#Virgin martyrs

[catholic-saint-tournament]

we need saint agatha for the boob cakes!! and saint thomas aquinas who i used to pray to every morning before school to get through it

HAHAHAHA boob cakes! St Agatha is definitely on the bracket, as is St. Thomas Aquinas.

For those of you unawares, St Agatha's breasts were cut off so often in art she's depicted with her boobs on a platter, like so:

[maypoleman1]

21st January

St Agnes’ Day

St Agnes by Domenachino (1625). Source: Wikipedia

Today is St Agnes’ Day. Agnes is believed to have been a Christian, born to an aristoratic Roman family in the fourth century AD. She was executed in 350 during Diocletian’s persecution of Christians aged just thirteen. A number of miracles are said to have taken place around her execution, including the failure of kindling when the Roman authorities attempted to burn her to death following her refusal to renounce her faith. A soldier then killed her by stabbing her through the throat. She is honoured by most Christian churches as one of the virgin saints, and is often depicted in the company of a sheep, probably due to a possibly deliberate misreading of Agnus Dei (Lamb of God). For this reason today is said to be a good day to bless sheep and all things woollen.

For some reason Agnes’ story has also found a home in Cornwall, but it is an altogether more fanciful tale, if no less dark. The chaste Agnes became the object of affection of a Cornish Giant named Bolster. Nothing Agnes could say would dissuade her gigantic suitor from his pursuit although the young woman’s constant rejections led Bolster to take out his frustration on the local settlements. Agnes therefore devised a cunning ruse to rid both her and the locality of the tiresome giant. Agnes persuaded Bolster to prove his love for her by opening a vein in his wrist and filling a hole at Chapel Porth near Truro, with his blood. The simple-minded giant had no idea that the hole led under the sea and had no bottom. As Bolster slowly lost consciousness, Agnes rolled him to a cliff edge and kicked him into the waves to drown. The grateful local people named their village St Agnes in her honour. Given this rather unchristian homicidal behaviour, it is likely that this Cornish Agnes is descended from a pagan giant-killing Celtic heroine.

[forward-in-joy]

Happy Feast of St. Ursula and companions!!

"What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written: “For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

-- Romans 8:35-38

[mongrelmutt]

My superior gave me this poster as a gift for my renewal of consecration 💚

[charlesreeza]

Three 16th century marble sculptures by the Gagini family of sculptors active throughout Italy during the Renaissance:

St. Catherine of Alexandria is stepping on the head of Maxentius, the pagan emperor who tried to get the devout virgin to renounce her faith. The spiked wheel at her side is part of a device he planned to use to torture and kill her. According to the legend depicted on the base of the statue, Catherine’s prayers summoned an angel who shattered the wheel, and the flying fragments killed some of the pagan bystanders. Then she was beheaded.

St. Lucy, by Antonello Gagini, is depicted as a ‘bringer of light’ with a flaming lamp in her hand. Lucy was another devout virgin who got in trouble with pagan authorities when her unwanted fiancé complained that she was giving her dowry to the poor. When men were sent to throw her in a brothel, she was miraculously rendered immovable. On the left side of the statue’s base, you can see a team of oxen failing to move her. Then they tried to burn her, as seen on the front of the base, but she was heat resistant. So they stabbed her in the throat.

The Madonna with Child was sculpted by Domenico Gagini, Antonello’s father. The scene on the base shows Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth to share the news of her virgin pregnancy. Elizabeth, who was considered too old to conceive, was six months pregnant with her son who grew up to be John the Baptist. You probably know the rest of the story. (Spoiler: John is beheaded, Jesus is crucified, and Mary becomes the Queen of Heaven.)

Photos by Charles Reeza at the Cathedral of Syracuse, Sicily

[prideprejudce]

the tragedy of alicent and rhaenyra giving their hearts (and bodies) to incredibly violent (and misogynistic) men while craving normal human comfort and affection (that they once had from each other) but it never measuring up to their past lives together and instead leaving them feeling hollow and alone

[napoleonyaoi]

Carlo Crivelli – Snippet of Saint Sebastian from The Virgin and Child with Saints Francis and Sebastian, 1491. National Gallery (London, UK)

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

I had to.

Reliquary Bust of a Female Saint

ca. 1520–30, possibly Brussels Oak, paint, gilt

[illustratus]

The Wilton Diptych (1395–1399)

The kneeling King Richard II is presented by Saints John the Baptist, Edward the Confessor and Edmund the Martyr, each holding their attribute. In the right-hand panel the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child in her arms is surrounded by eleven angels, against a golden background and field of delicately coloured flowers.

[dramoor]

"My brave man, do not be uneasy. I make no account of my life. I have placed it in the hands of God and His Blessed Mother."

~St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, martyr

Sculpture of the Virgin Mary, Barcelona Cathedral (Via dreamstime.com)

[forward-in-joy]

The first thing about the Ursulines that caught my attention when I was discerning consecrated life was the story of St. Ursula herself: a woman who loved Jesus so much she preferred to face martyrdom than to marry and renounce her faith 💚

[maertyrer]

North Italian School The Coronation of Saint Ursula

Oil on canvas, 146.5 x 172 cm, 17th century

[myremnantarmy]

“𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺𝘳𝘴, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘔𝘦?"

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Jaime Jacomart (Spanish, 1409-1461) Three Virgin Martyrs, n.d. Detroit Institute of Arts

[springcatalyst]

top 9 first watches of 2023

thank u @hamburgerslippers for le tag!! mwah

Because some of them don't have English titles they are: Murder on D Street (1998), Antiviral (2012), Martyrs (2008); Round About Midnight (1999), Cure (1997), Cabaret (1986); The City That Never Sleeps: Shinjuku Shark (1993), Go Go Secondtime Virgin (1969), and Mad God (2021)

these are all fuckin bangers but some I would recommend more than others (gun to ur head. watch cure.) (maybe be wary of go, go secondtime virgin, tho.) this is the list of movies that did things to my brain. i shall never recover

[henxleo]

Hijas de la Caridad Mártires de Valencia y Barcelona