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Saints & Martyrs & Bears
The stories behind the paintings
Saint Columba of Sens
The spread of Christianity through western Europe was carried out
in the early years by the missionary effort of monks trained in
a small number of monasteries by church scholars. Some groups of
converts struck out on their own. These lonely individuals walked
across the continent bringing the new religion to the heathens.
In the post-apostolic period (AD 33 to 313), before Rome was converted,
persecution of Christians was often intense. Our first character
lived during this time. In AD 257, a girl was born to a pagan family
who had lived on the slopes of the Pyrenees Mountains as long as
anyone could remember. Surviving harsh mountain winters, these people
had learned their most valuable lessons from nature, and the bear
was their most venerated teacher.
Their daughter Columba was converted to Christianity when she was
fifteen years old. She left home to travel with a few missionaries
who walked north through the mountains into what is now France.
There they encountered a Roman legion, were rounded up and jailed.
When the soldiers returned the following day to take their prisoners
with them, they discovered that Columba had escaped. The missionaries
explained that in the night, a bear had come down from the mountainside
and taken the girl. The soldiers found the idea of the girl being
mauled and eaten by the bear hilarious. It was all she deserved.
What they didn’t know was that Columba and the bear continued
to travel north. Columba spread the story of Jesus until they arrived
in Sens. There she was recaptured and beheaded. She was just sixteen
years old. The bear, who had stayed with her the entire time, mourned.
The story of the martyred girl spread throughout medieval Gaul.
In time, she was beatified and named Saint Columba of Sens.
Elisha and the Two She Bears
King James Bible: 2nd Book of Kings
22 So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying
of Elisha which spake.
23 And he went up from Bethel: and he was going up by the way, there
came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and
said unto him, Go up, thou bald head: go up, thou bald head.
24 And he turned back, looked on them, and cursed them in the name
of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood,
and tare forty and two children of them.
Saint Gall
Saint Gall’s family name has not been preserved by history,
but his legend as a Christian missionary is rich in detail. He may
have been born in Ireland, he may have been raised in Alsace, but
we believe he was a student at the monastery at Bangor, in northwest
Wales, and was trained by Abbot Comgall.
Gall left Bangor with eleven fellow monks in AD 584 when he was
twentyfive years old. Among his fellow travelers was his older brother
Delcolus and the more famous and ambitious Columbanus.
In AD 585 this group of brown-clad monks with their Irish tonsures
landed in Brittany and spread out across Gaul with their Christian
message. A small group arrived in Lexeuil in AD 590. Columbanus
got into a wrangle over the proper dates of various celebrations
and took his followers to Rome to appeal to the new Pope, Gregory.
Gall stayed behind because of illness and that he had come to realize
he was not cut out for politics, and longed for the contemplative
life.
He set up his hermitage on the bank
of the River Steinbock, in what is now Switzerland, and over time
gathered many followers. He became a popular preacher, walking the
roads of Allemagne and the shores of Lake Constance, refusing offers
of more public responsibilities. After his death in AD 646 at the
age of 96, a cathedral was built on the site of his hermitage.
The Church today records two miracles. The first was performed when
Gall, on a pilgrimage through the Alps, stopped for the night and
lit a small fire. A bear was attracted to the warmth and charged
the camp site. Instead of fleeing, Gall instructed the bear to gather
more firewood so the fire would last all night. When the bear returned
with the wood, Gall welcomed him and shared his meal as well as
his fire. The following morning, he told the bear, “Take up
my luggage and follow me.” He named the bear Martin and they
remained constant companions for the rest of their lives.
In Gall’s second miracle he found himself embroiled in a dangerous
royal intrigue. His reputation for piety and nearness to God was
well known when he was approached one day by the powerful Duke Gunzo
of Allemagne. The Duke had with him his twelve-year-old daughter,
Fridaburga. Gunzo explained that his daughter had been betrothed
at birth to the grandson of Sigebert I, the king of the Franks.
The time for the marriage had come since she was now of age. Her
fiancé, Sigebert II, was thirteen and in serious need of
an heir. The Duke was delivering his daughter to Burgundy when the
girl was possessed of a demon. The girl refused to take another
step and Gunzo was afraid of loosing favor with the royal family
of Austria and Burgundy.
Gall performed the exorcism with the assistance of Martin the bear.
They watched the demon fly out of the girl’s mouth in the form
of a blackbird. Her father was thrilled and they were able to continue
their trip.
I can’t leave the story here without telling you more about
the royal intrigue. It turns out that the grandmother of Sigebert
II was the notorious Brunhilde. She had been married to Sigebert
I when he died mysteriously. There followed a hasty succession of
Childebert II and Theodoric II, both meeting early deaths while
Queen Brunhilde managed to maintain her reign.
Her advisors, fearing even more bloodshed, pressured the Queen to
relinquish her powers to her grandson. Days before Fridaburga and
her father reached Burgundy, Sigebert II was murdered.
We do not know how fast the wedding party departed, but history
tells us that some years later Fridaburga married the Anglo-Saxon
King Aethelbert I of Kent. When he died in 616, she married her
stepson Eadbald of Kent. They had a daughter, Miltrude, who wisely
became a nun.
Santa Rosa of Viterbo and the Poor Clares
Born in the Papal State around 1233, Rose was the daughter of pious
parents. Depicted as a child in my painting, she was said to have
raised her aunt from the dead when she was only three. By seven,
she had decided to become a recluse and devote herself to prayer
for the poor. At ten, a vision of the Virgin told her to join the
Third Order of Saint Frances.
Her one misstep seemed to be when she failed to establish a monastery
in Viterbo when she was fifteen.
In 1250, she took the side of Pope Innocent IV in a power struggle
with Frederic II, Holy Roman Emperor. She predicted the Emperor’s
death. When this came true a few days later, she was called a Sorceress.
Rose wished to join the Order of the Poor Clares, but was rejected.
She was unable to raise the dowry they required. Ever pious, she
declared she would join them in death.
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