The third century opened very gloomily for the Christians, who had now become numerous throughout Europe and Asia, for there was scarcely a town or a remote village where some martyr had not fallen a victim to the fury of the heathen. The very fact that the Roman Empire was breaking up led the authorities to cling with a kind of savage ferocity to what they considered their rights, and the Christians were treated with special severity bemuse the misfortunes which overtook the Roman armies were attributed to their influence, which, it was supposed, undermined the zeal of the soldiers for the performance of their military duties.
Amongst the first to suffer for the faith in the third century was the devoted Pope St. Zephyrinus, who succeeded St. Victor in 202, and was put to death in Rome under the Emperor Heliogabalus, though exactly how has not been recorded. During his troubled pontificate St. Zephyrinus had been very successful against the heretics, many of whom were reconciled to the Church by his persuasions. It is probably on this account that a monstrance — typical of the Holy Eucharist, on the subject of which there were already so many disputes — has become his symbol in art, although some are of opinion that it is given to him to mark the fact that he was the first to introduce the use of golden, instead of wooden, vessels for holding the sacred elements.
On the death of St. Zephyrinus, he was succeeded by St. Calixtus, or Callistus, whose name is inseparably connected with the celebrated catacomb enlarged by him, containing his remains and those of so many other martyrs. In spite of the fate which had overtaken his predecessor, the new Pope did not hesitate to lift up his voice against the vices of the Roman Emperor, and one of the last acts of Heliogabalus was to condemn him to death. Some say he did not actually suffer until after the accession of Alexander Severus, but all agree in stating that he was flung from a window, and when it was found that he still lived after his fall, a stone was tied round his neck and he was flung into a well. He is generally represented holding a church in one hand, in allusion to a tradition, for which there is no foundation, that he was the originator of the Church of S. Maria Maggiore at Rome, and in various old engravings illustrative of the lives of the Saints, as in one by Jacques Callot, he appears at a window, about to be flung down. When seen among other martyrs, St. Calixtus may be identified by a millstone round his neck, that being the usual symbol with artists of death by drowning, probably because old grindstones were all made with a hole in the middle, thus readily lending themselves to a sinister use. St. Calixtus was, it is said, buried not far from St. Zephyrinus in the catacomb bearing his name, though the remains of neither of them have been identified.
Another Pope of the third century who sealed his faith with his blood, as Saints Zephyrinus and Calixtus had done before him, was St. Fabianus, who succeeded Anterus in the See of Rome in 236. It is related that those assembled to elect a new Bishop were decided in their choice by the appearance of a snow-white dove, which hovered for a few moments over the head of St. Fabianus and then disappeared. St. Fabianus is supposed to have sent the more celebrated St. Denis to Gaul to preach the Gospel shortly before his own death by the sword in the persecution under Decius. He may be identified in devotional pictures by the dove and the sword, and he is often associated in them with St. Sebastian, because their fete-day, January 30, is the same.
St. Fabianus was succeeded by St. Cornelius, who in his turn was martyred, how is not known, though it is said that he was first banished for his zeal in making converts, and later brought back to Rome to suffer death, after a last chance of sacrificing to the gods and denying Christ had been given to him. It is related that when he was being dragged along to the heathen temple one of his guards asked him to pray for his wife, who had lost the use of her limbs for five years. The Pope complied at once, the woman was healed, and this miracle led to her conversion, that of her husband, and of twenty-one other soldiers, all of whom suffered martyrdom with their teacher. St. Cornelius was at first buried in Rome, but later his remains were translated to Compiegne, in France, whence they were distributed to various churches. The martyred Pope is generally represented baptizing a number of people, as in the quaint old bas-reliefs on a font at Liege, beneath which are a number of oxen, in allusion to the fact that he is the patron of herdsmen, probably merely because his name begins with the French word for horn. St. Cornelius may be identified in devotional pictures by the horn he holds in one hand, said by some to refer to the fact that a horn was used in primitive times to hold consecrated oil; but if this were so, all Bishops would be entitled to the symbol, which is more likely a mere allusion to his name. In some country districts of France and Switzerland the cattle are made to pass before a statue of St. Cornelius on his fete day; he is invoked by hunts men to secure success in the chase and by sufferers from epilepsy, probably because smelling burnt horn was long supposed to be a remedy for that disease. St. Cornelius is often grouped with St. Cyprian, because they were martyred on the same day of the month, though not in the same year. In the mosaic Procession of Martyrs in S. Apollinare Nuovo he is placed between Saints Cyprian and Cassian.
The next martyred Pope of Rome was St. Stephen I., who in 253 succeeded St. Lucius, one of the very few Bishops of Rome who in those days of persecution was flowed to die a natural death. The name of Pope Stephen is specially associated with the controversy as to the re-baptism of heretics, but very little is really known of his life. He is said to have baptized the celebrated St. Lucia, or Lucilla, who, according to one of the many versions of her legend, was born blind, but received her sight as the Pope pronounced the words, ‘In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.’ He is also credited with having called down a thunderbolt from heaven which destroyed the temple of Mars when he was ordered to sacrifice in it. St. Stephen, who lived for many years in the catacombs, receiving his catechumens there, was assassinated by order of the Emperor as he was saying Mass in his subterranean chapel, and is generally represented in art kneeling at the altar pierced with a sword. He was buried in the catacomb of St. Calixtus, but his remains were removed in the seventeenth century, when the head was taken to Cologne and the body re-interred at Pisa, where it is still much honored in the Church of San Stefano ai Cavalieri.
After the murder of St. Stephen, St. Sixtus II. was elected Pope, but he had not enjoyed that dignity a year before he was condemned to death by Valerianus, who sent orders from the seat of war in Africa that all bishops, priests, and deacons should die, even if they recanted their errors, and all laymen of Roman birth who had become Christians should be beheaded, unless they sacrificed to the gods. These very sweeping instructions led to the judicial murder of an immense number of the faithful, and the Pope was one of the first to suffer. Some say he was crucified, others that he was beheaded. In either case, the tragedy seems to have taken place in the catacomb of St. Calixtus, where the faithful shepherd had so often gathered his flock about him. On his way to death, he was met by his archdeacon, St. Lawrence, who expressed his grief that he should be left behind, to which St. Sixtus replied that they would meet again in three days, for ‘thou art reserved for a yet more glorious triumph than mine.’ For this reason, the Pope and St. Lawrence are often grouped together in devotional pictures, the former holding a sword in allusion to his supposed mode of death.
Perhaps the most beautiful representations of St. Sixtus in art occur in the frescoes by Fra Angelico in the Chapel of St. Nicholas V. in the Vatican, in which the Pope is seen ordaining St. Lawrence, to whom he is about to give the Holy Eucharist, and confiding to his beloved archdeacon the treasures of the church. Pope Sixtus II. rarely appears in any but Italian pictures, for he is little known out of Italy, but, probably because his fete-day is held at the beginning of the vintage, he has become the patron of the vinedressers of Germany. The great monastery at Piacenza, for which Raphael painted the world-famous ‘Madonna di San Sisto’ now at Dresden, is named after St. Sixtus.
Another martyred Bishop, the friend and contemporary of Saints Cornelius and Sixtus II., was St. Cyprian of Carthage, who was early converted to Christianity by a priest named Cecilius, and after his baptism did such great things for the Church that he was chosen to succeed Bishop Donatus on his death. It is related that St. Cyprian was very unwilling to accept this responsible office, and hid himself in his house; but a great multitude of converts surrounded it, clamoring for their new leader, so that he was at last obliged to yield. For a short time after his consecration all went well, for during the brief reign of the Emperor Philip, between 244 and 249, the Church in Africa was left almost unmolested. On the accession of Decius, however, the persecution of the Christians was vigorously renewed. The idolaters were roused to special fury against the Bishop of Carthage, and a cry was raised of ‘Cyprian to the wild beasts!’ Warned by a vision of the impending peril, however, and urged by his flock to save them from being involved in ruin by fleeing from the city, St. Cyprian left Carthage for a time, and from the various places of his retreat wrote many beautiful epistles, which are still among the treasures of the church, to the Christian community in his diocese. He corresponded also with St. Cornelius and St. Sixtus II., and on his return to Carthage, after the death of Decius, when the persecution had somewhat abated, he presided at an important synod, in which he vigorously opposed the claims for supremacy already advanced by the Church of Rome. In 257 the Emperor Valerian, who had at first seemed disposed to favor the Christians as law-abiding citizens, was persuaded to renew the terrible edicts against them, and the bishop was one of the first to be arrested in Carthage. He was living outside the city in a house which he had bequeathed to the poor when the Roman messengers came to fetch him, and, offering no resistance, he was dragged before the Proconsul, who, after a brief trial, condemned him to be beheaded, to which sentence St. Cyprian replied, ‘Blessed be God for it,’ whilst the crowds of Christians who had followed him cried, ‘ Let us die with him!’
The sentence was carried out the next day in the presence of a vast concourse of people, and it is related that before the end the martyr gave twenty pieces of gold to his executioner, telling him that he fully forgave him for his part in his death. St. Cyprian then himself bound a handkerchief ever his eyes, and bent his head to receive the fatal blow. The Christians were allowed to bury the body, which, after various translations, was finally removed to Compiegne by order of Charles the Bold, and there laid beside the remains of St. Cornelius.
In addition to the usual symbols of a Bishop and the martyr’s palm, St. Cyprian is distinguished in art by some coins held in one hand, in allusion to his gift to the executioner, and by a sword or axe, the instrument of his martyrdom. He is generally associated in devotional pictures with St. Cornelius, as in the ‘Enthronement of St. Augustine,’ by Paolo Veronese, in which he and the martyred Pope of Rome stand together at the feet of the great Latin Father of the Church. In the mosaic Procession of Martyrs at Ravenna, St. Cyprian appears between Saints Hippolytus and Cornelius, holding a crown in his hands, and he is introduced in the South Porch of Chartres and the West Front of Lichfield Cathedrals.
A less well-known but most devoted martyred Bishop of the third century was St. Babylus of Antioch, who is said to have shut the doors of his church in that city against the Emperor Philip when he attempted to enter it at the head of his victorious army. Some say the Emperor, in a rage at the insult, ordered the bishop to be slain; others that he accepted the rebuke with a meekness rare indeed amongst the haughty Romans. In any case, there is no doubt that Babylus was condemned to death for his faith, but it was probably by Decius, not by Philip, who, as already stated, was disposed to treat the Christians with leniency. St. Babylus was beheaded, and it is related that three little boys whom he had adopted, aged twelve, nine, and three years, shared his fate. The Bishop begged before the end that he might be buried in the chains he had worn for Jesus Christ, and on this account chains have become one of his attributes. He is generally represented, as in a miniature of the Greek Menology, with the three martyred boys, each with bis palm.
Another group, of which a martyred Bishop is the principal figure, sometimes represented in art, especially in Spain, is that of St. Fructueux, Bishop of Tarragona, and his two young deacons, Angurus and Eulogus, who were burnt at the stake with him, expiring with arms outspread in the touching attitude of devotion still assumed in Catholic churches, especially in the Peninsula and in Belgium.
With St. Fructueux and his companions may be classed St. Pelerin, Bishop of Auxerre, who, about the year 260, was beheaded for the faith with a number of his clergy, including the priest St. Mars, the deacon St. Cordonius, and the subdeacons Joviniensus and Alexander. St. Pelerin, whose name, signifying pilgrim, has led to the singular mistake of representing him in a pilgrim’s dress instead of a Bishop’s robes, is supposed to have been gifted with special power over serpents, but, as there are none in the district of which he was the evangelizer, it would appear that the belief originated in his spiritual influence over idolaters and evil-doers. In spite of this, however, the earth from a hole in a church in the village of Bouhy, in the Department of Nievre, is supposed to be a cure for the bite of snakes, and people seek it from great distances. The Bishop is generally group^ with his fellow-sufferers, and a snake has become his special symbol in art.
St. Firmin II., Bishop of Amiens, who is constantly confounded with his predecessor of the same name, was martyred towards the end of the third century. He was, it is said, so much beloved by the people of his diocese, that the Governor dared not condemn him publicly, and he was secretly beheaded in prison. For this reason, he is sometimes represented holding his own head in his hand. In the choir of Amiens Cathedral are some interesting fifteenth and sixteenth century bas-reliefs of scenes from the lives of St. Firmin II. and St. Salvius.
Yet another martyred Bishop of the third century was St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, in Pontus, surnamed Thaumaturgus, the wonder-worker, on account of his many miracles, who was raised to the episcopal dignity at a very early age. He had already greatly distinguished himself by his power over certain evil demons who haunted the neighborhood of Neocaesarea driving them out of the temples, which were their favorite resort, by the mere power of his presence.
It is related that on one occasion St. Gregory took refuge from a shower in a wayside shrine dedicated to some heathen god, and that the next day, when the priest performed his usual incantations, no answer came. It was, however, revealed to the priest that the evil spirits had been driven away by the holiness of a certain man, who had left his influence behind him after a short time spent in the sanctuary. Enraged at this loss of his influence, the priest, thinking to put St. Gregory to shame, challenged him, if his power were really of God, to prove it by bringing back the demons. The Saint complied at once, giving his enemy a slip of paper, on which was written: ‘Gregory to Satan: Return.’ The charm was laid on the altar, and the devils came back at once, with the result that the priest was induced to inquire further into the mysteries of the Christian faith. He was finally converted, it is said, by St. Gregory making a great stone in a temple come out of its place at his bidding, and in the end. he became a most devoted believer.
Another celebrated miracle was the checking of a flood which threatened to overwhelm the city. As the waters were rushing tumultuously down, St. Gregory planted his staff in their path, praying that they might not pass it, and they halted before it, forming a great wall. The staff took root, and grew in course of time to be a mighty tree, long revered by the faithful. Yet again the wonder-worker put to confusion those who would have made mock of him; for some Jews who doubted his power came to him with a false story of the death of a comrade, begging for help to bury him. St. Gregory gave them his coat, and they threw it over the man, who was only feigning death; but when the cloak was removed it was found that it really covered a dead body, proving that it would be well to leave the Saint unmolested in future. Whether the stern Bishop relented and brought back the man to life again or not the story does not say.
During the terrible persecution under Decius, St. Gregory and his flock escaped literally by a miracle, for when the myrmidons of the law went to seek the Bishop, who, with one of his deacons, was praying on a mountain nearby, they saw nothing but two trees, and many converts in the city were saved by similar remarkable interpositions of Providence. Only one Christian, a young man named Trocadius, was martyred, and on the death of Decius St. Gregory returned to Neocaesarea to resume his work as if nothing had happened to interrupt it. He is included in all Eastern and Western martyrologies, and his fete-day is November 17th, but according to some authorities he died a natural death, having converted all but seventeen of the heathen in the neighborhood. Almost his last words were to thank God for this great success, for he said, ‘When I came here I found but seventeen Christians, and now I leave but seventeen heathen.’
The symbols by which St. Gregory Thaumaturgus may be recognized in works of art include an angel standing beside him, for he is said to have been constantly aided by a messenger from on high, a flowering rod, a river, a huge stone, and a great mass of rock, all explained by the legends related above.
A martyred Bishop of the third century, much honored in Spain, though little known elsewhere, was St. Severus of Barcelona, who is said to have been killed in a especially barbarous manner, by having nails driven into his skull. He appears sometimes in devotional pictures with a circlet of nails forming a kind of halo round his head, or holding three nails in his hand. His memory is preserved in a quaint old Latin hymn, from which the following is a quotation:
‘Jesu decus illibatum,
Fulgens in martyribus,
Quern sequendo immolatuxn Severus pro viribus,
Tulit mortis cruciatum Confractis cervicibus.
Clavis tribus perforari
Blegisti aspere,
Hunc et clavo cruentari Voluisti libcrc.
“O crucified Jesus, shining in undimmed glory amidst the martyrs; Thou whom Severus followed to the best of his ability, enduring when his neck was broken the tortures of death; You who were content to be pierced with three nails, and didst will that this Thy martyr should also be tortured with the nail.’
In the second half of the third century occurred one of the most touching episodes of the early history of the Church, when St. Nicephorus, said by some to have been Bishop of Antioch, though others speak of him as a layman, laid down his life for his friend Sapricius, a Christian priest. The story goes that the two had long been close friends, but that St. Nicephorus had offended Sapricius, who refused to be reconciled. Presently Sapricius fell under suspicion as a Christian, and after being terribly tortured was led forth to execution. In spite of all the anguish he was enduring, and the repeated efforts of the Bishop to see him, he hardened his heart against his friend, and even when Nicephorus flung himself at his feet in the presence of the executioners, begging to be forgiven before the end, he turned his head away. So, Nicephorus, broken-hearted, went with the rest of the crowd to watch the martyr’s death.
At the very last moment, when, as was usual, a final chance of recantation was given to Sapricius, his courage failed him, and he cried aloud that he would sacrifice to the gods if his life were spared. Then Nicephorus came forward again, and with many tears entreated his old friend not to lose the crown of martyrdom at the last moment. The executioners and populace became impatient all was ready for the tragedy, and it seemed likely that Sapricius would be hurried out of life with the sin of apostasy on his soul. Full of eager love for his estranged friend, and anxious to save him from so sad an end to a life of self-sacrifice, Nicephorus said to the executioners, ‘I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ, whom this poor man has just denied; let me die in his stead.’ After some little parley and reference to the Governor, the suggestion was accepted. Sapricius was released and Nicephorus was beheaded. What became of the perjured priest is not known, but it is probable that his fall was but momentary, and that he returned to his allegiance both to his God and his friend. The crown, which has become the special symbol of St. Nicephonis in art, and the one he holds in his hand in certain old Greek mosaics, differs somewhat from that generally given to martyrs, because he is said to have won a triple victory over himself, his friend, and the heathen. He is still greatly honored in the Eastern Church, his fete being celebrated on February 9th.
Better known than any of the martyred Popes and Bishops already mentioned, probably because he has become the patron Saint of France, is St. Denis, or Dionysius, one of the missionaries sent to Gaul by Pope Clement. St. Denis has been very constantly confounded with Dionysius of Athens, surnamed the Areopagite after the hill on which that city is built. One result of this mistake is that, although there is little doubt that St. Denis lived in the third century, he is often associated in art with St. Paul, at whose death Dionysius of Athens is supposed to have been present.
Of reliable information as to St. Denis himself there is very little, but he is supposed to have penetrated further into Gaul than any of his contemporary missionaries, and to have been the real founder of the Sees of Paris, Chartres, Senlis, and Meaux. He is said to have built a church in Lutetia, as the capital of France was then called, and to have won over many hundreds to the true faith. The rumor of the great work being done by him and his two chief helpers, the priest Eleutherius, and the deacon Rusticus, reached the ears of the Roman Emperor, who sent a special mission under the Proconsul Fescennus to Lutetia with orders to destroy the Evangelizers at all costs. As soon as he arrived in the capital the envoy ordered St. Denis and his companions to be brought before him, and after a very brief trial they were condemned to be beheaded. According to a beautiful legend Jesus Christ Himself appeared to St. Denis in his prison on the eve of his death, and with His own hands administered to him the Holy Eucharist, a tradition memorialized amongst other scenes from the life of the Saint in various stained-glass windows of France, and alluded to by Adam de St. Victor in the following touching lines:
‘Seniore celebrante
Missam turba circumstante,
Christus adest comitante
Coelesti militia.
Specu claosam carcerali,
Consolator, et vital!
Pane cibat, immortali
Coronandem gloria.
‘In the presence of the old man as he celebrates Divine service, and in that of the crowds surrounding him, Christ appears attended by all the hosts of Heaven. When a close prisoner in his cave, He consoles him and feeds him with the Bread of life, for he is to be crowned with everlasting glory.’
Some writers assert that after the three martyrs had been decapitated their bodies were thrown into the Seine, others that they were left to be devoured by wild beasts; but, in either case, they were rescued from destruction by a saintly lady named Catulla, who buried them at some little distance mom the scene of their death, on a little hill still called Montmartre, in their honor. Popular belief has as usual supplemented the truth, and it is said that St. Denis carried his own head to Montmartre, accompanied by two angels, who aided his faltering footsteps. A little chapel was erected above the sacred remains, but it fell into decay, and its place was taken in the fifth century by a beautiful church founded by St. Genevieve.
In the seventh century King Dagobert, on whose behalf St. Denis, with Saints Maurice and Martin, are said to have intervened from beyond the grave, founded the stately abbey named after the martyred Bishop outside the northern walls of Paris. The relics of Saints Denis, Eleutherius, and Rusticus were translated to it, and are still greatly venerated by the French. The Abbey became the burial-place of the French monarchs; the national banner, the oriflamme, was blessed at the shrine of St. Denis, and his name became the war-cry which led many an army on to victory. Some are, however, of opinion that the three Saints were originally buried where the Abbey now stands, and claim that Montmartre does not mean the hill of the martyrs, but of Mars, the god of war, who was worshipped on it long before St. Denis went to France. Whichever be the truth, great miracles are supposed to have been wrought by the relics of the saintly Bishop. Many who witnessed the first of the marvels after his death — nis walk to the grave with his head in his hands — were converted on the spot, including a Roman lady named Lactia, who was herself soon afterwards beheaded because she would not deny the Lord.
All who visited the shrine at St. Denis were relieved from their sufferings, whether mental or bodily, and he was specially invoked by those who suffered from headache or brain disease. He is one 01 the fourteen ‘auxiliary Saints’ who are supposed to have special interest in heaven, and were first grouped together in Germany. The reason of this association has never been explained, but it occurs constantly in old engravings, as in those by the brothers Klauber, preserved at Augsburg and in various pictures in the churches of Sicily, Calabria, Lombardy, and elsewhere, in all of which St. Denis is placed beside St. Margaret. In some old missals of the Dominican Order and the celebrated Mass-book of Utrecht the fourteen auxiliaries are named together in the same way except that St. Magnus is substituted for St. Giles.
St. Denis also appears in various works of art with the other missionaries of Gaul, Saints Gatienus, Trophinus, Saturninus, and Martial. He is occasionally represented bound to a stake, for some say that an attempt to burn him was made before he was beheaded, but his usual attribute is a sword or axe. He is of course constantly introduced in devotional and other pictures carrying his own head, and now and then he is about to give it to a woman who holds a linen cloth ready to receive it. In a fifteenth-century seal, reproduced by Pere Cahier in his ‘ Caracteristiques des Saints,’ the Saint, in his Bishop’s robes, with his head in his hand, stands between two angels, and some few instances occur of the head being represented as still on the shoulders, and only the top of the skull in the hands ; or, more rarely, the mitered head remains in place and a second one exactly like it is held in the hands, the spiritual significance being, however, always the same : the voluntary yielding up of life for the faith.
In a fine devotional picture by Domenico Ghirlandajo now in the Florence Academy, St. Denis, a red collar round his neck, in allusion to his decapitation, appears on one side of the Virgin and St. Thomas Aquinas on the other; in Raphael’s cartoon of ‘St. Paul preaching at Athens’ the Bishop is introduced in the foreground ; in the Church of St. Roch, Paris, is a picture by Joseph Vien of ‘St. Denis preaching to the people of Lutetia’; and m the thirteenth-century stained-glass windows of the Cathedral are renderings of various scenes from the life and legends of the popular Saint.
Above the tomb of King Dagobert in the Abbey of St. Denis the story of the intervention of Saints Denis, Maurice, and Martin to save the monarch from the Evil One is very graphically told in a series of three pictures, one above the other. The first shows St. Denis appearing to the hermit on one side, and on the other King Dagobert in a boat, tormented by demons, one of whom is taking off his crown. In the second the three Saints are attacking the demons, with the aid of two angels; and in the third the rescued King kneels in prayer on a sheet upheld by his five rescuers.
Amongst the treasures of the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris is a very curious memorial of the patron Saint of France, a MS. biography setting chronology completely at defiance, illustrated by some hundred and fifty miniatures, of which some of the quaintest are ‘St. Denis Writing the Inscription “Deo Ignoto” (or the “Unknown God”) on the altar at Athens,’ the ‘Consecration of St. Denis by St. Paul,’ and the ‘Saint Writing one of his famous Treatises,’ attended by the choirs of angels who were his inspiration.
Adapted from: The Saints in Christian Art: The Evangelists, Apostles, and Other Early Saints, By Mrs. Arthur Bell, (London: George Bell & Sons, 1901).