SS. Agatha and Christina (detail; M 070) Postcard

Left to right: St. Agatha of Sicily (died c. 251), dressed in peacock blues and greens, holds up one of her severed breasts in a pair of pincers. Because of the tortures she endured before her martyrdom, she has become the religious poster child for abuse victims and breast cancer patients. (For more about this depiction of St. Agatha, see either her individual ornaments or greeting card.) + Feast: February 5 + Seated to the right of St. Agatha is St. Christina of Bolsena (died c. 295) dressed in pale blue. Next to the ‘St. Cecilia’ of this painting, St. Christina has been the saint most difficult to identify and the saint with the most unusual iconography. Not born to the faith as her name would imply but a convert, nevertheless, as was the case with the other Roman Era virgin martyrs, St. Christina pledged Christ her perpetual virginity and ran afoul of the local authorities. She endured countless grisly tortures and was finally either killed by two darts thrown at her by the second of two presiding judges in her case or shot to death with arrows on the archery field. + In art, St. Christina is usually depicted standing next to a millstone or breaking wheel and holding two darts (or arrows) and a palm of martyrdom. Here, the projectile she holds is too short to be an arrow, is nocked, and appears to be made of solid metal. It is not a throwing dart but a crossbow bolt. Consider it artistic license. Not exactly anachronistic, but unusual. Unusual too is the miniature gilt rocking cradle she holds on her lap. Though seldom portrayed in the visual arts, the literary sources for St. Christina’s Passion as recounted by Bl. James of Voragine in The Golden Legend tells how she was placed in an iron cradle filled with pitch and rocked by her tormentors. “Then Christine praised God, and thanked him that she was so renewed, and rocked as a child in a cradle.” + Feast: July 24 + Image Credit (M 070): Detail of Virgo inter Virgines [in Latin; La Vierge parmi les vierges in French; The Virgin among Virgins in English], by The Master of the Legend of St. Lucy (fl. c. 1435-1506/1509), oil on oak panel, 67.3"x42.5" (171 cm x 108 cm), c. 1488, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, inv. 2576. From Wikimedia Commons {PD-Art|PD-Old-100}. The image file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.