The Christian Saint series

St George has been our patron saint since the Middle Ages when he was introduced by Richard I. Before the crusades England's patron saint was Edmund the Martyr, a Saxon king taken prisoner by the Vikings and ritually killed with arrows on November 20 869

April 19th, my choice is St. George the Confessor:
"...Saint George the Confessor, Bishop of Antioch in Pisidia, lived during the Iconoclast period. In his youth he became a monk, was known for his holiness of life and was made bishop of Antioch in Pisidia.

St George was at Constantinople during the iconoclastic persecution under Emperor Leo the Armenian (813-820). He denounced the Iconoclast heresy at a Council of bishops, calling on the emperor to abandon it. When St George refused to remove the icons from the church, as ordered by the emperor's decree, he was exiled to imprisonment (813-820)...." http://oca.org/FSlives.asp

Thanks, Centrix.
After her first vision she was "abundantly enlightened in her soul" and refused to get married, but her parents forced her into a marriage - her husband died in a battle 16 days later; then she intended to become a nun, but the emperor issued an edict that all unmarried and widow women should be given to foreign men - /it's not cleat here if this was some kind of women exchange as a part of a political treaty, or even if it's historical accurate/, bit the main point is that she was forced into it by the power of the state. With time she persuaded her husband to become a monk, after which he "fell asleep in the Lord" - which I suppose is a euphemism for dying.

So, finally being free to commit to a spiritual life /which was the only way for a woman at the time to be something more than a mere house slave and a breeding tool/ - the vitae says "taking advantage of her freedom" - she with other pious women became "tonsured"; I'm not sure is the word here means cutting of the hair short, or in a male way. Some time later she chose a place for a church by inspiration, and then for 3 more - the vitae concentrates on her ascetic behavior, and gets in a fine detail about what she did wore and ate; as well as the miracles that were done by her holy relics.

Her first vision, as described in the vitae, wasn't dramatic, it's described as a vision of a star coming to her heart "...shining star descend as far as her chest. It shed abundant light on her and then disappeared.."/the vitae I linked/. I like that, the quiet light of realization and enlightenment. I don't think this particular one would be described even now as delusional, it's more a poetic image of a very real feeling one feels when coming to believe - which can feel as coming to you, in the way a poem comes to one when one are doing the dishes or something; I can understand why many people, ancient and even now, see writing poetry as a given inspiration, it feel literally like someone put iy in one's mind, all of the sudden, in ready or almost ready shape.


Edited by Don Quixote - 18-Apr-2012 at 23:41

Originally posted by Centrix Vigilis Some excellent representative art contributions in that post. Answering briefly... to allow others to chime as they want.....no calendar no particular order... Orthodox or RC. They share as you know many.

Thanks, Centrix.
I rather use a calendar order, so I keep track what I did and what I didn't - most lamentably my memory is not what it used to be some 20 years ago. I'm going to use the Orthodox calendar, not because I'm Orthodox /because I'm not/, but because I know it better. There are more than one saint celebrated in one day, but I'll pick one, first not to overload my posts, and second, so I have material for the next year - those kinds of informational threads have a potential to be hold for long, and I'm known to keep on threads for years, for as long as this is ok with the threadmaster, of course.

So, today, April 18th, the saint I chose is Saint Athanasia of Aegina, 790 - 860 AD, a abbess of a monastery on the island of Aegina:
"...Athanasia was the daughter of Christian nobles, Niketas and Irene, and experienced a mystical union of a star merging with her heart while weaving at the loom when she was a young girl. She wanted a spiritual life but an imperial edict required all single women of marriageable age to marry soldiers. At 16 years old, at her parents urging, she complied and married a young officer. Sixteen days after her wedding, her husband was killed in a battle with raiding Arabs. She again married this time to a deeply religious man who felt drawn to become a monk and left with her blessing to do so.

Athanasia then gave away the bulk of her possessions, converted their home into a convent and began building churches. She served as an abbess and was known for her miraculous healing of the sick and those seen as possessed. Her community later moved to Timia near the ancient church of Stephen the Protomartyr. Here crowds flocked to see her. As her fame grew she moved to Constantinople seeking solitude as an Anchoress in a cell for seven years. While walled away, she was an adviser to the Empress Theodora II. After seven years, she returned to Aegina, where she died of natural causes three days later at Timia on 14 August 860...."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasia_of_Aegina

A longer account of her life is available on this PDF http://www.doaks.org/publications/doaks_online_publications/HolyWomen/talbch6.pdf  which is a translation of the "Holy Women of Byzantium", which is a translation from her "vitae" - "...which is held in the manuscript, Vaticanus Graecus 1660, of 916 AD. The author is unknown but most likely a man who wrote soon after St. Athanasia's death...." http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1581. She is commemorated also in the Catholic tradition, as it can be seen from the second source I linked.

Some icons of Athanasia of Aegina:

Here with St. John the disciple of St. Gregory

 

I find this one most striking

Originally posted by Don Quixote An excellent idea, Master Soldier! I take the lives of the saints quite seriously as inspirational stories and real bios; I haven't read much on the Catholic one, but the Orthodox Lives of Saints read like rich lessons of ethics, where one can find an inspiration for varieties of commendable behavior. So, I'm going to be joining you here, in picture /I love icons/ and word. Are you going to follow a calendar, whether Catholic or Orthodox, or you are going on inspiration? Very strong figure, Saint George, a warrior with a conscience and a philosopher with a spear, the archetypal Man with capital M, strong in whatever he chooses to do, goes heart and body both in battle and in asserting his ideas and choices. Saint George is very popular in the Orthodox Christianity also. His feast day in the Orthodox calendar in Bulgaria is on May 6th, and is probably the most celebrated one of the folk tradition - a lamb is baked ans eaten in big community feasts, and all the Georges around have "name day" and buy to everyone free drinks in the pubs / I should know, my ex was a "Georgi"=George/. He passed in the Bulgarian folk tales of the 3 brothers and the "lamia"/female dragon/, guarding the golduarde apple from it and eventually slaying it. Here an Orthodox icon of Saint George, Russian from 15 AD, Novgorod. A Bulgarian one, but I don't know the style: A Byzantine one: This one is awesome, shows the spirituality of the warrior, very strong image, IMHO, 13 AD, Athens. Whoever did this one was a deeply believing person - only one look at it makes even me to want to throw myself in abandoned prayer: Another Greek one, from 16th century: This one is by Immanuel Tzanes, 17th century, now in Crete; it's full of light:

Edited by Centrix Vigilis - 18-Apr-2012 at 20:35

I am beginning my review of the Christian Saint's series for a variety of reasons.

Edited by Centrix Vigilis - 18-Apr-2012 at 18:18