Tag Archives: Catholic saints

Santa Margherita da Cortona

April 17, 2023

Susan Brunn Puett J. David Puett Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States   Fig 1. Plaque on Porta Berarda commemorating Margherita and son’s entrance into Cortona. Photo by Sailko on Wikimedia. CC BY 3.0. From humble beginnings to years as a mistress, Margherita altered her path to become a tertiary Franciscan penitent, attending the ill […]

Can headless martyrs really walk? The belief in cephalophores in the Middle Ages

March 30, 2023

Andrew Wodrich Washington, DC   Saint Denis of Paris holding his severed head. Mid-15th century depiction from an illuminated prayer book (Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. 5, fol. 35v, 84.ML.723.35v). The halos surrounding his decapitated head as well as the stump of his neck suggest that the soul and saintliness of St. Denis remain in […]