The gorgeous Basilica de San Vicente* in Avila, Spain is dedicated to a trio of Christian martyrs whose feast day today is.
The Romanesque masterpiece was begun about 1175, when the relics of three Diocletian martyrs — Saint Vicente and his sisters Sabina and Cristeta — were translated from the Monastery of San Pedro de Arlanza. (In the present day, the relics reside in the church’s high altar.)
Panels in the basilica relay for the illiterate medieval audience their stock martyrdom tale of these faithful siblings: tortured on wooden crosses before having their heads graphically smashed under wooden beams.
_-_Ant%C3%B3nio_de_Oliveira_(%3F),_Museu_de_Arte_Sacra_da_S%C3%A9_de_%C3%89vora.png)
Vicente, Sabina, and Cristeta, the martyrs of Talavera, along with St. Anthony (16th century painting).
* The church’s full official name is Basilica de los Santos Hermanos Mártires, Vicente, Sabina y Cristet.
On this day..
- 1937: Nikolai Nikolayevich Durnovo, Slavist
- 1799: Egyptians after the Revolt of Cairo
- 1938: Chinese soldiers and civilians after the Battle of Wuhan
- 1905: Ed Lamb, bully
- 1821: Elizabeth Warriner, Lincoln poisoner
- 1441: Margery Jourdemayne, the Witch of Eye
- 1698: Old Believer popes and Princess Sophia's petitioners
- 1942: Helmuth Huebener, Mormon anti-Nazi
- 1449: Ulugh Beg, astronomer prince
- 1659: The first two Boston Martyrs
- 1666: Robert Hubert for the Great Fire of London
- 1553: Michael Servetus, but not to defend a doctrine