chest. His attributes are a “T”, symbol of the cross, a crucifix, a lily and a skull. Saint Francis of Paola Born in Paola (Cosenza) in 1416, his parents directed him towards a religious life in the Franciscan Order but he preferred a hermitic life and founded the Order of Minim Friars. For his renown as a performer of miracles he was summoned to the bedside of the French King Louis xi and spent the last years of his life in France. He is generally represented with a flowing white beard, dressed in a habit and holding a staff. Saint Jerome Born approximately in 347 A.D. in Stridone, a town in Dalmatia, Jerome was a great scholar. To him we owe the “Vulgate”, that is the first Latin translation of the Bible, and the De Viris Illustribus, where he traced the biographies of 135 authors either Christian or anyway connected to Christian faith. He is often represented as an elderly man with a white beard intent on writing. His symbols are: the Vulgate, the cardinal’s hat, the crucifix and the skull of the penitents as well as the lion. Another common depiction portrays him as a penitent in Bethlehem’s cave, where he lived as a hermit. Saint John the Baptist Born to Zacharias and Elisabeth when they were already old, John was the last prophet and preached the necessity of conversion by baptism in the River Jordan: he also baptized Jesus, recognizing Him as the Messiah. He was beheaded at the behest of Salome, the daughter of the divorced princess Herodias. He is represented wearing animal hides, often with a long beard, as a reminder of his ascetic life in the desert. His attributes are the lamb, Christ’s symbol, and a cross. From the Renaissance on, the image of Saint John as a child, called the Infant Saint John, depicted with the Virgin and the Infant Jesus, was rather widespread. Saint John of the Cross Born in Fontiveros (Spain)into an extremely poor family, at the age of twenty,
Juan de Yepes Álvarez became a Carmelite friar and with Teresa of Avila (see entry) participated in the Reform of the Order, then taking on the name of John of the Cross. He was a mystic and a theologian who expressed his thought in theological treatises and poetic works. He is represented contemplating the cross. Saint Julian the Hospitaller According to the legend, he was a merchant who killed his parents (whom he did not know) as he had mistaken them for his wife and her lover. Repentant, he led a life of expiation wandering across Europe. When he arrived in Italy, on the banks of the River Potenza he devoted himself to ferrying the sick and the leprous, until one day the Lord came to him as a leper. Saint Julian is usually represented with the attribute of the sword. Saint Lawrence Born in Spain, he was the archdeacon of Rome and for this reason in 258 A.D. he was condemned to death by Emperor Valerian and martyred on a burning gridiron. Saint Lawrence is represented as a deacon wearing a dalmatic, with the gridiron as his attribute or at times with a bag of money which he gives to the poor. Saint Lucy According to hagiographic literature, Lucy, whose name means “luminous”, was born in Syracuse at the time of Emperor Diocletian (284-305 A.D.) into a Christian family. Having devoted herself to Christ, her fiancé denounced her as a Christian, and hence she suffered various tortures until she was killed with a sword. She is represented with her eyes pulled out (shown on a plate, on a book or in a chalice, etc.). Other attributes of the saint are the palm leaf of martyrs, a book, a sword, a dagger, a lit lamp, and flames. Saint Margaret of Cortona Born in 1247 in Laviano, not far from Castiglione del Lago, she eloped with a young nobleman of Castiglione del Lago, with
pinacoteca comunale e museo della pieve di san giuliano