opened; which was done, and lo! it was found empty. Then the Virgin, taking pity on his weakness and want of faith, threw down to him her girdle, that this tangible proof remaining in his hands might remove all doubts for ever from his mind: hence in many pictures of the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin, St. Thomas is seen below holding the sacred girdle in his hand. For instance, in Raphael's beautiful "Coronation" in the Vatican; and in Correggio's " Assumption at Parma, where St. Thomas holds the girdle, and another apostle kisses it.

The belief that the girdle is preserved in the Cathedral at Pistoia has rendered this legend a popular subject with the Florentine painters; and we find it treated, not merely as an incident in the scene of the Assumption, but in a manner purely mystic and devotional. Thus, in a charming bas-relief by Luca della Robbia1, the Virgin, surrounded by a choir of angels, presents her girdle to the apostle. In a beautiful picture by Granacci2, the Virgin is seated in the clouds; beneath is her empty sepulchre: on one side kneels St. Thomas, who receives with reverence the sacred girdle; on the other kneels the Archangel Michael. In simplicity of arrangement, beauty of expression, and tender harmony of colour, this picture has seldom been exceeded. Granacci has again treated this subject, and St. Thomas receives the girdle in the presence of St. John the Baptist, St. James Major, St. Laurence, and St. Bartholomew. We have the same subject by Paolino da Pistoia; by Sogliani; and by Mainardi, a large and very fine fresco in the church of Santa Croce at Florence.

A poetical and truly mystical version of this subject is that wherein the Infant Saviour, seated or standing on his mother's knee, looses her girdle and presents it to St. Thomas. Of this I have seen several examples; one in the Duomo at Viterbo."

In the Martyrdom of St. Thomas, several idolaters pierce him through with lances and javelins. It was so represented on the doors of San Paolo, with four figures only. Rubens, in his large picture, has followed the legend very exactly; St. Thomas embraces the cross, at the

1 Fl. Acad.

2 Fl. Gal.

3 Florence, Casa Ruccellai.

The romantic Legend of the sacratissima cintola, "the most sacred girdle of the Virgin," is given at length in the "Legends of the Madonna," p. 344.

foot of which he is about to fall, transfixed by spears. A large picture in the gallery of Count Harrach at Vienna, called there the Martyrdom of St. Jude, I believe to represent the Martyrdom of St. Thomas. Two of the idolatrous priests pierce him with lances. Albert Dürer, in his beautiful print of St. Thomas, represents him holding the lance, the instrument of his martyrdom: but this is very unusual.

The eighth in the order of the Apostles is the Evangelist Sr. MATTHEW, of whom I have spoken at length.

Lat. S. Jacobus Frater Domini.

ST. JAMES MINOR.

Gr. Adelphotheos. Ital. San Jacopo or Giacomo Minore. Fr. S. Jacques Mineur. May 1.

THE ninth is St. James Minor, or the Less, called also the Just he was a near relative of Christ, being the son of Mary, the wife of Cleophas, who was the sister of the Virgin Mary; hence he is styled “the Lord's brother." Nothing particular is related of him till after the ascension. He is regarded as first Christian bishop of Jerusalem, and venerated for his self-denial, his piety, his wisdom, and his charity. These characteristics are conspicuous in the beautiful Epistle which bears his name. Having excited, by the fervour of his teaching, the fury of the Scribes and Pharisees, and particularly the enmity of the high priest Ananus, they flung him down from a terrace or parapet of the Temple, and one of the infuriated populace below beat out his brains with a fuller's club.

In single figures and devotional pictures, St. James is generally leaning on this club, the instrument of his martyrdom. According to an early tradition, he so nearly resembled our Lord in person, in features, and deportment, that it was difficult to distinguish them. "The Holy Virgin herself," says the legend, "had she been capable of error, might have mistaken one for the other: " and this exact resemblance rendered necessary the kiss of the traitor Judas, in order to point out his victim to the soldiers.

This characteristic resemblance is attended to in the earliest and best representations of St. James, and by this he may usually be distinguished when he does not bear his club, which is often a thick stick or staff. With the exception of those Scripture scenes in which the apostles are present, I have met with few pictures in which St. James Minor is introduced: he does not appear to have been popular as a patron saint. The event of his martyrdom occurs very seldom, and is very literally rendered: the scene is a court of the Temple, with terraces and balconies; he is falling, or has fallen, to the ground, and one of the crowd lifts up the club to smite him.

Ignorant artists have in some instances confounded St. James Major and St. James Minor. The Capella dei Belludi at Padua, already mentioned, dedicated to St. Philip and St. James, contains a series of frescoes from the life of St. James Minor, in which are some of the miraculous incidents attributed in the Legenda Aurea to St. James Major.

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St. James Minor.

1. The Council of the Apostles held at Jerusalem, in which St. James was nominated chief or bishop of the infant church. 2. Our Saviour after his resurrection appears to St. James, who had vowed not to eat till he should see Christ. 3. St. James thrown down from the pulpit in the court of the Temple. 4. He is slain by the fuller. 5. A certain merchant is stript of all his goods by a tyrant, and cast into

1 66 Very soon after the Lord was risen, he went to James, and showed himself to him For James had solemnly sworn that he would eat no bread from the time that he had drank the cup of the Lord till he should see him risen from among them that sleep. Bring,' saith the Lord, a table and bread.' He took bread, and blessed and brake it, and then gave it to James the Just, and said to him, 'My brother, eat thy bread; for the Son of man is risen from among them that sleep.'"-St. Jerome, as quoted in Lardner, Lives of the Apostles, chap. 16.