Saints' Lives: Saint Catherine of Alexandria

German, Middle Rhineland
pot-metal and colorless glass
with vitreous paint & silver
stain. 1440-1446
Cloisters Collection, NYC

Feast day: Nov 25

Patron Saint of philosophers, preachers, the coopers' guild

Invoked by: nursing women, sailors, ship-wreak victims and migraine sufferers

Attributes: wheel, palm leaf, sword, ring of mystical matrimony (receiving a ring of marriage from Christ, generally portrayed as a child on Mary’s lap)

The daughter of king Costus, Saint Catherine heard a tumult outside her palace and upon investigation found many Christians preparing to sacrifice to idols at the order of Emperor Maxentius. Grieved by what she saw, Catherine made her way to the Emperor and tried to reason with him that the things made by God are more impressive than things made by man.

Impressed by her eloquence and beauty, the Emperor agreed to discuss more with her, after their worship was over. He couldn’t compete with her cunning and knowledge, so he called 50 men known for their wisdom in a variety of subjects, promising them riches and fame if they could best her.

Catherine commended herself to God and was told to stand firm by an angel. Her arguments were so strong that the men realized they could not compete with her and, barring more evidence of their own gods’ worthiness, would have to convert to Christianity.

The Emperor had the men executed by fire, after Catherine instructed them in the faith, assuring them that their spilled blood would be their baptism.

Hans Memling, The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine
oil on panel, 1479-1480
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

Reminded of her rank and power the girl proclaimed that she was Christ’s bride, and His love was more important than anything of this world. The Emperor ordered her imprisoned without food for twelve days. During the Emperor’s absence on affairs of state, his wife went with the captain of the guard, Porphyrius, to see her. They found angels treating her wounds. Catherine taught and converted them, along with 200 troops. A dove from heaven brought her food and Christ appeared, giving her encouragement.

When the Emperor next saw her, vibrant rather than starved, he would have tortured her guards were it not for her explanation that angels had fed her. Given the choice between sacrificing to pagan gods or being tortured and killed, she said she would willingly give her flesh for the Lord.

A prefect encouraged the Emperor to make a studded, wheeled torture device that would tear Catherine apart as a way of deterring other Christians with her horrible demise. Catherine prayed for the device to be destroyed in order to strengthen the faith of His followers. His blow shattered it, killing 4000 pagans in the process.

Left panel of a
reliquary triptych
Enamel on gold plated
silver
England? early 15th C?
Louvre, Paris

The queen berated her husband and also refused to sacrifice to idols, so he ordered her breasts torn off with hot pincers and then that she be beheaded.  She asked Catherine to pray for her, and the girl told her she was exchanging her mortal spouse for an immortal one. When it was done, Porphyrius snatched the body and buried it.

The next day, the Emperor was angry that the queen’s body couldn’t be found and was going to torture people to find out what happened to it when Porphyrius stated that he had buried the body and had converted to Christianity. The Emperor called guards, who stated that they, too, were now Christian. The Emperor ordered them all beheaded.

The Emperor gave Catherine one last chance to sacrifice to idols, saying that if she did so she would be his new queen. But again she defied him and so was beheaded. Milk flowed from her body instead of blood, and angels carried her remains to Mount Sinai, where they buried it. Her bones were said to produce oil that heals the limbs of the weak.

De Voragine mentions that there was controversy as to which Emperor it was that Catherine dealt with, Maximinus or Maxentius, but that it was the one who reigned beginning in AD 310. 

German, lower Rhine valley
walnut, c. 1530
MET, NYC

Catherine is admirable, we’re told, in five respects: wisdom, eloquence, constancy, chastity, and

dignity

Saints: A Year in Faith and Art adds that she refused marriage the governor of Egypt and Syria, being wed already to Christ.  This book also places her martyrdom around AD 305. 

Catholic.org points out that Saint Catherine's is one of the voices that spoke to Joan of Arc. 

While it’s a wonderful story, the first recorded account of St. Catherine’s life is from 500 years after her martyrdom and no evidence of her existence has been found. (Wikipedia.)

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Sources:

The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine, translated by William Granger Ryan (volume II). Princeton University Press, 1995. pp 334-341.

Giorgi, Rosa. Saints: A Year in Faith and Art. Mondadori Electa, 2006. p 692.

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=341

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_of_Alexandria

Saints' Lives: Saint Theodore (of Amasea/Tyro)

Source: http://www.svetigora.com/node/666

Restored jamb statue
from Laon Cathedral

His feast day is November 9th and he is a patron of lost things.

The following account comes from The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine, translated by William Granger Ryan (volume II). Princeton University Press, 1995. pp 291. 

Saint Theodore was a Roman soldier serving in the city of Marmanites during the reign of Diocletian and Maximian.  Theodore refused to sacrifice to pagan gods, claiming that he was a soldier in the service of his God and of his Son Jesus Christ.  The judge asked if it was possible to know the son of his god, he said yes and was given time to prepare to offer his sacrifice.

Theodore used the time to enter the temple of the Mother of the Gods at night and set fire to it, burning it to the ground.  A witness accused him and he was put in jail.

Temple on fire, detail of Laon Cathedral
jamb statue

Martyrdom of St Theodore as depicted on
a pillar at Chartres Cathedral (N. transept)

While in prison he was visited by “a throng of men in white robes”, even though the doors were all locked.  The guards saw this and ran away in fear.

When he was asked again to sacrifice, he said no.  The judge then had him hung from a limb and his flanks torn with iron hooks so that his ribs were exposed.  When asked if he’d rather be on Earth or with Christ, he said with Christ.  So they lit a fire under him and though the fire didn’t burn his body, he expired there.

A sweet odour spread from his body and a voice was heard that said, “Come, my beloved, enter into the joy of your Lord!” as the heavens opened to receive him.  This happened in AD 287.

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Interestingly, his story is fairly different when looked up on Wikipedia and religious websites.  His death date is later (AD 306, under Emperor Galerius) and the location Amasea in modern Turkey.  The church he’s said to have burned is that of Cybele, who was the local mother-goddess, so that’s consistent.

He’s called Theodore of Amasea (for the place) or Theodore Tyro (also spelled Tyron, Tiron and Tiro) as ‘tiro’ is a classical Latin word that describes a soldier who has recently enlisted.  He is therefore also known as Theodore the Recruit.  His story and that of the slightly later Saint Theodore Stratelates are now considered to relate to the same person.

The Orthodox Church in America website also recounts a further story, that 50 years after Saint Theodore's death, the Emperor Julian ordered the commander of Constantinople to sprinkle all the food in the marketplace with blood offered to idols during the first week of Great Lent.  Saint Theodore appeared in a dream to Archbishop Eudoxius and told him to warn the people to only eat cooked wheat with honey and not buy anything from the market.

Because of this miracle, the Orthodox Church celebrates him on the first Saturday of Great Lent.

Saints' Lives: Saint Denis

Jamb statue from the
West Facade of Notre
Dame de Paris

As I said in last Friday’s post on the Basilica-Cathedral Saint Denis, today’s post is on the saint the church is dedicated to.

His feast day is October 9th in the Western church and October 3rd in the Eastern church, and he is the patron saint of France. He is generally portrayed as holding the head that was chopped off.

Saint Denis (Denis being the French* form of the name Dionysius)’s legend was confused with that of two other figures, the first being the 1st C. Dionysius the Areopagite, the second being a 5th or 6th C. writer who assumed the name so his writing would be given more authority. This is the Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite whose writings on light and God influenced Abbot Suger in his redesign of the Basilica of St Denis. Saint Denis, the first bishop of Paris, dates from the 3rd C, though the first written account of his life dates from c. 600.

The information below comes from The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine, translated by William Granger Ryan (volume II). Princeton University Press, 1995. pp 236-241. Saints lives weren’t examined critically in the middle ages, so don’t expect the information below to sound particularly credible from a modern standpoint. But this is how medieval people understood his story. Jacobus compiled his ‘Readings on the Saints’ from various sources c.1260 and the book was a bestseller, with thousands of copies of the manuscript surviving.  

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Dionysius, called the Areopagite because he was from that area of Athens, was an upper-class philosopher who was converted to Christianity by the Apostle Paul. Dionysius had noted a darkness that fell across the region that didn’t correspond with - or follow the rules of - an eclipse. When Paul explained that the darkness corresponded with Christ’s crucifixion and that Christ was ‘the Unknown God’ to whom the Athenians had created an altar for the event, he asked Paul to heal a blind man in Christ’s name. Paul told Dionysius the words to use and had Dionysius heal the man using them. Dionysius, his wife, and his household were all baptized. He was taught by Paul for three years and was then ordained Bishop of Athens. Though his preaching, he converted the city and much of the surrounding area. He visited Peter and Paul when they were in prison in Rome, and was present at the death of Mary, the mother of Christ.

Pope Clement, successor of Peter, sent him to preach in Gaul (modern day France), with Rusticus and Eleutherius as companions. When he arrived in Lutetia (Paris), he converted many people and built several churches. Pagan priests convinced the people to attack him, but he was protected by God, and they either grovelled at his feet in awe or ran away in fear. The devil got Emperor Domitian to issue the order than anyone found to be a Christian had to sacrifice to idols or be tortured. He sent a prefect, Fescenninus, to Lutetia, who then found Denis preaching about Christ. He had Denis and his 2 companions arrested, beaten, scourged, and imprisoned.

St Denis and his 2 companions being brought to prison,
left portal, Basilica-Cathedral Saint Denis

Several methods were used to torture or kill Denis without result including: an iron grill, hungry animals, and partial crucifixion. Denis performed a mass for his followers, many of whom were also now imprisoned with him. As he was giving the consecrated bread and wine to the people, Jesus appeared and, taking them from him, gave him communion as well.

St Denis receiving Communion from Christ while in prison,
right portal tympanum, Basilica-Cathedral Saint Denis

Brought before the prefect once more, the three men were tortured and beheaded. Denis’s body immediately stood up, picked up his head, and walked from his place of martyrdom (Montmartre - hill of martyrs) to the place where his body now rests (where the basilica-cathedral of St Denis now stands). The sounds of angels singing at this spot converted many, including Laertia, wife of the prefect Lubrius, who was then beheaded. Her son, serving in Rome, later returned to Lutetia and was baptized.

Life and martyrdom of St. Denis
South Transept portal tympanum, Basilica-Cathedral Saint Denis

Around A.D. 644 the Frankish King, Dagobert, held St. Denis in high regard, so much so that he hid in the church of St. Denis when he feared his father’s anger. A holy man had a vision that when Dagobert died and his soul was being brought for judgement, several saints accused him of stripping their churches of valuables. But the soul of St Denis protected him from their demands for punishment.

King Clovis had the body of St Denis uncovered and broke off and removed one of the arms. Soon after he lost his mind.
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The passage in The Golden Legend ends with the following paragraph, “Note also that Hincmar, bishop of Rheims, says, in the letter he wrote to Charles, that the Dionysius who was sent to Gaul was Dionysius the Areopagite, as was said above. John Scotus makes the same assertion in a letter to Charles. This cannot be questioned, therefore, on the ground that the dates are contradictory, as some have tried to argue.” (p. 241).

In other words, it was recognized that they must be different men, even as they kept the idea that they were, somehow, the same figure.

According to Wikipedia:

In time, the "Saint Denis", often combined as "Montjoie! Saint Denis!" became the war-cry of the French armies. The oriflamme, which became the standard of France, was the banner consecrated upon his tomb. 

Oriflamme copy at Basilica-Cathedral St. Denis

Stained glass window at Chartres showing
St. Denis handing the oriflamme to a knight.

Click the images to see them larger, and check out this webpage for a clearer image of the stained glass.

* This is one of those things that took me ages to grasp, that names can change drastically from one language to another. It was years before I made the connection between Santiago de Compostella (Spanish) and Saint James (English).