Which Saint Ran Around Holding Her Own Head?
 

Now I am on a mission to visit the sites of interesting saints in Italy and France. I remember one lady who got her head chopped off and then picked it up and ran off into the hills with it. I think another one ran around with her eyes on a plate after someone plucked them out. Do you know where these places are?

Do you know any other interesting saints so I can visit their shrines churches?
Thanks.

Apparently more than one; St. Denis comes to mind.

Hi
Suggest you buy one of the many books about the saints/martyrs, either in a Catholic bookstore, or any bookstore.
I am not Christian but very interested in this so that I can recognize which saints are in which paintings, and for that reason I often recommend the book
Oxford Guide to Christian Art and Architecture. But it's a reference book, too heavy to carry on a trip imo

Saint Lucy is the one who had her eyes plucked out. She didn't walk around with them on a plate as far as I know, but is just shown that way in paintings. 'Lucy' is a word related to the Latin word for 'light'.

Not all of these stories are historically true, but are part of folklore. Saint Lawrence (Lorenzo, in Italian) was said to have been martyred by being roasted on a grid iron, so he is always shown holding one. St Peter was said to have been told by Jesus to have the keys to the kingdom of heaven, so the old bald man holding the keys, is St Peter. Saint Barbara was held in a tower, freed from the tower by an explosion, and then beheaded by her father (I think that's the story)
So she is usually depicted with a small tower next to her, or an explosion or lightning.

Almost every city will have churches devoted to one or many saints, a few cities have patron saints where a particular saint is the 'star.'
Example: Saint Mark, in Venice (San Marco), his remains were supposedly smuggled into Venice by being hidden from Muslim soldiers in a barrel of pork.
Some of the saints, of course, don't date from biblical times but from much later years. Joan of Arc, for example.

The mystery novel The Seventh Sinner by Elizabeth Peters (1972) is a (very) light read about a group of grad students in Rome. They discuss bizarre saints' deaths and visit a bunch of churches dedicated to the saints.

The Italian Santa Lucia (d. 304, Syracuse, Sicily; feast day December 13) was a virgin and martyr who was one of the earliest Christian saints to achieve popularity, having a widespread following before the 5th century. She lived in Syracuse, a town on the Italian island of Sicily. She is the patron saint of the city of Syracuse. Because of various traditions associating her name with light, she came to be thought of as the patron of sight and of the blind and was depicted by medieval artists carrying a dish containing her eyes.

And then there's Saint Agatha who walks around with her breasts on a plate. Because one of the tortures she supposedly suffered was to have her breasts cut off, she was often depicted carrying her breasts on a plate. It is thought that blessing of the bread that takes place on her feast may have come from the mistaken notion that she was carrying loaves of bread.

How interesting. I will look up that reference book and the light book. I find this fascinating too.

Thank you - any more?

Peeky, if you're in Rome you could visit St. Cecilia's Church in Trastavere. It's a gorgeous 12th century church (or is it 14th?) dedicated to Cecilia who survived days of the Romans trying to kill her before she finally succombed. Centuries later she was exhumed and her body was untouched. A sculptor made a statue of the beautiful saint as she was found in her coffin, and it is in front of the altar. It is very sad and touching--she was very tiny and frail.

Also in Rome is the fascinating church of San Stefano Rotundo, off the beaten tourist path. The church has huge wall frescoes showing the martyrdoms of something like 32 saints in full color. Our taxi driver had never heard of the church but followed us inside and was fascinated by what he, and we, saw.

Bonanza! I knew Fodorites would know.

More please. This is just perfect.

I like this web site:

www.catholic-forum.com/saints/indexsnt.htm

In the lower right of the page is a section "Countries." After clicking on that you're given a list of countries and saints associated with them.

San Sebastiano is one of the most frequently depicted saints. Look for him in paintings everywhere. You'll recognize him by the numerous arrows embedded in his body. Then there's the body of St. Zita in Lucca, the head of Catherine in Siena, the girdle of the Blessed Virgin...

"Saint Lawrence (Lorenzo, in Italian) was said to have been martyred by being roasted on a grid iron.."

Which is why today, he is the patron saint of football.
((H))

Didn't Santa Guistina also have her breasts cut off?? I am thinking of that fantastic painting by Veronese, that hangs in the Uffizi, of Santa Guistina with a knife held to her breast. The man holding the knife is a Moor.

I think it is fascinating that one is able to pick out a saint in a painting by knowing what his matyrdom was. I didn't even think of that, I should take an art appreciation class.

I'm fairly certain that Santa Giustina was martyred by being stabbed by a sword, with no body parts actually severed.

Cheerful topic.

And of course there was poor St. Joan.

And, yes, it was St. Denis of Paris who had his head chopped off, then picked it up and walked off with it. He must have had a lot of endurance and determination, because he made it all the way from Ile de la Cite to Montmartre (mountain of the martyr).

I just read on that website that he is the patron saint of headaches - no wonder!

I remember reading somewhere St. Lawrence is supposed to have said (as he was being roasted) "I'm well done on this side, can you turn me over?"

Saint Catherine of Alexandria was sentenced to be killed on the wheel.
Once she was bound, the spikes and the ropes holding her flew off the wheel, so she was merely beheaded.
In paintings she is shown holding, yes, a wheel.

Another identification of martyrs in paintings--they are often shown holding palm leaves.

and another thing about Saint Catherine

when she was converted, she dreamed she had entered into a 'mystical marriage' (so did some other saints) with the infant Jesus
So, there is at least one painting of her (by Parmigiano)with Jesus, who is holding a wedding ring

My favorite works in the Accademia in Venice are the paintings by Carpaccio showing the life of St Ursula

for a look, see http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/c/carpacci/1ursula/2/

if you click on each picture, it will enlarge

You can see St Catherine of Siena's shrunken head in the Dominican church in Siena, if that helps?! Not sure how she lost it!

Actually Vedette, they walked up from below the Ile de la Cité. The guards got tired of walking and decided to carry out the execution of the site of the Chapelle du Martyre (9 rue Yvonne-le-Tac), he picked up his head, carried it to a fountain (Impasse Girardon off rue Girardon) to wash it off & proceeded north about 2 miles until he finally fell down. The Basilique St-Denis covers the site where he succumbed.

I wrote about it here:
http://www.virtualtourist.com/vt/18308/6/1423/

If you follow the route on a map you'll see he zig-zagged a bit. Quite an accomplishment for a headless man, wouldn't you say??

But I've read St-Denis is based on Dionysus. There are no early records of this saint.

In regards to St Catherine of Siena, when she died they removed her head from her body (apparently it wasn't hard to do due to some of the, um, decomposition) and sent it to Siena, her hometown. Another town recieved a finger? Perhaps another one received another finger or toe? The body lies in Rome.

There was a fascinating thread on her - I'll try to top it.

Actually, I'll just post the link:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34420442

I think Martin Luther observed that if you added up all the bones in European churches claimed to be relics of one of the twelve Apostles you'd have enough to construct a battalion of apostles. Add all these other martyrs with their ssociated fantastic stories and I wonder how many we'd have?

I recall the Vatican ordering a spring-clean of saints some years ago, and quite a few were demoted, among them St Christopher I think, leaving travellers technically saintless. Or was another saint drafted in his place?

The current Pope has created more saints than any other, I believe.

Thanks everybody, it really gets interesting. There are alot of relics in the churches? Shrunken heads?

There must be a list of parts does anyone know?

some of the most beautiful church artifacts from medieval times are reliquaries, small containers made of gold and precious stones to hold various body parts (bits, sometimes) of saints, or objects associated with Jesus.

I just googled this topic and came up with these websites which look helpful

http://www.catholic-pages.com/dir/saints.asp


http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12734a.htm that one's about relics

http://www.catholic.org/saints/

I've just learned that St Isidore of Seville is the proposed patron saint of Internet users

St Stephen was stoned to death so he is always depicted with a stone on his forehead.

John the Baptist: hairy suit
Mary Magdalene: long blond hair (go figure) and red outfit
John the Apostle: the youngest of the four when Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are shown.

Really, you get to know who all the saints and religious figures are after looking at enough art. hey were always depicted with these symbols since the majority of their audience was illiterate.

Almost any church will have relics in individual chapels. Larger churches and cathedrals will have reliqueries, entire rooms with display cases holding impressive jeweled golden urns with small glass windows displaying the particular piece. Especially impressive--arm-shaped reliqueries holding arm bones.

At the Church of St Anthony in Padua, there is perhaps the most impressive relic display for one particular person--an entire wall of trophy-like containers with the body parts labeled: jawbone, tongue, fingerbones. . . I think they still reasemble his major skeletion bones every few years and put them on display in a glass coffin-like display.

I visited the Church of St Rita in Nice and wondered about all the depictions with this thin object sticking out of her forehead. Apparently her husband drove a nail into her head. Now she is considered the patron saint of abused wives.

linking this thread to Helpful Information Italy and
Paris Superthread

Not a Saint presently resting in Europe (though he may have been European), the body of Saint Francis Xavier is currently encased in an ornate glass casket in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa, India. Every ten or twenty years, they open the casket for a few weeks for public veneration resulting in a massive pilgrimage by catholics the world over, all eager for a glimpse of his mortal remains which, from what I've seen on the Net, are remarkably well preserved.

It is said that hundreds of years ago, upon hearing of his death, that one of his devoted followers, refusing to believe that he was dead, leapt up after seeing his body and in what must have been a misguided moment fuelled by grief, bit off one of his toes. The severed body part now has a glass casing of its own and draws it's own crowds.

I truly believe that it is bizarre stories - whether true or not - such as these, that make some Saints more memorable than the countless others that no one talks about.

Did someone already mention St. Sebastian, he of the many arrows stuck in his body?

yes, he's mentioned above

always depicted as a hunky young man, because for centuries it was the only acceptable way for artists to depict a male nude

St. Rita of Cascia is a patron of abused wives but not because her husband drove a nail through her head. After hearing a sermon by St. James of the Marches, she prayed to God to give her her own crown of thorns. From that point on, her forehead bore a fetid wound. Depictions of her in art sometimes include a thorn in her forehead. Her body is elaborately displayed in the Basilica of St. Rita in Cascia, Umbria.
Both St. Catherine of Siena, who died in 1380, and St.Catherine d'Ricci, who died in 1590, claimed that Christ slipped a ring off of his own finger and onto their own.

Beatchick: Thanks for the correction!

A few Christmases ago, I was given a rather irreverant book: Saints Preserve Us! : Everything You Need to Know About Every Saint You'll Ever Need,
by Sean Kelly, Rosemary Rogers.
Somewhat sacreligious, sarcastic and rather funny in places, it's definitely NOT a book for those who are pious. I thought of it because I remember the description of St Rita with her fetid wound. Supposedly, the other sisters in her community gave her a lot of space, because the wound festered for years...

And I can't remember who the patron saint of poultry is...

Visit Chartres Cathedral, and notice the little "casket" on the left side, approximately in the middle of the cathedral...it contains the veil of the Virgin Mary, "Voile de la Vierge".

In 858, after the church had been pillaged and burnt by raiding Vikings, Charles the Bald, Charlemagne's grandson, presented the church with the Sancta Camisia, the veil believed to have been worn by Mary when she gave birth to Jesus. (Some sources indicate, however, that it was the veil worn at the Annunciation.)
The increasing importance given to Mary through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries combined with the belief that relics provided a tangible link to the saints made Chartres an increasingly important pilgrimage center.
In 980, the famous scholar Fulbert came to teach in the cathedral school from Reims where he had been a pupil of Gerbert of Aurillac, later Pope Sylvester II. Fulbert was bishop of Chartres until his death in 1028, and it was during his reign that the cathedral was once again destroyed, this time by fire, on September 7, 1020. Fulbert solicited funds to build a replacement in Romanesque style.
On the night of June 10, 1194, most of the city of Chartres was destroyed by fire, and the cathedral was badly damaged. It was believed all had been lost, most significantly the Sancta Camisia. However, days later, three priests emerged from the crypt, where they had taken refuge along with the relic. This was taken as a miracle and a sign from the Virgin to build an even grander cathedral.

Another Mary, Mary Magdalene, was originally interred at Vézelay, France, then her body was moved after many years to Saint-Maximin,in Provence. There are many stories of Bishops, Priests, etc. , taking part of her body, and one in which a Bishop gnawed at her arm, supposedly to give him strength.

kamahinaohoku I have a copy of "Saints Preserve US!" It's a hoot.

Ferreolus is the patron saint of sick poultry. He's also on call for those with rheumatism.

He too was beheaded. "Saints Preserve us!" says no one really knows what he has to do with under-the-weather chickens.

vedette, mon ami, you are quite welcome!

laurensuite, is that Fulbert the same as Canon Fulbert who was uncle to Heloïse (of Heloïse & Abelard)?

I'm not Catholic but I find this to be a fascinating subject & this thread to be MOST interesting!

Hi Beatchick
It can't be the same Fulbert (I noticed the name myself) because H and A were a couple of centuries later