Today I looked up the patron saints of nursing, in case my father should ever ask me who they were (and he will).
Bad rap or rolled eyes though it gets today, the thing about the Catholic church is that before it ruled most of the Middle Ages, controlled the crowns of several nations, and starred in a Tom Hanks movie, it was a grim, hunted faith. It is still a grim faith, but back in the day it was not considered unusual to be dragged from your home and dismembered in increasingly creative ways for the crime of being a Papist. This coupled with the early Catholic artist's habit of including suggestions of the saint's death in their iconography gave us some really excellent depictions. By which I mean ones anyone can appreciate, ones you stare at and go, is that...? Why...?
First, the facts: The patron saints of nursing are, alphabetically, Agatha, Camillus de Lellis, Catherine of Genoa, Catherine of Siena, Dymphna, John of God, and Margaret of Antioch. Also a fact is that some or all of these people are entirely legendary, but the stories are still awesome. Agatha and Margaret are particularly good.
St. Margaret of Antioch is mostly apocryphal for soon-to-be obvious reasons and whatever portion of her legend is true occurred in the late 400's. Like most early female Christians, she was martyred in horrible ways for not having sex with someone, during which they tried and failed to burn her at stake and boil her alive. Naturally they then FED HER TO A DRAGON. She gave it indigestion and it spit her back out, so they had to behead her instead. She is therefore always depicted coming out of said dragon, which is the clue here that some of this story may be not entirely accurate, although I like to think this may also be a clue that dragons were once a thing.
St. Agatha is an even better story, since she too was tortured extensively for not having sex with some guy, who among other things cut off her breasts. She is therefore usually drawn holding one or both breasts on a plate, which is weird enough, except that the Middle Ages' customary aversion to body parts misinterpreted this image as - wait for it - a pair of loaves of bread, and for centuries bread festivals were held in her honor.
This is topped only by St. Bartholomew, who was flayed alive and in traditional artwork usually holds his skin over his arm. For extra awkwardness he is the patron of leatherworkers.
For further reading even non-Catholics can enjoy, an incredibly exhaustive list of patron saints can be found at: http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/patron00.htm
It is worth perusing for the sheer weird specificity of some of the saints, like the patron saint against caterpillars (Magnus of Fussen), girls living in rural areas (Germaine), pencil makers (Thomas Aquinas), and people who own yachts (Adjutor).
Bad rap or rolled eyes though it gets today, the thing about the Catholic church is that before it ruled most of the Middle Ages, controlled the crowns of several nations, and starred in a Tom Hanks movie, it was a grim, hunted faith. It is still a grim faith, but back in the day it was not considered unusual to be dragged from your home and dismembered in increasingly creative ways for the crime of being a Papist. This coupled with the early Catholic artist's habit of including suggestions of the saint's death in their iconography gave us some really excellent depictions. By which I mean ones anyone can appreciate, ones you stare at and go, is that...? Why...?
First, the facts: The patron saints of nursing are, alphabetically, Agatha, Camillus de Lellis, Catherine of Genoa, Catherine of Siena, Dymphna, John of God, and Margaret of Antioch. Also a fact is that some or all of these people are entirely legendary, but the stories are still awesome. Agatha and Margaret are particularly good.
St. Margaret of Antioch is mostly apocryphal for soon-to-be obvious reasons and whatever portion of her legend is true occurred in the late 400's. Like most early female Christians, she was martyred in horrible ways for not having sex with someone, during which they tried and failed to burn her at stake and boil her alive. Naturally they then FED HER TO A DRAGON. She gave it indigestion and it spit her back out, so they had to behead her instead. She is therefore always depicted coming out of said dragon, which is the clue here that some of this story may be not entirely accurate, although I like to think this may also be a clue that dragons were once a thing.
St. Agatha is an even better story, since she too was tortured extensively for not having sex with some guy, who among other things cut off her breasts. She is therefore usually drawn holding one or both breasts on a plate, which is weird enough, except that the Middle Ages' customary aversion to body parts misinterpreted this image as - wait for it - a pair of loaves of bread, and for centuries bread festivals were held in her honor.
This is topped only by St. Bartholomew, who was flayed alive and in traditional artwork usually holds his skin over his arm. For extra awkwardness he is the patron of leatherworkers.
For further reading even non-Catholics can enjoy, an incredibly exhaustive list of patron saints can be found at: http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/patron00.htm
It is worth perusing for the sheer weird specificity of some of the saints, like the patron saint against caterpillars (Magnus of Fussen), girls living in rural areas (Germaine), pencil makers (Thomas Aquinas), and people who own yachts (Adjutor).
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