Category Archives: Saints

St. David of Wales — and his leeks!

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Children wearing their St David's Day leeks on March 1, 1957.

Children wearing their St David’s Day leeks on March 1, 1957.

Many Welsh people wear one or both of the National symbols of Wales to celebrate St. David: the daffodil (a generic Welsh symbol) or the leek (Saint David’s personal symbol) on March 1. The association of leeks with St. David arises from an occasion when a troop of Welsh soldiers were able to distinguish each other from a troop of the English enemy dressed in similar fashion by wearing leeks. Leek soup is also a popular dish on March 1.

The word leek comes from the Anglo-Saxon name for the plant, leac. The leek, like its relatives the onion and garlic, has been known as a food plant for thousands of years. Over 1,200 years before Christ, the Israelites in the Sinai wilderness longed for the leeks, onions, garlic, meat and other foods they had known in Egypt (Numbers 11:4-6).

The emperor Nero ate great quantities of leeks under the delusion that they improved his voice.

Beginning in antiquity, soldiers of many centuries believed that carrying a leek in battle would assure safety and victory; this was probably why St. David told the Welsh soldiers to wear it.

Who was St. David of Wales? He is said to have been the primary evangelizer of Wales and as a member of Welsh royalty, he founded a Celtic monastic community at Glyn Rhosyn (“The Vale of Roses”) on the western headland of Pembrokeshire at the spot where St David’s Cathedral stands today. David’s fame as a teacher and ascetic spread throughout the Celtic world. The date of Saint David’s death is recorded as 1 March, but the year is uncertain – possibly 588.

Saint David was recognised as a national patron saint at the height of Welsh resistance to the Normans. Saint David’s Day was celebrated by Welsh diaspora from the late Middle Ages. Indeed, the 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys noted how Welsh celebrations in London for Saint David’s Day would spark wider counter-celebrations amongst their English neighbors: life-sized effigies of Welshmen were symbolically lynched, and by the 18th century the custom had arisen of confectioners producing “taffies”—gingerbread figures baked in the shape of a Welshman riding a goat—on Saint David’s Day.

In 1485, Henry VII of England, whose ancestry was partly Welsh, became King of England after victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field; Henry was the first monarch of the House of Tudor and this dynasty added a Welsh dragon to the royal coat of arms, a reference to the monarch’s origins.

#StValentineDay 2016

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The skull and other relics of St. Valentine, a priest martyred in Rome during the early centuries of Christianity, now kept on a side altar in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome.

The skull and other relics of St. Valentine, a priest martyred in Rome during the early centuries of Christianity, now kept on a side altar in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome.

With the modern celebration of Valentine’s Day nearly upon us, can thoughts of love magic be far behind? A number of traditional ways to win another’s heart have been used over the years. One way a woman could win a man’s heart was by feeding him food into which she had mixed some of her own blood (menstrual blood was especially effective). Catching the reflection of mating birds in a mirror on Thursday was the first step in a more complicated love spell. After catching the reflection, a person would give the mirror to his or her chosen and once the receiver looked into the mirror, they would be irresistibly infatuated with the mirror-giver. Or a woman might resort to the much more simple use of caraway seeds, cloves, or coriander to win the affection of the man she had chosen. One English love potion included the kidney of a rabbit, the womb of a swallow, and the heart of a dove while an ancient Greek love potion used a stallion’s semen or a mare’s vaginal discharge.

Garlic, saffron, ginger, or even vanilla(!) were more likely to be used in erotic magic, which was less concerned with affection, and more likely to be aimed by men at women. Wax images could be pierced by pins to incite lust. Striking the intended with hazel or willow branches was also thought to inspire lust. Or you could obtain a few hairs from your intended’s head, tie them in a knot with twine, and then keep the amulet on your thigh or around your genitals to draw your intended’s attentions.

Of course, there were ways to deflect this sort of magic as well. Lily or lettuce could break love spells or decrease lust and thwart unwanted attentions. Just be sure not to confuse which herbs you feed to which guest at your table!

St. Catherine and her Wheel

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A woodprint depicting the execution of Peter Stumpp, a famous convicted werewolf, on the wheel in Cologne.

A woodprint depicting the execution of Peter Stumpp, a famous convicted werewolf, on the wheel in Cologne.

A woodcut depicting how the limbs of a victim would be laced through the spokes of the wheel.

A woodcut depicting how the limbs of a victim would be laced through the spokes of the wheel.

An icon of St. Catherine, with her wheel. Note the 2 images of Mt. Sinai in the background: Moses at the burning bush on the left and the later fortress-monastery on the right.

An icon of St. Catherine, with her wheel. Note the 2 images of Mt. Sinai in the background: Moses at the burning bush on the left and the later fortress-monastery on the right.

One of the most popular women of the Middle Ages, St. Catherine was thought to have been a 4th century philosopher in Alexandria who was martyred in the Great Persecution of Diocletion. Her biography indicates she was tortured on the wheel and finally beheaded; her relics were taken by “angels” (a euphemism commonly used to mean monks) to the monastic settlement on Mount Sinai. A monastery-fortress was built there by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the 6th century; extremely rare and priceless icons and manuscripts have survived there because it was so remote. Her feast day, on November 24 or 25 (in various places), was one of the most popular holidays of the year. It was said that if there was snow on St. Catherine’s day, it would be a hard winter. If an unmarried girl wanted a husband or a married woman wanted to be rid of a bad husband, she should fast on St. Catherine’s day and the saint would either produce a husband or reform/dispatch him as required.

Because of St. Catherine’s association with the wheel, the “St. Catherine’s wheel” firework is probably the first association modern people think of. But in the Middle Ages the use of the wheel as an instrument of torture was a frequent sight in town squares across Europe. People would be tortured on the wheel in several ways but the worst — though least known today — was lacing the broken limbs of a victim through the spokes of the wheel and then spinning the victim to induce nausea as well as pain.

Because crucifixion was no longer practiced in Europe, artists had no models to paint from when depicting the crucifixion of Christ. It was the victims of the wheel that were most often used as models for depicting crucifixions, especially the two thieves on either side of Christ: the contortions of the crucified thieves display the positions commonly seen in victims of the wheel rather than what we now know to be the positions of victims of crucifixion. So, in fact, when we see medieval or Renaissance paintings of the crucifixion scene, we are often actually seeing depictions of contemporary victims of the wheel used as models by the artists.

There is no shortage of books about medieval torture, describing the wheel as well as other instruments used to provoke confessions of guilt from the accused. Although we, as modern people, are not surprised that people accused of outlandish crimes in the Middle Ages — such as being a werewolf or a witch — would confess simply to stop the torture it was the presumption of Classical Roman and medieval people that people subjected to torture would never lie; this must still be the presumption behind the use of “enhanced interrogation,” I think.