Category Archives: Birthstones

St. Roch in Lisbon–and New York!

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In this interior view of the Church of St. Roch in Lisbon, you can see the famously expensive Chapel of St. John the Baptist. One reason it was so expensive os the large amount of lapis lazuli used on the front of the altar and the walls of the chapel.

My recent post about St. Roch was much more popular–and sparked some very interesting comments and responses–than I had anticipated and prompted me to think a little bit more about the good saint.

The most famous church dedicated to St. Roch is in Lisbon, Portugal. (There are a half dozen churches dedicated to him in the metropolitan area of New York City.) The church in Lisbon was the earliest Jesuit church in the Portuguese world, and one of the first Jesuit churches anywhere. The Igreja de São Roque was one of the few buildings in Lisbon to survive the disastrous 1755 earthquake relatively unscathed.

When built in the 16th century it was the first Jesuit church designed in the “auditorium-church” style specifically for preaching. It contains a number of chapels; the most notable is the 18th-century Chapel of St. John the Baptist which was constructed in Rome of many precious stones and disassembled, shipped, and reconstructed at São Roque in Lisbon; at the time it was reportedly the most expensive chapel in Europe.

The history of the church is fascinating. In 1505 Lisbon was being ravaged by the plague, which had arrived by ship from Italy. The king and the court were even forced to flee Lisbon for a while. The site of São Roque, outside the city walls (now an area known as the Bairro Alto), became a cemetery for plague victims. At the same time the King of Portugal sent to Venice for a relic of St. Roch, the patron saint of plague victims, whose body had been brought to Venice in 1485. The relic was sent by the Venetian government, and it was carried in procession up the hill to the plague cemetery.

The inhabitants of Lisbon then decided to erect a shrine on the site to house the relic. This early shrine had a “Plague Courtyard” for the burial of plague victims next to the shrine. In 1540, after the founding of the Society of Jesus in the 1530s, the king of Portugal invited them to come to Lisbon and the first Jesuits soon arrived. They settled first in All Saints Hospital (which no longer exists). However they soon began looking for a larger, more permanent location for their main church, and selected the Shrine of St. Roch as their favored site. They used the old shrine for a while but built the current church in 1555-1565.

St. Roch himself is usually represented in the garb of a pilgrim, often lifting his tunic to demonstrate the plague sore, or bubo, in his thigh, and accompanied by a dog carrying a loaf in its mouth. The Third Order of Saint Francis claims him as a member and includes his feast on its own calendar of saints, observing it on August 17. There is a popular street festival in his honor in Little Italy at the end of August each summer; read about it here.

July birthstone: Ruby

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Rubies are the birthstone of July and are said to guarantee health, wisdom, wealth and success in love.

Rubies are the birthstone of July and are said to guarantee health, wisdom, wealth and success in love.

Rubies are associated with the sun and were thought to preserve mental and physical health. In the middle ages, rubies were viewed as a stone of prophecy. It was thought the stone darkened when danger was near. Ivan the Terrible of Russia stated that rubies were good for the heart, brain and memory. A 13th century prescription to cure liver problems called for powdered ruby. In the 15th-16th centuries, rubies were thought to counteract poison. When rubbed on the skin, they were also thought to restore youth and vitality.

If a ruby were cast into water it would cause it to boil, and if carved and pressed into wax, would melt the wax.

Although the most well-known magical rubies in modern society are the ruby slippers Dorothy wore in the Wizard of Oz movie, the slippers were silver inthe book. The silver shoes, however, did not show well against the yellow brick road inthe film and so the silver shoes were replaced with ruby slippers, which coukld be more clearly seen.

Take a look at my previous post about the ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz, “I’ll get you, my pretty… and your little dog too!”

Turquiose, birthstone of December

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Turquoise_

In ancient Persia it was once believed that the wearing of turquoise talismans would protect the wearer from death. It was also believed – not only among Persians but also among a number of other cultures – that a change in the color of the turquoise was a sign of danger or illness. Turquoise was carried by physicians of the fifteenth century. They claimed that the stone would counter the harmful effects of poison. They prepared a potion containing finely powdered turquoise, which, as well as proving to be a powerful antidote to scorpion stings, was also considered effective in banishing the pains arising from possession by demons.

Turks often attached Turquoise to the bridles of their horses believing that it rendered the horse more sure-footed. As the horse was often regarded as a symbol of the sun in its rapid course through the heavens, the sky-blue color of Turquoise may have caused it to be associated in some way with the horse.

The name turquoise is apparently related to the fact that is was brought to Europe from the Eastern Mediterranean by Levantine traders, more commonly known as Turks.  Its been used as a valuable ornament for ages and was used by the Egyptians thousands of years ago. The color is, of course, turquoise, but its range of color varies from green and greenish blue to sky blue shades.

For centuries, the most valuable turquoise came from Iran (Persia) but today some specimens mined in the southwestern United States compete with it.  The name “Persian Turquoise” is now generally used to refer to any turquoise stone that does not have the black or brown veining commonly found in turquoise mined in the United States.