Thursday 12 May 2016

The Girl With the Flaming Hair

Tuesday was my day off and beyond a bit of grunt work I, for once, had made no plans.....except on my phone was a message from W who was also off with time in lieu "fancy doing summat cheap but different...any ideas missus?"

Now I like a challenge and I rarely fail to not have something up my sleeve. This time the inspiration had come from one of the FB groups I'm a member of. Having made my suggestion to W we headed out.....


Even in my strange little corner of the world it's not everyday you get to see a redhaired female saint being crucified upside down on a St Andrew's Cross now is it! Pre Reformation, this wall painting is in St Richard's, Burton, West Sussex.

Who she is exactly is a matter of some debate. There has been a suggestion put forward that she might be St Wilgefortis [known as St Uncumber here] whose cult was active in parts of Germany. The legend is that she was a Christian Sicilian who wanted to become a nun. Her papa had other ideas and intended her to marry a chap of his choosing. Having had her sent to prison, she defied him further by praying to be made ugly and conveniently grew a beard [Conchita Wurst eat your heart out] Frustrated and just a tad furious at this daughter's defiance he had her crucified. The sticking point is that no mention nor depiction of this has her shown upside down so a mystery it must remain.

I am pleased to report that W confirmed that once again I had not failed to deliver on the offbeat front!

Arilx

1 comment:

  1. It's just taken me ages to work out what I was looking at lol I can be a tad dim sometimes

    ReplyDelete

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