Sunday, July 24, 2005

Santiago Mayor


Tomorrow is the Feast of St. James the Greater, the son of Zebedee who was so eager to be great with Jesus, that he rashly promised to drink from his cup of suffering. And he did: he was the first Apostle to be martyred.

Since my blog is heavy with text (no surprise there), I thought an image of Santiago (as they call him in Espana, where his name was the rallying cry for the reconquista from Islam) would be appropriate.

The one I chose is Saint James the Greater in the Battle of Clavijo, by Juan Careno de Miranda, 1660, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; I found it at the excellent Patron Saint Index.

Interestingly, a traditional mode of depicting St. James is "mounted on horseback, trampling a Moor."

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