Vignette: crucifix with skull and prayer book or bibledetails

Vignette: crucifix with skull and prayer book or bible

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A tall crucifix (a cross bearing a man being tortured to death) stands on a desk or table; it emanates light, dhining on a book propped open behind it, and on a skull. The skull may represent the miraculously incorrupt head of the saint, or could represent the hill, Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified, as that hill was said to have the shape of a skull. There is also an egg-timer, prepresenting mortality. The whole illustration is surrounded by a border of twigs with gothic tendrils and a flower.

This is a detail from a full-page illustration about the life of Saint Bonaventura, an influential thirteenth-century Franciscan monk who became a cardinal, and was elected as an Archbishop of York (although he was never consecrated).

He was known as a theologian, and is the patron saint of bowel disorders.

saints, christianity, death, skulls, books, religion

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