St Faith, Martyr…
(My poem for St Faith’s Day, 6th October…)
St Foi of Aquitane was martyred for her faith
By Dacian, the Roman Governor of Spain,
Who entered Agen during Emperor Maximillian’s reign.
For her refusal to deny her Christian God,
Or accept the goddess Diana, or acquiesce,
She then accepted the administered pain…
Conflicting tales, tinkered through time
Offer a menacing legacy
Of a ruling army’s punishment and crime.
Breasts ripped from her young body?
Beaten harshly with reeds?
Burned upon a glowing grid?
And finally…
…decapitation?
Emancipation followed and it has been agreed,
That Bishop Caprais, shamed by the child’s devotion,
Succumbed too
And was beheaded for his creed…
Mystery surrounds a miraculous rain
Which doused the killing fire,
Precipitating Faith’s beheading
And death’s dark, dire desire…
The Sainted Faith has been linked as a Patron
For pilgrims, prisoners, soldiers and the blind,
Associated with a gridiron, rods and a sword,
Plus a palm around which her clutching fingers wind…
Her miracles, ‘joca’, or ‘jokes’, or ‘tricks’,
Seem strangely pagan,
Her remedies thus prepared for cult followers’ trials to fix…
St Faith’s shrine is in Conques, France, which I have been fortunate enough to visit…
The images above are from my visit to St Faith's Church, Great Crosby & those below are from my visit to Conques in France some years ago...
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