Description
St Daniel of Padua (Patron for Women Who’s Husband at War)
St Daniel a Deacon, of the Paduan Church. He martyred during the persecution of Diocletian. At the beginning of the 4th Century. His body found in 1075. According to the legends, the martyr would have appeared to a blind man of Tuscia. Inviting him to ask for the grace of sight in the oratory of St. Prosdocimo in Padua. Where they found his grave, ignored.
The miracle followed by a research which led to the discovery of a marble ark. The martyr laid there as he had been killed. His body lying on its back on a wooden table and covered with a marble slab. That pierced by many long nails. An inscription said ” His corpus Danielis martyris et levitae quiescit. ”
The bishop Ulderico, present at that first reconnaissance. He had the ark carried on January 3, 1076 in the new cathedral of Santa Maria. Within the walls of the city. And to placate the oppositions of the monks of St. Justina and the inhabitants of the place. He built an oratory dedicated to St. Daniel. In the place where now it is the homonymous parish church. The corpse of the martyr, from the main altar of the old cathedral. In 1592 transferred to the subcore of the new.
The Counter Reformation in Italy saw an increase in the literal depiction of the martyrdom of saints. Here, the appalling spectacles of Saint Daniel dragged by a horse and then nailed between a table of wood. And one of stone are presented with the full repertory of classical and Renaissance poses and gestures, richly varied. These reliefs formerly ornamented the altar of the saint in the Cathedral of Padua.
