The Head-Carriers: Headless Saints from Saint Denis to Saint Nicasius

11 Tuesday Nov 2014

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Béziers, cephalophore, Fourteen Holy Helpers, France, martyr, Montmartre, Paris, Rheims, Rouen, Sacré-Coeur, Saint Aphrodisius, Saint Cuthbert, Saint Denis, Saint Dionysius, Saint Firmin, Saint Nicasius, Saint Oswald, Saint Paul, Saint Valerie

Saint Denis, Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France. Photo by Reliquarian.

Saints Without Heads

As we’ve noted before, saints portrayed in Christian art often carry objects that help identify them in art. While some saints carry relatively benign, pedestrian objects — Saint Anthony often carries a white lily, Saint Notburga an ear of corn — others tote more lethal implements including an assortment of knives, swords, arrows, and wooden stakes. Martyrs in particular are frequently shown with deadly devices, generally the instruments of their martyrdom. A curious subset of martyrs, however, are commonly shown carrying their own heads. Known as cephalophores, literally “head-carriers” in Greek, these headless saints all suffered martyrdom by decapitation. Although depicting cephalophores may at first seem straightforward, artists have struggled for centuries with an unusual problem presented by their portrayal: Where does one place the halo on a headless saint?

Things Come to a Head: Secular Examples of Animate, Headless Corpses

John Quidor, The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane, oil on canvas (1858), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Photo by Reliquarian.

Stories of headless men and their improbable feats are not confined to the Roman Martyrology. Secular examples include Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the 14th-century Arthurian legend Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which features a remarkable contest known as a “beheading game.” In the story of Gawain, a giant stranger known as the Green Knight appears before King Arthur’s court on New Year’s Day. The Green Knight challenges the members of the court to strike him with his ax on the condition that he will return the blow in one year and a day. Gawain accepts the challenge, and the Green Knight prepares to receive Gawain’s strike by brushing aside his long locks and laying bare his neck. Gawain then grips the ax, raises it into the air, and lets it fall.

The author of the legend tells us, “The sharp edge of the blade sundered the bones, smote through the neck, and clave it in two, so that the edge of the steel bit on the ground, and the fair head fell to the earth . . . .”[1] The Green Knight, however, “neither faltered nor fell,” but instead, with his hand out-stretched, caught the head, lifted it up, and mounted his steed “as if naught ailed him, and he were not headless.”[2] Then the “grim corpse,” bleeding freely, held up the severed head and turned its face toward the gathered knights. Its eyelids lifted open, and the head spoke, warning Sir Gawain to keep his promise.[3]

Head Cases: Headless Saints and Their Post-Mortem Wanderings

Like the Green Knight and the Headless Horseman, whose severed head rested on the horseman’s saddle before he hurled it, dodgeball-like, at the hapless Ichabod Crane, the bodies of cephalophores remained animated even after the detachment of their heads. They even performed with a remarkable degree of agency, often selecting the sites of their own burials.

Saint Denis, Patron Saint of Paris

Saint Denis, Basilique Sacré-Coeur, Paris, France. The Basilique Sacré-Coeur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart), located in Montmartre, is traditionally associated with Saint Denis’s beheading. Photo by Reliquarian.

In The Golden Legend’s account of the death of Saint Denis, the saint collected his severed head and walked an appreciable distance with it after his beheading. According to the story, after Saint Denis, also known as Saint Dionysius, had been beheaded by a sword, his body “[i]nstantly . . . stood up, took his head in its arms, and, with an angel and a heavenly light leading the way, marched two miles, from the place called Montmartre, the hill of martyrs, to the place where, by his own choice and by God’s providence, he rests in peace.”[4] The abbey church of Saint-Denis was later erected on the spot where Saint Denis was buried.[5] One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, Saint Denis is often invoked for relief from headaches.

Saint Aphrodisius of Béziers

Another cephalophore, Saint Aphrodisius (or Saint Aphrodise) of Béziers, similarly retrieved and traveled with his severed head before settling on a final resting place. Saint Aphrodisius, the first Bishop of Béziers, was decapitated on the site of the Roman circus at Béziers, and his head was unceremoniously tossed into a well. Miraculously, the saint’s head was ejected from the well and rolled back to saint’s body. The headless corpse then picked up the head and walked with it through the city to the site of the hermit cave where the saint had lived during his lifetime.[6] The Basilica of Saint Aphrodisius of Béziers (Basilique Saint-Aphrodise de Béziers) was later erected on the spot where Saint Aphrodisius was buried.

Saint Nicasius of Rheims

Joos van Cleve, Saints George and Nicasius with donors (detail of Saint Nicasius), oil on panel (c. 1515), Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany. Here, Saint Nicasius is depicted with just the top of his head missing. Photo by Reliquarian.

Saint Nicasius of Rheims, is commonly portrayed with either his entire head or just a portion of head missing. According to Butler’s Lives of the Saints, Saint Nicasius was a 5th-century Bishop of Rheims who was killed by a marauding army of Gauls. Standing in the doorway of his church, Saint Nicasius was massacred with his deacon, Saint Florentius, and his lector, Saint Jucundus, by his side. The Gauls apparently cut his head off, although, as noted, he is often shown missing just the top of his head.

Other Cephalophores

Other cephalophores frequently represented with their severed heads include Saint Just, Saint Ginés de la Jara, Saint Firmin, Saint Minias, the siblings Saints Felix and Regula, Saint Exuperantius, Saint Valerie, Saints Maxien, Lucien, and Julian, Saint Chéron, and Saint Osyth. Although Saint Paul of Tarsus was martyred by beheading, he is more frequently depicted with a book of letters, signifying the letters he wrote to the earliest Christian communities, or a sword, the instrument of his martyrdom. The Golden Legend notes that at his execution, “[a]s soon as his head bounded from his body, it intoned, in Hebrew and in a clear voice, ‘Jesus Christ.’”[7] Meanwhile, although not a cephalophore, Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne can easily be mistaken for one. Saint Cuthbert commonly carries a severed head, although it is not his own. It belongs to Saint Oswald, whose head was buried with Saint Cuthbert at Durham Cathedral.

Saint Firmin Holding His Head, limestone and paint (c. 1225-75), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Photo by Reliquarian.

The Secret to Getting A Head

In his essay in Disembodied Heads in Medieval and Early Modern Culture, Scott Montgomery argues that stories describing the “post-mortem ambulation” of cephalophoric saints may have served a pragmatic purpose in certain communities. He observes, “Cephalophores do not merely respond to their decapitation, but more actively direct the location of their resting place and subsequent veneration, establishing the locus sanctus of their cult. Not surprisingly, it seems that the trope is commonly inserted into the saint’s tale by those claiming to possess [the saint’s] relics.”[8] Montgomery observes that texts and images of cephalophory were frequently produced where the relics were kept, suggesting that such tales were effective at “establishing relic claims at the very location where the tale was inserted into the saint’s vita.”[9]

Double Halo!

Whatever the origin of the trope, artists entrusted to render the personalities of cephalophoric saints faced an uncommon challenge. Saints in art were generally depicted with a halo or nimbus behind their heads, indicating their great dignity and sanctity.[10] While many artists continued to follow this convention for cephalophores, the unusual placement of a cephalophore’s head, which artists often deposited in the headless saint’s hands, could visually diminish the effect of the golden, glowing halo. Consequently, artists sometimes sought other ways to communicate the sanctity of cephalophores.

Saint Nicasius, Rouen Cathedral, Rouen, France. Saint Nicasius is holding his bishop’s mitre and is missing the top of his head. Photo by Reliquarian.

One approach involved placing the cephalophore’s halo around the saint’s neck, where the head had been. Saint Denis is depicted this way on the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, as is Saint Nicasius above the north portal of Rheims Cathedral. Another approach involved rendering a cephalophore with two halos: one above the saint’s decollated head and one around the saint’s neck, which was sometimes shown spurting blood. Saint Denis is depicted this way in a manuscript illuminated by the Master of Sir John Fastolf and on the coat of arms of the city of Krefeld, Germany.

Léon Bonnat’s famous Le martyre de Saint-Denis at the Pantheon in Paris depicts a variation of the double halo concept. In Bonnat’s painting, the headless bodies of Saint Denis’s companions, Saints Eleutherius and Rusticus, are strewn to Saint Denis’s left and right while a bloody ax rests on steps in the foreground. To the upper right of the painting, an angel swoops from the sky bearing a palm frond and crown of martyrdom. Meanwhile, at the center of the painting, Saint Denis’s headless body is shown scooping up its head like a fumbled football. The disembodied head is surrounded by a distinct halo, but the space above Saint Denis’s neck, where his head would have been, is also aglow. Not quite a halo, nimbus, aureole, or other traditional marker of saintliness, the glow appears as a riot of sparks reminiscent of a holiday sparkler.

The Martrydrom of Saint Nicasius, stained glass (early 13th century), Basilique Cathédrale Saint-Gervais-et-Saint-Protais de Soissons, Soisson, France. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Heady Times: Cephalophores Unbound

Cephalophory is, perhaps, one of the most dramatic examples of a saint’s triumph over death. As Montgomery explains, “much of the potency of the trope is fed by the phenomenon . . . that the martyr is only dispatched by beheading after enduring a series of horrific tortures.”[11] Saint Denis, for example, was stretched on an iron grill over a blazing fire; thrown to hungry, wild beasts; stuffed into an oven; and nailed to a cross before he was finally beheaded. Decapitation, then, was frequently resorted to as a means of “martyr-dispatching” because it was so effective and so definitive.[12] Accordingly, “the act of post-decapatory ambulation (and occasionally locution) is underscored as all-the-more miraculous. Cephalophores dramatically enact their imitatio Christi and imitatio sancti in ‘surviving’ bodily death, essentially following the model of St. Paul in professing faith after decollation.”[13]

[1] 1 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose 15-16 (Jessie Laidlay Weston trans., 1900).

[2] Id. at 16.

[3] Id.

[4] Jacobus de Voragine, 2 The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints 240 (William Granger Ryan trans., 1993).

[5] 4 Butler’s Lives of the Saints 67-68 (Herbert J. Thurston, S.J. & Donald Attwater eds., 2d ed. 1956). Butler’s Lives of the Saints explains that the cultus of Saint Dionysius or Saint Denis was very strong in the Middle Ages and that by the 6th century he was already recognized as “the saint of Paris par excellence.” Id. at 68.

[6] See, e.g., Scott B. Montgomery, Securing the Sacred Head: Cephalophory and Relic Claims, in Disembodied Heads in Medieval and Early Modern Culture 92-93 (Catrien Santing et. al, eds., 2013).

[7] Jacobus de Voragine, 1 The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints 353-54 (William Granger Ryan trans., 1993).

[8] Montgomery, supra note 6, at 85.

[9] Id. at 85-86.

[10] George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art 149 (1954).

[11] Montgomery, supra note 6, at 86.

[12] Id.

[13] Id.

Saint Blaise: Protector of Dubrovnik and Patron Saint of Throat Illnesses

19 Monday May 2014

Posted by Reliquarian in "Speaking" Reliquary

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auxiliary saints, Charlemagne, Croatia, Dubrovnik, Festivity of Saint Blaise, Fourteen Holy Helpers, Germany, Rothenburg, Saint Blaise, speaking reliquary, St. Blasien, Venice

Saint Blaise Group, Dom Sankt Blasien (Cathedral of Saint Blaise), Sankt Blasien, Germany. This statute group, which depicts Saint Blaise's most famous miracle, dates to circa 1740. It originally stood in an Ursuline monastery in Vienna.

Saint Blaise Group, Dom St. Blasien (Cathedral of Saint Blaise), St. Blasien, Germany. This statute group, which depicts Saint Blaise performing his most famous miracle, dates to circa 1740. It originally stood in an Ursuline monastery in Vienna.

Saint Blaise and the City of Dubrovnik

For over a thousand years, the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia has celebrated the feast day of Saint Blaise by staging one of the grandest and most impressive annual festivals in the world: the Festivity of Saint Blaise (Festa svetoga Vlaha).[1] The festival commemorates Saint Blaise’s salvation of the city on the eve of a surprise attack in 971. According to tradition, Saint Blaise’s miraculous intervention thwarted a planned invasion of the city, and in gratitude, the people of Dubrovnik enthusiastically embraced the saint’s cult, proclaiming him their patron and protector. Over the centuries, the relationship between city and saint flourished, and the identities of both became virtually inextricable. The annual Festivity of Saint Blaise, which has been celebrated in some form since at least 1190, only reinforced this association.[2] Meanwhile, succeeding generations have adapted the festival to their own needs, which has kept it vibrant and relevant in changing times.[3] Today, Saint Blaise’s likeness can be found virtually everywhere in Dubrovnik, and his spirit continues to imbue the city with a touch of mystery and a sense of the sublime.

Dubrovnik, Croatia. View of the rooftops with the Church of Saint Blaise in the foreground.

Acknowledging its great historical and cultural significance not only to the people of Dubrovnik, but also to the people of the world, UNESCO formally recognized the Festivity of Saint Blaise as an example of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.[4] Who, though, was Saint Blaise? And how did he come to save Dubrovnik from disaster?

The Origin of the Festivity of Saint Blaise

The night of February 2, 971, began quietly enough in city of Dubrovnik. It was Candelmas, the feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. A fleet of Venetian ships lay at anchor beyond the city walls, taking on provisions before continuing east. And the city’s pastor, a man named Stojko, was out for a walk.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

As Stojko approached the church of Saint Stephen that night, he noticed something odd: the doors to the church had been left wide open. Stojko entered the darkened church and discovered an old, gray-haired man who introduced himself as Saint Blaise, the 4th-century bishop and martyr of Sebaste.[5] Saint Blaise gravely explained the reason for his visit. “I come to warn you of great danger for the city,” he said. The Venetians anchored outside the city walls had arrived under pretext, and they intended to take the unsuspecting city, a flourishing commercial power and potential rival to Venice, by surprise.[6] Alarmed by Saint Blaise’s message, Stojko rushed to the city council and warned them of the impending attack. The gates to the city were quickly secured, and the mighty walls of the town were manned for the city’s defense.[7] Seeing these preparations, the Venetians abandoned their plans and departed, leaving Dubrovnik – then known as Ragusa – in peace.[8] Significantly, the next day, February 3rd, was the feast day of Saint Blaise.

The Festivity of Saint Blaise in Modern Times

Today, the Festivity of Saint Blaise is celebrated over the course of several days, although preparations for the festival begin many weeks in advance.[9] The Festivity officially opens with much fanfare on Candlemas, February 2nd, when the banner of Saint Blaise is raised atop Orlando’s Column in front of the Church of Saint Blaise. (Orlando’s Column, also known as Roland’s Column, commemorates the knight and hero of the famous medieval poem The Song of Roland (La Chanson de Roland), who died in the service of the emperor Charlemagne at the Battle of Roncevaux in 778.) The raising of the banner – a white standard embroidered with an image of Saint Blaise as a gray-haired bishop – is accompanied by the ringing of church bells, the discharging of historic firearms, and the release of white doves.[10] Joyous shouts of “Long live Saint Blaise!” follow from the cheering crowd.[11] In the evening, Vespers to honor Saint Blaise are sung in the cathedral.

Church of Saint Blaise, Dubrovnik, Croatia

The festival resumes early the next morning, the official feast day of Saint Blaise, with the ringing of church bells, the clamor of brass bands, and more volleys from thecity’s historic musketeers, the trombunjeri.[12] About mid-morning, a public mass is held outside Dubrovnik Cathedral (Cathedral of the Assumption). At its conclusion, a grand procession of celebrants – including trombunjeri, banner-bearers, priests, nuns, musicians, First Communicants, pilgrims, residents in national costumes, and specially appointed festanjuls (celebrators) – wends its way from the cathedral down the Stradun, the city’s main thoroughfare, and through the heart of the Old City.[13] The procession is one of the most colorful and most striking elements of the festival. In the words of one book on Saint Blaise, “the Stadun becomes a magnificent cathedral under the open skies” during the procession.[14]

Stradun, Dubrovnik, Croatia

One of the highlights of the parade includes the procession and display of Dubrovnik’s most prized relics, including the head, right hand, foot, and throat of Saint Blaise.[15] Housed in glittering reliquaries of gold and silver, the relics have been described as the “greatest cultural and artistic treasure” of Dubrovnik Cathedral[16]. The Reliquary of the Head of Saint Blaise is shaped like a Byzantine crown and likely dates to the 11th century.[17] The Reliquary of the Right Hand of Saint Blaise is slightly more modern. Crafted in the 12th century by Dubrovnik goldsmiths, the reliquary is shaped like a hand and features a large blue stone surrounded by filigree, pearls, and precious stones embedded on the back of the hand. The Reliquary of the Foot of Saint Blaise, like the hand reliquary, is a “speaking reliquary.” Crafted by Byzantine goldsmiths in the 11th century, the reliquary is shaped like a leg and foot and is covered in intricate gold filigree.[18] The Reliquary of the Throat of Saint Blaise contains the saint’s larynx, which is visible through a crystal window. Shaped like a monstrance, the reliquary is made of embossed silver decorated with enamel and dates to the 15th century.[19] Lastly, the Diapers or Swaddling Clothes of Jesus, housed in an ornate silver chest, are given a place of honor in the parade.[20]

Who Was Saint Blaise?

According to tradition, Saint Blaise was a 4th-century bishop of Sebaste in Armenia who was martyred in approximately 316.[21] He was born to a wealthy Greek or Armenian family in about 280, and he studied medicine, which he practiced with great skill and gentleness.[22] After treating his patients, he often added a sign of the cross.[23]

During a persecution of Christians in the region, Saint Blaise withdrew to a cave on Mount Argeus.[24] The cave was frequented by wild beasts, which Saint Blaise healed when they were sick or wounded. Hunters sent to the mountain to obtain wild animals for the amphitheater eventually discovered Saint Blaise, surrounded by the animals, and “though greatly amazed, they seized him and took him to Agricola,” the Roman governor of Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia.[25] En route, Saint Blaise performed a number of miracles in the presence of the hunters.

Fountain Statute of Saint Blaise, Domplatz (Cathedral Square), Dom St. Blasien, St. Blasien, Germany. The statue was carved by Josef Schupp in 1714. The fountain was designed by Walter Schelenz in 1966.

First, the group encountered a poor woman whose pig had been seized by a wolf. Saint Blaise commanded the wolf to return the pig, and the wolf immediately complied, returning the unfortunate animal unhurt. For this act, Saint Blaise gained a reputation as a protector of pigs and of animals more generally.[26]

Second, Saint Blaise healed a sick boy who was choking on a fishbone. The boy was at the point of death when his mother brought him to Saint Blaise. Saint Blaise placed his hands on the boy’s throat, prayed to God, and healed him. On account of this miracle, Saint Blaise has since been invoked as a protector against throat illnesses, including sore throats, and other associated maladies, such as tonsillitis (also known in Spain as the curse of Saint Blaise) and respiratory problems.[27]

The Martyrdom of Saint Blaise

When Saint Blaise was finally presented before Agricola, Saint Blaise refused to deny his faith. Consequently, he was imprisoned without food and was scourged. During his imprisonment, the woman whose pig Saint Blaise had saved brought him food and gave him candles to lighten his gloomy cell. Candles would later become a common attribute of Saint Blaise.[28] Crossed in an X either against the throat or over the head of an applicant, two candles are used to deliver the traditional Blessing of the Throat and are said to recall the tapers brought to the saint by the grateful woman.[29] The prayer that accompanies the Blessing of the Throat is Per intercessionem Sancti Blasii liberet te Deus a malo gutturis et a quovis alio malo (“Through the intercession of Saint Blaise, may God deliver you from illness of the throat and every other illness”).[30]

Relic of Saint Blaise, Dom Sankt Blasien, Sankt Blasien, Germany

Relic of Saint Blaise, Dom St. Blasien, St. Blasien, Germany

Eventually, Agricola had Blaise tortured and scourged with iron carding combs, which scraped and tore his flesh. Because carding combs are also used to card wool, Saint Blaise’s association with these instruments of torture oddly led to his adoption as the patron saint of wool combers. Additionally, because the iron combs viciously shredded his skin, Saint Blaise also became a protector against skin ailments, such as blisters, pimples, and leprosy, which was much feared during the Middle Ages.[31]

Saint Blaise depicted above a city gate, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

After these tortures, Saint Blaise was beheaded and was buried near the walls of Sebaste.[32] He is commonly portrayed as a bishop with a gray or white beard, and he is often shown holding a crosier, an iron comb, or candles. In Dubrovnik, he frequently holds a miniature version of the city in his hands.

Fourteen Holy Helpers

Saint Blaise is also a member of the Fourteen Holy Helpers or Vierzehn Nothelfer (“fourteen helpers in need”), which has been described as “a potent group of saints invoked collectively in times of near death or dire calamity.”[33] Veneration of the Fourteen Holy Helpers originated in Germany in approximately the 13th century, though the cult did not gain a wide following until the 15th century, when a shepherd declared seeing the Christ Child accompanied by fourteen older children near the Benedictine Abbey at Banz.[34] According to the shepherd, the Christ Child described his companions as the Nothelfer and stated that they wished to work miracles from the site.[35] A small chapel was built on the spot, though it was later replaced by a much grander pilgrimage church, the Wallfahrkirche Vierzehnheilgen, designed by Balthasar Neuman.

Cathedral of Saint Blaise in the Black Forest (Sankt Blasien), Germany

Dom St. Blasien (Cathedral of Saint Blaise), St. Blasien, Germany

Meanwhile, Saint Blaise (Sankt Blasien) continues to be revered throughout Germany, both individually and as an auxiliary saint of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. Many of the traditions associated with the saint’s feast day, however, have begun to fade or have disappeared entirely in Germany. For example, notched breadsticks (Blasiusbrot) and trachea-shaped loaves of bread (Bubenschenkel) used to be common offerings during the saint’s feast day but have become increasingly difficult to find.[36] Meanwhile, in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Blasiustag used to involve the blessing of horses.[37] Blessed horses were given bronze combs of Saint Blaise, which were attached to their ears.[38] In more modern times, a few farmers even had their tractors blessed before the custom died out completely.[39] Germany still has a number of churches dedicated to Saint Blaise, including the imposing Dom St. Blasien, or Cathedral of Saint Blaise, located in the Black Forest town of St. Blasien. (Dom St. Blasien is pictured above.)

Živio sveti Vlaho! Long live Saint Blaise!

In his last poem, The Bells of San Blas, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow writes of a past when religion and faith still held power and when church bells served as the “voice of the church.”[40] The Bells of San Blas, Mexico, “[h]ave a strange, wild melody, / and are something more than a name,” he writes.[41] They have “tones that touch and search / The hearts of young and old,” yet they are “a voice of the Past, / Of an age that is fading fast.”[42] The chapel that “once looked down / On the little seaport town” has “crumbled into the dust” and the oaken beams that support the bells have become “green with mould and rust.”[43] “Is, then, the old faith dead?” he asks.[44] And the saints: “Ah, have they grown / Forgetful of their own? Are they asleep, or dead . . . ?”[45]

In Dubrovnik, at least, tradition and faith endure. The Festivity of Saint Blaise is proof that Saint Blaise has not been forgotten and remains integral to the life and culture of the city. Živio sveti Vlaho!

Interior Dome of the Cathedral of St. Blasien in the Black Forest, St. Blasien, Germany. The ceiling frescoes are by Walter Georgi.

Interior Dome of the Dom St. Blasien, St. Blasien, Germany. The ceiling frescoes are by Walter Georgi.

[1] See, e.g., Nomination for Inscription on the Representative List 2009: The Festivity of Saint Blaise, the Patron of Dubrovnik, Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2 Oct. 2009; Thousand Year Old Celebration of the Dubrovnik Patron, St Blaise, Dubrovnik Tourist Board Website, Feb. 3, 2012, http://visitdubrovnik.hr/en-GB/Events/Event/Town/Dubrovnik/Thousand-Year-Old-Celebration-of-the-Dubrovnik-Patron-St-Blaise?ZXZcNjUz; Saint Blasius Church–Dubrovnik, DubrovnikCity.com, http://www.dubrovnikcity.com/dubrovnik/attractions/st_blaise_church.htm.

[2] See The Festivity of Saint Blaise, the Patron of Dubrovnik, UNESCO.org, http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?RL=00232. Other sources claim the festival is much older.

[3] See id.

[4] Id.

[5] Saint Blaise: Veneration Without Boundaries 105 (Adriana Kremenjaš-Daničić ed., Biserka Simatović trans., 2012).

[6] Id.

[7] Saint Blasius Church–Dubrovnik, supra note 1. Fans of the television show “Game of Thrones” may recognize the stout defensive walls of Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik has doubled as King’s Landing and Qarth in various episodes of the popular show. See Natasha Geiling, On the Ultimate “Game of Thones” Tour, Apr. 10, 2014, Smithsonian.com, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/iceland-croatia-go-ultimate-game-thrones-tour-180950450/?no-ist.

[8] The Venetians would eventually conquer Dubrovnik, also known as Ragusa, centuries later.

[9] A lectures series called “In Expectation of Saint Blaise” held in January marks the beginning of the preparations for the festival. Europski Dom Dubrovnik, Saint Blaise: Veneration Without Boundaries 107 (2012).

[10] Musketeers known as trombunjeri are responsible for firing the volleys that accompany the raising of Saint Blaise’s banner. See, e.g., id.; Nomination for Inscription on the Representative List 2009, supra note 1.

[11] Saint Blaise: Veneration Without Boundaries, supra note 9, at 107.

[12] See, e.g., Saint Blaise: Veneration Without Boundaries, supra note 9, at 107; Nomination for Inscription on the Representative List 2009, supra note 1.

[13] See Saint Blaise: Veneration Without Boundaries, supra note 9, at 108.

[14] Id.

[15] See, e.g., Nomination for Inscription on the Representative List 2009, supra note 1 (“Priests in the procession carry many saintly powers in reliquaries, an exceptional cultural and historical treasure, which mostly contains the relics of Blaise and the holy martyrs from the first centuries of Christianity.”).

[16] The Dubrovnik Cathedral (Don Stanko Lasić ed., n.d.) (pamphlet describing Dubrovnik Cathedral).

[17] Id.

[18] Id. Additional decoration was added to the reliquary in subsequent centuries. For example, an enamel medallion featuring the coat of arms of the Republic of Ragusa was apparently added to the reliquary in the 17th century. An inscription around the medallion reads “SANCTUS 1684 BLASIUS.”

[19] Id.

[20] See, e.g., Tom Kelly, A Party for the Patron Saint of Sore Throats, Telegraph (UK), Jan. 27, 2007, available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/croatia/739995/A-party-for-the-patron-saint-of-sore-throats.html. The author mistakenly identifies the relic as “a fragment of Jesus’s loincloth.” In fact, the silver reliquary is said to contain the diapers or swaddling cloths of the baby Jesus.

[21] See, e.g., 1 Butler’s Lives of the Saints 239 (Herbert J. Thurston, S.J. & Donald Attwater eds., 2d ed. 1956); Saint Blaise: Veneration Without Boundaries, supra note 9, at 10–16.

[22] Saint Blaise: Veneration Without Boundaries, supra note 9, at 13.

[23] Id.

[24] Id.

[25] Butler’s Lives of the Saints, supra note 21, at 239.

[26] Saint Blaise: Veneration Without Boundaries, supra note 9, at 13; see also Butler’s Lives of the Saints, supra note 21, at 239.

[27] Saint Blaise: Veneration Without Boundaries, supra note 9, at 14, 17.

[28] Butler’s Lives of the Saints, supra note 21, at 239.

[29] Id.

[30] Id.

[31] Saint Blaise: Veneration Without Boundaries, supra note 9, at 17.

[32] Id. at 15.

[33] Id. at 19.

[34] Id.

[35] Id.

[36] Id. at 54.

[37] Id.

[38] Id.

[39] Id.

[40] Henry Wadworth Longfellow, Complete Poetical Works (1893).

[41] Id.

[42] Id.

[43] Id.

[44] Id.

[45] Id.

Saint Erasmus of Formiae (or Saint Elmo)

13 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by Reliquarian in Painting

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Tags

Fourteen Holy Helpers, martyr, Master of Messkirch, Maximian, Saint Elmo, Saint Erasmus, Saint Florian, Saint Stephen, windlass

Nicholas Poussin, The Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus (1628). Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City.

Saint Erasmus’s primary emblem is the windlass – a crank and shaft used for hoisting or hauling – so it is often assumed that the windlass had something to do with his martyrdom. Martyrs are often portrayed near or actually holding the instruments of their death; for example, Saint Stephen, who was stoned to death, may be shown holding a stone, or Saint Florian, who was drowned after being thrown into a river with a millstone around his neck, may be seen with a millstone. Saint Erasmus’s windlass, however, is emblematic of his patronage of mariners, not his manner of death. Still, the symbol of the windlass (a nautical symbol) and Saint Erasmus’s status as a martyr have become conflated over time, resulting in a gruesome, though erroneous, story of martyrdom by windlass.

Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus

Saint Erasmus was Bishop of Formiae, Campagna, Italy. The Roman Martyrology recounts that Saint Erasmus “was first scourged with leaded whips and then severely beaten with rods; he had also rosin, brimstone, lead, pitch, wax, and oil poured over him, without receiving any injury.”[1] Later, during the reign of Maximian, “he was again subjected to various most horrible tortures at Mola, but was still preserved from death by the power of God for the strengthening of others in the faith. Finally, celebrated for his sufferings, and called by God, he closed his life by a peaceful and holy end. His body was afterwards transferred to Gaeta.”[2]

Notably absent from the Roman Martyrology’s account is any mention of a windlass or a dramatic death. On the contrary, the martyrology states that Saint Erasmus died “by a peaceful and holy end.”[3] Over the centuries, however, Saint Erasmus’s frequent portrayal with a windlass and his status as a martyr gave rise to the myth that he had been killed with the use of a windlass. More specifically, and as portrayed to grisly effect in art, a tradition arose that he was disemboweled and that his intestines were wound around a windlass as he was killed.[4]

As Patron Saint of Sailors

As mentioned, the windlass became a symbol of Saint Erasmus because of his patronage of sailors. During storms at sea, sailors sometimes encountered blue glowing balls of light or blue flames springing from the mastheads of their ships. Because these lights often appeared toward the end of a storm, sailors considered the lights a good omen and a sign of protection from their patron saint.[5] The name “Erasmus” had several variants around the Mediterranean, including “Elmo,” and the lights became known as “St. Elmo’s Fire” or “St. Elmo’s Lights.”[6] St. Elmo’s Fire is a meteorological phenomenon caused by ionization of the air around certain objects, like ships’ masts. Nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere fluoresce, like gas in a neon light, with a blue or violet glow, giving St. Elmo’s Fire its distinctive hue.[7]

Disembowelment By Windlass

Over time, however, Saint Erasmus’s nautical emblem began to take on a more sinister pall. As Rosa Giorgi states in Saints In Art, even though no written evidence held that Saint Erasmus’s intestines were “pulled from his body with a windlass,” the windlass nevertheless “became popularly imagined as an instrument of torture, and thus the atrocious punishment of having one’s intestines extracted with the device was invented.”[8] Giorgi further explains, “This is one example where imagery influenced hagiography.”[9]

As Portrayed in Art

Nicholas Poussin’s The Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus (1628) (pictured at the beginning of this post) perpetuates the myth that Saint Erasmus was disemboweled. The painting is fraught with tension and high drama as Saint Erasmus, his face pained but resolute, is methodically disemboweled while a crowd of his tormentors looks on. Saint Erasmus, who is tied down on his back over a sturdy wooden bench, anchors the scene. His red chasuble and miter, indicating his status as a bishop, are strewn on the ground beside him. His executioner, whose head is positioned near the very center of the painting, leans over him, pulling his intestines from his body. A man in the background to the right of the painting pulls a windlass, winding the intestines around a wooden post.

To the left of the painting, a man in white stares angrily into Saint Erasmus’s face and gesticulates towards a pagan statute crowned with laurel leaves.[10] The man is demanding that Saint Erasmus forsake his faith. Two angels hover above, carrying a laurel wreath and a palm frond, which were symbols of victory to the Romans.[11] Christian artists later appropriated those symbols, particularly the palm frond, and used them to represent a martyr’s victory over death. In The Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus, the angels wait to bestow the crown and palm frond of martyrdom on Saint Erasmus in his final hour.

Other Associations

In addition to being the patron saint of sailors, Saint Erasmus is also the patron saint of a host of other groups, including explosives workers, ordnance workers, and women in labor. He is also invoked against colic, birth pains, intestinal disorders, stomach diseases, and storms. He is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, a group of saints regarded as special protectors against various illnesses.

[1] Catholic Church, The Roman Martyrology 161 (revised ed., reprint 1916).

[2] Id. Other sources are more specific about the circumstances of his life and death, although much confusion remains over the particulars of Saint Erasmus’s identity. The Book of the Saints, for example, lists two Saints Eramsus, both from Syria, whose feast days are celebrated on June 2^nd and November 25^th. Of the second Saint Erasmus, the Book of the Saints concedes, “He may possibly be one and the same with the fourth century Martyr, Erasmus of June 2,” although enough evidence exists to indicate the two were distinct individuals. Benedictine Monks of St. Augustine’s Abbey, The Book of the Saints 95 (photo. reprint 2003) (1921). Still, details of the story of Saint Erasmus, Bishop of Formiae, “point to a confusion between him and some other Martyr of the same name.” Id. Butler’s Lives of the Saints describes additional details of the saint’s life, although it notes with skepticism that “[n]othing is actually known of his history, his so-called ‘acts’ being late compilations based on legends which confuse him with a namesake, a martyr bishop of Antioch.” 2 Butler’s Lives of the Saints 453, 453-454 (Herbert J. Thurston, S.J. & Donald Attwater eds., 2d ed. 1956). Butler’s Lives of the Saints, citing the Acta Sanctorum, does identify the Saint Erasmus at issue here as the Bishop of Formiae and relates that his relics were kept in Campagna in the 6^th century. Id. According to Saint Gregory the Great, his relics were translated to Gaeta in 842 when Formiae was destroyed by the Saracens. Id. Saint Erasmus is also sometimes confused with Saint Agapitus of Praeneste. Id. (citing B. de Gaiffner, Etudes d’Histoire et d’Archeologie Namuroises (1949)).

[3] I am not sure how this qualifies as a martyr’s death, but the Roman Martyrology unequivocally describes him as “bishop and martyr.” Id.

[4] Butler’s Lives of the Saints states emphatically, “There is nothing in the legendary history of St Erasmus of Formiae to connect him with that particular form of torture.” Butler’s Lives of the Saints, supra note 2, at 454.

[5] See, e.g., William Beaty and Steven A. Ackerman, “What Causes the Strange Glow Known as St. Elmo’s Fire? Is This Phenomenon Related to Ball Lightning?” Scientific American, Sep. 22, 1997, available at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=quotwhat-causes-the-stran.

[6] Butler’s Lives of the Saints, supra note 2, at 454.

[7] See Beaty, supra note 5.

[8] Rosa Giorgi, Saints in Art 119 (Stefano Zuffi ed. & Thomas Michael Hartmann trans., 2002).

[9] Id.

[10] I suspect the statue may be of Hercules. Hercules was often portrayed with a wooden club and the skin of the Nemean Lion, which he killed as part of his first labor, draped over an arm or over his shoulders. The figure in Poussin’s painting appears to be carrying a club, which he rests on his right shoulder like a baseball bat, and has something (a lion skin?) draped over his arm.

[11] See George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art 18-19 (1959).