Though not nearly so celebrated as the various martyred women whose tragic fate has been related in the last chapter, Saints Eulalia, Leocadia, Cyprilla, Eugratia, Victoria, Anatolia, Columba, Reine, Reparata, Susanna, and Daria, all of whom suffered in the third century, deserve brief notice on account of their steadfast courage under their terrible sufferings and their occasional introduction in devotional and other pictures.
Saints Eulalia of Merida and Leocadia of Toledo, who are little known out of Spain, although the former is introduced in the mosaic Procession of Martyrs at Ravenna, were friends and companions who were martyred about the same time. St Eulalia was but twelve years old when she was brought before the Governor of her native city charged with being a Christian. She was, it is said, offered her choice between death and sacrificing to the gods, the judge, who seems to have wished to save her, saying, as he pointed to the horrible instruments of torture before him, ‘All this you shall escape if you will but touch a little salt and frankincense with the tip of your finger’; to which the child’s only reply was to trample on the gifts before the altar and defy her persecutor to do his worst. Enraged at her insolence, the judge ordered her to be tortured, and after her tender flesh had been tom with hooks, she was burnt to death, her soul, it is related, escaping in the form of a white dove. St. Eulalia may be recognized in Spanish pictures by the iron comb or the nails she holds in her hand, in allusion to the torture just described, and by a dove hovering over her head, an attribute also given, however, to her namesake of Barcelona, who is said to have been martyred about the same time, though no particulars are known of her fate. St. Eulalia of Merida is also sometimes associated with a fall of snow, for it is believed in Spain that after her death her body was saved from desecration by a miraculous shower of snow, which enabled her fellow Christians to bury her in secret. Her remains are said to be still preserved at Oviedo, where she is greatly honored.
St. Leocadia, the patroness of Toledo, although counted amongst the martyrs, really died a natural death in prison, after enduring many things for the faith. A tradition has, however, grown up that she was killed by being flung down a precipice, and long after her tragic end a chapel was erected on the supposed scene of the tragedy, in which she appeared, in the seventh century, to St. Ildefonso, as proved by a piece of her veil cut off by nim being still preserved in a church of Toledo. She is represented in various Spanish pictures, of which there are several at Toledo, with scourges beside her and with a cross in her hand, for she is said to have died pressing the emblem of her faith to her lips; or she is in a tower loaded with chains, kneeling opposite to a rough drawing of a cross made by herself on the wall or the floor, and occasionally she is seen, as in a painting by an unknown master at Santa Cruz, appearing to St. Ildefonso. A statue of the patron Saint by Berruguete is placed over the Puerta del Cambion at Toledo, and in the Cathedral of that city is a fine series of scenes from her life by Sebastiano Ricci.
St. Cyprilla, who was, it is supposed, martyred at Cyrene in the time of Decius, is represented occasionally amongst other Saints with live cods in her hands; for it is related that she was compelled to hold them before the image of a heathen god, as if she were offering incense to him, but that she cried aloud, ‘Jesus Christ alone do I adore!’
St. Eugratia of Saragossa is said to have been martyred under Diocletian by having her head nailed to a post, and to have been crowned by an angel before she died. She appears in some few Spanish devotional pictures holding a nail or a sword in her hand; for, according to one version of her legend, she was beheaded with the latter weapon.
St. Victoria of Rome is said to have been put to death in that city about 250 A.D., after working many marvels for the good of her fellow-citizens. She killed a dragon which had slain many victims, and took possession of his cave, where she dwelt for some time with other virgins who had dedicated themselves to Christ, and where she was visited by an angel sent to strengthen her in her resolve to remain faithful to the end. She was, it is said, betrothed to a noble young heathen, who, in his disappointment, betrayed her to the authorities, and she was stabbed to death, after refusing to sacrifice to idols. Her attributes in art are an angel, a dragon, and a sword, but her introduction in devotional pictures is rare.
The legend of St. Anatolia is of a very romantic description. Condemned to death for the faith, she was shut up in a dungeon with a venomous serpent, and when she was supposed to be dead, a celebrated serpent-charmer named Andaxus was sent to fetch away her destroyer. He found the Saint, however, unharmed, and when he attempted to approach her, the serpent attacked him. He was only rescued from a terrible fate by St. Anatolia ordering the venomous creature to lie down. It obeyed at once, and Andaxus was so astonished that he was at once converted. St. Anatolia was beheaded, after being burnt with torches, and the serpent-charmer was himself put to death soon afterwards, but bow is not related. The devoted maiden is sometimes introduced amongst other Saints holding a torch or a sword, and with a serpent at her feet.
St. Columba of Sens is said to have been born in Spain, and when quite a young girl to have joined a party of missionaries sent to France. In course of time, they all arrived at Sens, where their success amongst the heathen incensed the Emperor Aurelian against them. He ordered all of them except Columba, who was very lovely, to be put to death, and himself endeavored to persuade her to recant. She was compelled to witness the torture and final martyrdom of all her companions, but she remained firm. Angry at her persistence, Aurelian at last ordered her to be thrown into a dungeon, where she was presently visited by a young man, who was about to insult her when, at her cry for help, a bear rushed in and sprang upon him. He in his turn shouted for aid, and Columba told the bear to leave him alone. She was obeyed, and after the young Saint had given her visitor a lecture on his evil ways, she allowed him to depart unhurt. The bear remained beside the girl he had rescued, who was not, however, left long unmolested, for Aurelian commanded that the prison should be set on fire. The bear became wild with terror, but again Columba controlled it, though when the fire had made an opening in the dungeon wall, she gave it leave to escape. It dashed away through the crowds, scattering them right and left, whilst Columba calmly awaited her end, with hands and eyes uplifted in prayer. Just as the flames were about to reach her a mighty storm arose, and torrents of rain put out the fire. The spectators, recognizing in this a sign from heaven, would fain have let the maiden go free, but the Emperor had her brought before him once more, and asked her what her secret was. She replied that it was her faith in the Redeemer, and, after a long argument with her, Aurelian ordered her to be beheaded. As the fatal stroke fell, she prayed aloud for mercy on her enemies, who knew not what they did, and a voice from heaven was heard bidding her welcome to her new home.
St. Columba is greatly venerated in France, and is invoked when rain is needed. Her memory is preserved in a beautiful prayer in popular use, beginning, ‘O God, who didst send a plentiful rain to put out the flames by which the blessed virgin Columba was surrounded, we pray Thee to send us, through her intercession, the healthful dew of Thy mercy, to preserve us from the envenomed attacks of the old serpent.’ The attributes in art of St. Columba are an angel, for according to one form of her legend the flames were put out by a celestial visitor in shining raiment; a dove, some say in allusion to her name, others because at her baptism, when she was about to be named Angela, a dove came and settled on her head, leading her parents to call her Columba; a bear, in allusion to the incident related above; a sword and a crown, both easily explained. Her strange experiences from her baptism to her death are the subjects of various paintings in French churches and elsewhere, but they do not seem to have inspired any artists of note.
St. Reine, or Regina, of Alise, in the present Diocese of Autun, is said to have been converted as a child to Christianity, and banished from her home on that account. She lived with a woman who had been her foster-mother, and looked after her sheep and goats. One day the Governor of the district, Olybrius by name, saw her minding her flock, and fell in love with her. He asked her to marry him, but she refused, saying that she was the bride of Christ. He did all he could to persuade her to relent, but, finding her obdurate, he had her cruelly tortured, and sent to prison. There a vision was vouchsafed to her of a gleaming cross with a dove on the top. The dove spoke to her, telling her to be faithful to the end, for her heavenly Bridegroom was awaiting her with her crown. The next day she was bound to a cross, and a fire was lit beneath it, but no harm ensued to the faithful martyr; and she was in the end beheaded. Her tragic story is told in some quaint old paintings in the Church of Flavigny, where her relics are said to be preserved; and she is sometimes introduced in devotional pictures holding a palm, a crown, or a sword, and with a lamb at her feet. Occasionally two angels bearing a crown are hovering above her, as she receives her death-blow.
St. Reparata, who was long specially honored at Florence, though why does not appear, is said to have been martyred at Caesarea, at the age of twelve, after bravely enduring all the usual tortures inflicted on Christian converts. She was beheaded, and as the sword fell her soul escaped to heaven in the form of a white dove. A church dedicated to the child martyr formerly occupied the site of the Cathedral of Florence, and she has been constantly introduced in devotional pictures by Florentine masters, notably in one by Fra Bartolommeo, and another by Simone Memmi, both in the Uffizi Gallery, in which her symbols are a crown, a book, and a white banner bearing a red cross. Elsewhere the dove and the sword are sometimes given to her.
St. Susanna of Rome is said to have been of noble birth, and the niece of Pope Caius, by whom she was converted to Christianity. She was not only very beautiful, but very intellectual, and on this account the Emperor Diocletian wished her to marry his beloved adopted son Maximus. She, of course, refused, and Diocletian told his wife Prisca, who, though he did not know it, was also a Christian, to do all she could to persuade Susanna to yield. Instead of doing so the Empress encouraged her to stand firm, and after all the usual attempts to destroy her by torture had failed, the poor girl was beheaded. The Empress buried her in the Catacomb of S. Alessandro, and is said to have kept a veil soaked with her blood in her own oratory, where she used to pray incessantly for the conversion of her heathen husband. Later, the house in which St. Susanna had lived in Rome was converted into a church, and it is now owned by Cistercian monks, who hold the martyred maiden in special honor.
The chief attributes of St. Susanna are a crown lying at her feet, probably in allusion to her refusal of the Emperor’s adopted son, a sword, and the martyr’s palm. She is sometimes introduced in devotional pictures, and there is a statue of her in a chapel of S. Maria di Loreto by Duquesnoy, but she is little known out of Rome.
St. Daria is said to have been a vestal virgin, who, having put out the sacred fire after her conversion, was buried alive; or, according to another version of her story, she was married to a young Christian named Chrysanthus, who converted her and was soon afterwards martyred, his bride encouraging him to the last. He was first sewn up in the skin of a freshly slaughtered ox, and thus exposed to the sun, then burnt with torches, and finally buried alive, some say alone, others with St. Daria. The two sometimes appear together in art, as in some old mosaics at Ravenna, each holding a lily, in token of their having preserved their virginity though married; and occasionally St. Daria has a lion at her feet, for it is related that a lion defended her from insult when she was imprisoned. In the Church of S. Sigismondo at Cremona there is a fine altar-piece by Giulio Campi, in which the martyred pair are presenting to the Virgin and Child the donors of the picture, the Duke and Duchess of Milan, who were married on their fete-day.
To the third century also belongs the so-called wonderworker of the nineteenth century, St. Philomena, about whom nothing very definite is known beyond the fact that in 1802 a tomb, in which were the remains of a young girl, was discovered in the catacomb of S. Priscilla in the Via Salaria, Rome. The tomb was of terra-cotta, and adorned with various quaint designs, including an anchor, an olive-branch, a lily, two arrows, a scourge, and a spear, cut across by a broken inscription, of which the beginning and end were effaced. The remaining words were ‘lumen pax tecum fi,’ and it was with no little plausibility supposed that the sentence was originally, ‘Filumena, pax tecum fiat,’ or, ‘Philomena, peace be with thee.’ Beside the bones was a broken vase covered with dried blood. It is related that, as this precious blood was being removed to an um for its careful preservation, it became luminous, and other strange circumstances pointed to the conclusion that the unknown Philomena had been a martyr to the faith. The anchor, the emblem of hope and also of death by drowning, was interpreted to mean that the Saint had been flung into the sea; the arrows, the spear, and the scourge were the implements used to torture her, and the lily was the symbol of her unstained purity.
The precious relics were placed in the treasury of the Lateran and there they remained unheeded until 1836, when it was, it is said, revealed to three different persons — a young workman, a priest, and a nun — that St. Philomena had been martyred under Diocletian, because she would not many him or his adopted son Maximus, the dreamers were not quite sure which. She was born of Christian parents, who named her Filialumenis, or the child of light, and she was taken to Rome at the age of thirteen to plead with Diocletian against some horrible injustice. The Emperor promised to do all her parents wished if they would give her to him, and they were willing enough; but the maiden was obdurate, and after the usual tortures she was beheaded. After these revelations had been duly submitted to various tests, their truth was accepted by the Roman Catholic Church, and the relics of the Saint were removed first to Naples, and then to the town of Mugnano, where they were re-interred with great pomp.
Since then. the veneration in which the martyred girl has been held has been ever on the increase, and more miracles are said to have been worked by her than by any other Saint in the Calendar. She is supposed to be able to heal all manner of diseases; the lame, the blind, and the deaf never turn to her in vain, but she is the special protector of little children. In Italy there is a society named after her to which many young girls belong; numerous churches have been erected in her honor, and gifts of priceless value have been offered at her shrine at Mugnano. Statues of her, with her emblems at her feet, abound in the churches of Italy, France, and Belgium. At Pisa, in a chapel dedicated to her in the Church of S. Francesco, she is represented above the altar, attended by two angels bearing the symbols of her martyrdom, whilst beneath are numerous sufferers who have been cured by her intercession; at Ars, Charente-Inferieure, in a chapel said to contain some of the bones of the Saint, given by Pius VII. to a French envoy, are eight ceiling paintings representing her legend, from her first appearance before Diocletian, who is offering her a golden crown, to her reception in heaven after her martyrdom, and the finding of her relics in the nineteenth century. In the same chapel is a bas-relief, in which angels are seen bringing: the Saint to land after the attempt to drown her; and even in skeptical Paris, notably in the Churches of Saints Gervasius and Protasius, and that of St. Merri, are pictures and frescoes of incidents from her story. In fact, although her very existence is doubtful, the ‘child of light’ has taken a great hold on the
popular imagination, and her memory is enshrined in the hearts of many poor sufferers, whose pain has been relieved by their fervent faith in her, if not by her actual intervention. Adapted from: The Saints in Christian Art: The Evangelists, Apostles, and Other Early Saints, By Mrs. Arthur Bell, (London: George Bell & Sons, 1901).