Feast Day of Saint Denis, cephalophore
October 9th, 2011 Headsman
October 9 marks the feast date of the early Christian martyr Saint Denis.
Guess how he died:
When this missionary bishop to Paris got the Roman chop* for his conversions sometime after 250, he scooped up his own severed noggin and carried it to his preferred burial spot.
Upon that eventual pilgrimage site would spring up a medieval basilica whose 12th century renovation turned it into a pioneer of Gothic architecture.
(Denis is also sort of the namesake for the Parisian hill Montmarte where he’s supposed to have been put to death: “mountain of Mars” in heathen times, it Christianized to mons martyrium, “Martyrs’ Mountain”.)
While many Christian martyrs carry the instruments of their martyrdom in iconography, and a few others roll with the bits of severed flesh exacted by those martyrdoms, Denis is only the most notable of an entire designated sub-class who carry their own heads: cephalophores.
This subject, seemingly tailor-made for a They Might Be Giants song, finally got one in 2011: “You Probably Get That A Lot”.
A most profane footnote was appended to our holy man’s legend during the French Revolution.
Journalist Camille Desmoulins once recklessly sneered of Robespierre‘s vain lieutenant Saint-Just, “He carries his head like a sacred host.”
Saint-Just is supposed to have retorted upon hearing the slight, “I’ll make him carry his like Saint Denis.” He did it, too.
* Two companions, Rusticus and Eleutherius, were doing the same conversions and suffered the same execution. Nobody named cathedrals after them.
On this day..
- 1992: Sukhdev Singh Sukha and Harjinder Singh Jinda, Operation Blue Star avengers - 2020
- 1732: Edward Dalton, brotherly hate - 2019
- 1685: Rebecca Fowler, Chesapeake witch - 2018
- 1601: Nikolaus Krell, Saxon chancellor and Crypto-Calvinist - 2017
- 1646: The effigy of Jean de Mourgues - 2016
- 1938: Ivan Stepanovich Razukhin - 2015
- 1796: Thirty Jacobins for the Affaire du camp de Grenelle - 2014
- 1968: Pierre Mulele, hoodwinked - 2013
- 1569: Vladimir of Staritsa, royal cousin - 2012
- 1401: Llywelyn ap Gruffydd Fychan, an army marching on his stomach - 2010
- 2002: Aileen Wuornos, Monster - 2009
- 1967: Ernesto "Che" Guevara - 2008
Entry Filed under: Ancient,Arts and Literature,Beheaded,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Disfavored Minorities,Execution,France,God,History,Martyrs,Power,Religious Figures,Roman Empire,Torture,Uncertain Dates
Tags: architecture, camille desmoulins, catholicism, cephalophore, christianity, gothic architecture, iconography, living heads, living trunks, montmarte, paris, saint, saint-just, saints, st. denis, they might be giants, tmbg
Wow makes me wonder about the headless horseman..,to see someone pick up their own severed head would definitely be different. Thanks for sharing, very interesting statue also.