Death Masks!
When is the last time you saw a good death mask? I mean really!
We need more of those.
How can you fail to mention our own St. Severa in Notre Dame's basilica?
I admit being slightly startled by St. Severa myself. I'm not sure if I was more or less startled when I realized that the girl was a wax model, and that the real St. Severa was in the tiny box next to it. Why should the model get all the glory, and the saint's mortal remains be cooped up in a shoe box?
Xena--I haven't got any photos of her! Plus, she isn't really under an altar, but sort of inside of a cabinet.
Paul--the ideal arrangement is to put the saint's remains *inside* of the waxwork; though, like a lot of pious customs it's best to simply not get too analytical, as it loses much of its charm.
When I saw St. Severa back in the '50s, I recall her being under an altar.
In the Good Old POD Days, when all that was left of a saint was dust, it was mixed into the wax to make "saint-paste--and then molded into a figure.
But I don't think the US has any examples of the bizarrely dressed and bejeweled skeletons of saints that sit in glass boxes throughout southern Germany. For which see RELIQUIEN edited Anton Legner, catalog of an exhibition in Cologne about 20 years ago. It is utterly, utterly the strangest volume in my library.
The link showing the wax effigy of Episcopalian Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts-Schori in some sort of strange ceremonial garb was a little too grotesque even for me.
That was a wax effigy, wasn't it?
Fr. Phillips--not very lifelike, is it?
Sandra--I have got to scan some photos out of that book. It made for a great read when I checked it out of the library--weird even by my very strict standards.
It's true that more churches need wax effigies.
More churches also need the decapitated heads of saints, such as St. Oliver Plunkett's head in St. Peter's, Drogheda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Oli...Oliver_Plunkett
This is a cause I can firmly support. Wax effigies in '08!
Effigies, wax or otherwise, don't do what dust in the altar stone does; do they?
"More churches also need the decapitated heads of saints, such as St. Oliver Plunkett's head in St. Peter's, Drogheda."
I understand there are some Moslem groups working overtime to fill this demand... At this time their is a short waiting list, but production is expected to pick up.
Glad you got to see RELIQUIEN, Matthew. It's definitely in the must see to believe category. The decorated skeletons are not only bejeweled--as it aquamarines for the pupils of the eyes and pearls for the whites-- they wear fantastic costumes of silk, velvet, and ostrich plumes. Busy little nuns prepared the holy corpses from the 16th to the 18th C. The craft was called "cloister work." I did an article about it long ago, but unfortunately, it's not online.
I always get very wistful and sad thinking about the former Los Ángeles Cathedral seeing as my family used to always go to St. Vib's for Christmas Midnight Mass when I was younger.
FYI, don't know if you guys know already, but this St. Vibiana is NOT the same as St. Bibiana whose feast is in December. However, she was a virgin martyr too. This St.Vibiana is much more obscure. her feast i in September. If you'd like more info., I can break out my copy of the Breviary supplement for the Diocese of Monterey-Los Ángeles.
MJ--thanks for the reminder. I did not know this until comparatively recently. I gather she was one of those 19th century-excavated "catacomb saints" who we know little about? I'd love further info.
I hope someday she will get a better shrine than the bland sarcophagus in the basemenent she currently resides inside of.
" I always get very wistful and sad thinking about the former Los Ángeles Cathedral seeing as my family used to always go to St. Vib's for Christmas Midnight Mass when I was younger."
The good news, MJES, is that you can and your family could STILL gather there on Christmas... Provided you rent it! It is a rental hall these days...
Isn't there something in the Episcopalian ritual that would prohibit the wearing of those awful dangling earings with a miter?
Granted, it would be tough to find anything to match that miter, but that is the worst liturgical accessorising I have seen.
It's not a mitre, it's an oven mitt!
You know mitres have only been in use in Anglicanism for about 100 years. That is a pretty good run... might be time to back off that fad.
There is a St. Victoria effigy in Ohio -- must be another St. Victoria?
Photo at link, scroll down:
http://www.mariasteincenter.org/
...elicchapel.html
The girl's popular, what can I say? Though it might be another, as there are several, or relics from one St V got scattered between several effigies.
I once heard a Polish woman from Detroit tell a story that involved her rescuing their waxed St. Hedwig from a church in Ohio that had gotten sold when their church closed.
From it, I learned a very important lesson: getting pulled over by a police officer while driving a pickup in which you have a wax saint seated upright next to you necessitates a lot of explanation.
Nice Swiss garb those Precious Blood sisters put together for St. V!
But I don't think the US has any examples of the bizarrely dressed and bejeweled skeletons of saints that sit in glass boxes throughout southern Germany.
I remember seeing one in the Cathedral in Munich; it 20 years ago, so I don't remember who it was, but it was a little alarming at first.
OK. Here's more info on St. Vibiana. BTW, I'm trying my best with my bad Latin. As well, I'm skipping over much of the flowery language:
"During the general restoration of the Cemetery of St. Xystus on the Via Appia, ordered by Pius IX, it happened that among some of the ancient Christian monuments the sepulcher containing the body of S. Vibiana, Virgin & Martyr was discovered. Underneath her head was a vessel to hold her blood that was stained red (subrúbei).
The relics of this sacred virgen were diligently collected and inspected by experts who showed beyond a doubt that she had drinken from the cup of martyrdom at an early age. In the same place where her body was found were depictions of the symbols of martyrs...[the text then talks breifly about the glories of martyrdom] The inscription above the sepulcher of this martyr reads: "Animæ innocenti atque pudicæ Vibianæ in pace depositæ pridie Kalendas Septembris." [the text then talks about more about martyrdom].
In the year 1854 the sacred relics of the Roman virgin & martyr Vibiana were first made public for the venertion of the faithful. The Holy Father (Antístites), always having the welfare of his flock in mind waited patiently for direction [as to what to do with the relics]; by the grace of God (sed Deus) the Diocese of Monterey & Los Ángeles in Upper California was to begin building its Cathedral. Thus, the Supreme Pontiff Pius IX donated the saced relics to the newly elected bishop [of Monterey-Los Ángeles--Tadeo Amat y Brusi] and the Office and Mass of this virgin martyr was ordered to be said by all the clergy of the diocese. To care for the protection of this treasure, a Confraternity of S. Vibiana was to be canonically erected in the diocese, and the Cathedral was to be named after the holy virgin. The day before the First of May in the year 1876, the bishop assembled the faithful of the diocese at the cathedral to dedicate it in honor of S. Vibiana and to solemnly transfer her relics to a shrine [sacéllo] above the altar. The Supremer Pontiff had decreed to all the clergy and people of the Diocese of Monterey & Los Ángeles that the date for the feast of this virgin martyr would be perpetually assigend to the first day in September.
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