for brotherly love and charity, until jealousy crept in and one priest, named Florentius, tried to blacken the name of St. Benedict. He also tried to corrupt the monks by introducing seven young women into one of the monasteries. He then attempted to kill St. Benedict by means of a poisoned loaf, but Benedict suspected treachery and gave the loaf to a tame raven, who carried it away. Then St. Benedict left Subiaco, but had scarcely gone when a messenger came to him with word that his enemy had been crushed to death by the falling of a gallery in his house.

Hearing of a temple on Monte Cassino, not far from Rome, where the people performed pagan rites to Apollo, Benedict repaired thither, and by his preaching converted the people and persuaded them to break the statue and throw down the altar. He built two chapels here, and higher up on the mountain established the first monastery of the Benedictine Order. He here gave the famous Rule that became the general law for monks in Western Europe, and consisted of the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, to which St. Benedict added that of manual labour for seven hours a day, and vows perpetual after a novitiate of one year.

His sister, St. Scholastica, followed her brother to Mt. Cassino with a small company of pious women, and he was wont to visit her once a year. On his last visit, refusing to listen to his sister’s pleadings that he remain longer with her, she prayed that heaven might interfere, and immediately there came a furious storm, which delayed his departure several hours. St. Scholastica died two days later, and as St. Benedict was praying in his cell, he beheld the soul of his sister ascending to heaven in the form of a dove. This scene is often represented in pictures for the Benedictine nuns.

St. Benedict died March 21, 543, and it would take volumes to relate all the miracles attributed to him.

He is difficult to distinguish in art, because he is often represented wearing the _white_ habit, whereas the habit of the order was _black_. In white it is easy to confuse him with St. Bernard, St. Bruno, or St. Romualdo, and in black, for St. Anthony, so one must look for more characteristic attributes.

In pictures for Benedictine churches, which depend on Mt. Cassino and Subiaco, and in single devotional pictures, he wears the black habit with hood: as patriarch of the Reformed Benedictines of Clairvaux, Citeaux, Camaldoli, or Vallombrosa, the _white_ habit. Sometimes beardless, more often long white beard. As Abbot of Mt. Cassino he sometimes carries the staff and mitre; frequently holds an open book. Like other saints who have resisted temptation, he carries the asperges—the rod for sprinkling holy water—here an emblem of purity or holiness by which he conquered. The thorn bush is an attribute, showing the means whereby he conquered. A pitcher of wine or broken cup on a book expresses the attempt to poison him, also the raven with loaf of bread with serpent creeping from it. When a nun in black habit is introduced with St. Benedict, or stands alone with a lily in her hand and a dove at her feet or pressed to her bosom, it is St. Scholastica. When grouped with his two disciples, Maurus and Placidus, they all wear the black habit, or St. Benedict appears as abbot and the others as deacons, wearing the dalmatica over the black tunic. St. Maurus holds a book or a censer, and St. Placidus carries the palm as martyr.

=St. Bernard of Clairvaux.= _Lat._ Sanctus Bernardus. _Ital._ San Bernardo di Chiaravalle, Abbate. _Ger._ Der Heilige Bernhard.

Bernard was born at Fontaines, near Dijon, in 1091. Both parents were of noble family, and his mother, a highly gifted woman, superintended his early education. His personal beauty was very great, but his health was always delicate and he practised extreme self-denial from an early age. His thirst for knowledge was amazing, and after studying at the University of Paris, he entered the Reformed Benedictine monastery of Citeaux. The Abbot of Citeaux saw qualities in Bernard which convinced him that he would be the proper head of a new foundation, and in the year 1115 he sent him forth with twelve other monks to found another Cistercian monastery. Bernard led them to a wilderness called the “Valley of Wormwood,” and there built the famous abbey of Clairvaux.

Photo. Alinari

THE MADONNA APPEARING TO ST. BERNARD.—FILIPPINO LIPPI

(Church of the Badia, Florence.)]

Bernard became known throughout the Christian world, and was appealed to by feudal lords and ecclesiastics alike. He was an authority on all subjects, and his decisions were received with perfect submission. He was commissioned by Eugenius III. to preach a second crusade. Only a remnant returned from the ill-starred expedition, and the people turned on Bernard with sudden hatred. But he defended himself with such eloquence that their rage vanished. He affirmed boldly that they had been punished for their sins, and bade them go home and repent, which they did.

His bitter religious controversies with Abelard will be recalled.

He died in his sixty-third year at Clairvaux, where he had been abbot thirty-eight years, and was canonised twenty years later by Pope Alexander III. No man of his age had greater renown nor fills a larger place in the history of that age. His reputation rests on the integrity of his character, his eloquence as a preacher, his remarkable executive ability, and his skill as a writer.

In devotional pictures St. Bernard is represented as a monk in the white habit of the Cistercian Order, with shaven crown, little or no beard, carrying a large book under his arm, or presenting books to the Madonna, or with writing implements before him. Other attributes are the demon—signifying heresy—fettered behind him; sometimes three mitres on his book or at his feet signifying the three bishoprics he refused—those of Chartres, Spires, and Milan; also the beehive as symbol of eloquence in common with Chrysostom and Ambrose.

Photo. Alinari

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI.—SIMONE MARTINI

(Church of S. Francesco, Assisi.)]

_The Vision of St. Bernard_ has been charmingly rendered in art. The subject is mystical and devotional. St. Bernard’s most celebrated writings were devoted to the honour and glory of the Blessed Virgin who, in consequence, regarded him with peculiar favour, and it is related that once when he was writing his homilies he was so ill he could hardly hold his pen, and behold! she appeared to him and comforted and restored him by her gracious presence.

=St. Francis of Assisi.= _Lat._ Sanctus Franciscus, Pater Seraphicus. _Fr._ Saint François d’Assise. _Ital._ San Francesco di Assisi.

St. Francis was the founder of the Franciscans, one of the three Mendicant Orders of Friars. He was born in Assisi in 1182. His father, Pietro Bernardone, was a wealthy merchant. The son was taught French, and spoke it with such ease that his companions changed his baptismal name of Giovanni to _Francesco_—the Frenchman—by which he was ever afterwards known. In his youth he was remarkable for his extravagance and excessive love of pleasure. But he was kind and generous, and beloved by all. In a quarrel between the inhabitants of Perugia and Assisi he was taken a prisoner, and detained for a year in the fortress of Perugia.