Originally published at: The Getty Museum's "Macabre Minute with Mel" dives into the gruesome deaths of saints depicted in medieval manuscripts | Boing Boing
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Some of the deaths are more gruesome, but in terms of imagery St. Sebastian remains everyone’s favourite.
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Always happy to point out that St. Laurent is the patron saint of Barbecue (because he was spit roasted (“Turn me over, I’m done on this side”)) - which is extra interesting in Montreal - as St. Laurent is the street where you go to get the famous smoked meat.
On a less gruesome note, St. Bridget once made enough beer for 6 parishes with only one measure of grain and one measure of hops. (there was a tradition of the churches to provide beer during a certain religious holiday, but one year all the churches were short on supplies) Now that’s the kind of miracle I can get behind.
Lives of the Saints make for great reading.
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In Catholic grade school we were given holy cards depicting the gruesome deaths of martyred saints. At the time it seemed perfectly normal, but now…?
Here is one of my favorites-the disembowelling of Saint Erasmus:
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Well, a Saint can hardly die peacefully in their sleep after a long day of sitting around the house watching TV, can they?
No, they HAVE to die in the most agonizing way because so did old JC himself - part of the narrative of doing the right thing despite those against you and your message (even if that message is total crap).
Seems unless there’s some gruesome ending to a life’s work promoting the Lord/one’s self, then it’s all a waste.
Hence why Trump claims to be the target of arrows and slings… the martyr thing is good business.
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As @beauwillamson stated above, St. Lawrence is always portrayed with a gridiron because he was roasted alive.
When he appeared at the Pearly Gates, he was greeted personally by St. Peter, who exclaimed,
“Lawrence! Well done!”
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So if I ever pick up the paintbrush again and do “fine art”, my plan was to do a take on martyred saints.
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