Orthodox Icon of Saint Juliana
Of all of the stories in Part A for the Women Saints of the Golden Legend unit, three of them stood out to me in some manner or another. I'm not yet sure which one I might adapt, so I took the time to somewhat summarize each in order to be able to look back over them later.
Saint Juliana
The legend of Saint Juliana was interesting in large part due to Saint Juliana's conversation with the devil. Characterizing the devil and why he does the sinful and wicked things that he does could be really interesting, particularly given how the text is written in a rather older style of English, so I'd have some room to take my own interpretation of it.
I also found it interesting the trials that Saint Juliana was able to survive and recover from. She was healed by an angel after being broken upon the wheel, survived being dropped into molten lead by having the lead cool around her, before finally being decapitated. And then after her decapitation, the man who'd called for it and his attendants had their ship sank and their bodies eaten by the beasts of the sea.
Saint Margaret
The legend of Saint Margaret is a rather admirable tale, in that she was steadfast in her conviction even when her flesh was torn and scraped from her bones. After which, she was thrown in prison and visited twice by the devil, once in the form of a dragon, which she banished or defeated by using the sign of the cross, and once in the form of a human, and she threw the devil to the ground when he visited her in human form and pinned him beneath her heel. She then proceeded to question the devil before she banished him back to hell.
When she was brought out of the prison the next day, she was thrown into the fire and burned with brands for refusing to pray to the provost's gods. After this, she was bound and put into a vessel to drown. But instead of drowning, she rose up from the water free of harm, and was crowned by a dove from heaven, which caused five thousand men to be converted and then executed for their faith. She then received word from her Lord that heaven's gates were open for her, and after she prayed, she asked the executioner to behead her so that she might go. The executioner was reluctant, but ultimately beheaded Saint Margaret and then dropped dead himself. Once Saint Margaret was dead, the provost buried her body in the house of someone unconnected to her so that she would be unlikely to inspire others.
Saint Christine
The legend of Saint Christine sees her suffering a great many torments. When her father tries to convince her to worship his gods, she disowns him as her father and refuses. When he is gone, she breaks the silver and gold idols into pieces and gives the pieces out to the peasants. When her father returned and found them missing, he had twelve men beat on Saint Christine until they dropped, but she still yet lived and claimed that if his gods were so powerful, the men would have been able to keep going.
After this, her father put her in prison, and her mother came to visit her and tried to convince her to accept her father's gods. Her mother fails, and when she tells her father, he has Saint Christine brought before him and tells her to pray to his gods or else he'd disown her and have her tortured. She then claims she is no daughter of his, and calls him a son of Satan. After this, her father commands that her flesh be torn and pulled with iron hooks and that her limbs be broken and torn apart.
Saint Christine then took a part of her flesh and threw it at her father. She was then put on a wheel and a fire was lit underneath, but instead of burning her, it spread and consumed five hundred men. The father believes it to be an act of necromancy, and has her cast into the sea with a weight around her neck. Christ descended to baptize her in the sea, after which she was carried back to land by the archangel Michael. Her father was in shock, and demanded she be thrown in prison and beheaded the next morning, but her father fell dead in the night.
Her father was succeeded by the judge Dion, who had Saint Christine thrown into a burning tub of oil, rosin and pitch, which was shaken to help her burn faster, but Saint Christine was instead rejuvenated by it. Dion then had her head shaved and marched her through the streets naked to the temple of Apollo, which she turned into dust, and Dion died right there.
After Dion came Julianus, who has two asps, two adders and two servents put on her, but the snakes did not harm her and stayed calm. When Julianus tries to have a enchanter make the snakes attack her, the snakes instead killed the enchanter. Saint Christine then said they should go to a desert, where she resurrected the enchanter. Julianus then had Saint Christine's breasts cut off, from which flowed milk and blood. He then had Saint Christine's tongue cut out, but she retained the ability to talk and threw the cut out tongue at the judge, which took out one of his eyes. After this, she was struck with an arrow in the side and then in the heart, and with this she finally died.
Bibilography:
Saint Juliana from The Golden Legend, edited by F. S. Ellis
Saint Margaret from The Golden Legend, edited by F. S. Ellis
Saint Christine from The Golden Legend, edited by F. S. Ellis
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