ANGELS AND MINISTERS OF GRACE 267
on
the eve of St. John's day ; on examining the contents of the glass the
next morning they would see written in black char· acters on the white
background a prophecy of what was to happen. On this saint's day women
were assured that if they cut the tip of their hair with an axe, or
merely washed it, they would be blessed with an abundant growth of hair.
A
strange legend of angelic activity is that touching the miraculous
transportation through the air (from Galilee to Dalmatia) of the "Santa
Casa," the house wherein the Virgin Mary dwelt. This event is placed in
1295, and the reverse of an Italian medallion engraved in 1508, during
the pontificate of Julius II, gives a representation of the journey to
Dalmatia, two angels sufficing to bear the little edifice. The sea,
over which the house is being borne, is conventionally indicated by
waves«, but the fact that the medallist has seen fit to show a
relatively large figure of the Virgin seated on the roof of the little
structure and holding the Infant Jesus in her arms, scarcely adds to
the realism of the effect.
Quite
naturally Catholicism could not be satisfied with the pagan idea that
the constellations held sway over the different parts of the human
body, and the saints were substituted for the stars.
The
saints of the Romanists have usurped the place of the zodiacal
constellations in their government of the parts of man's body, and so
for every limbe they have a saint. Thus, St. Otilia keepes the
head instead of Aries; St. Blasius is appointed to govern the necke
instead of Taurus; St. Lawrence keepes the backe and shoulders instead
of Gemini, Cancer and Leo; St. Erasmus rules the belly with the
entrayls, in the place of Libra and Scorpius; in the stead of
Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces, the holy church of Rome
hath elected St. Burgarde, St. Rochus, St. Quirinius, St. John, and
many others, which govern the thighes, feet, shinnes and knees.*
"
Pettigrew, " On Superstitions Connected with the History and Practice
of Medicine and Surgery," p. 30. (Quotation from Melton, " Astrologaster," p. 20.)
