> May we have the details please?
My colleague Gillian Mackie,
> at the University of Victoria, has recently offered a compelling
> case for identifying this saint as Vincent, rather than Lawrence.
I must admit that I'm confused over the various accounts of St
Vincent's martyrdom, but that in Butler, for example, has him
tortured at the order of Dacian, the governor of Spain, rended with
iron hooks, etc., until his bones and guts showed through in many
places. This only provoked Vincent to smile and taunt his
executioners as weak and faint-hearted. The torture went on apace,
until the presiding judge, apparently moved by compassion, offered to
stop the proceedings, "begging of the saint for his own sake, that if
he could not be prevailed upon to offer sacrifice to the gods, he
would at least give up the sacred books to be burnt, according to the
order of the late edicts." Vincent, of course, refused, and was
subsequently sentenced to "the most cruel of tortures, that of fire
upon a kind of gridiron, called by the acts the legal torture. The
saint walked with joy to the frightful engine, so as almost to get
the start of his executioners, such was his desire to suffer."
Well, this is, indeed, what we see in the mosaic, the saint, with the
cross of martyrdom over his shoulder, veritably bounces towards the
gridiron. Certainly, St Lawrence was also grilled in a similar
manner, but Gillian Mackie points out another prominent element of
the mosaic: namely, the cupboard containing the Gospels, clearly
identified. There is nothing in the vita of Lawrence that explains
the presence of "the sacred books" whereas Vincent was grilled
specifically on their account. Not only that, but Galla Placidia,
who had the mausoleum built (for whom is a great problem; she
herself was eventually buried in one of the mausolea attached to
the transept of St Peter's in Rome) during the second quarter of
the 5th century, had formerly been married off to a Visigoth and
lived in Spain previous to her return to Ravenna; this could
provide an explanation for her devotion to a Spanish saint. QED.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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