Reading Notes: Week 03 "Women Saints" Part B

 Saint Martha

    If S. Juliana had all the chill, and S. Margaret had no chill, where does that leave S. Martha? I think it leaves her somewhere in the middle leaning toward S. Juliana. She is aggressive enough to see a dragon, the Tarasque, eating a man and whip out a crucifix with no hesitation. She's also calm enough to keep it frozen there, while the townspeople kill it.

    S. Martha takes one look at this giant amalgamation of a dragon who shoots flaming excrement out of its butt just munching away on another person and has the presence to know she can stun and hold it there while everyone else helps her.

    If she wanted to, I believe she could've slain the Tarasque all on her own, but her prayer was only to restrain it. I think she let the townspeople kill it to help heal the grief they had from the Tarasque's reign.

    While she didn't hold a conversation with it, she was more of a passive actor in the encounter with the dragon.

    (I like to imagine all these townspeople crowded behind her in a really long single- or double-filed line, peeking over her shoulder at the Tarasque.)

    Shortly after, she's even able to resurrect a man with prayer. She's an absolute legend along with SS. Juliana and Margaret, in my book anyway.

    Her character and deeds being in the same vein as SS. Juliana and Margaret make my head spin the basis of this week's story.

    What if they were all related?

    What if they were melded into one person?

    What if they had a descendent?

        Would this descendent call upon their intervention?

    What if there was a woman like this for every century of the earth?

        What they be like?

    Of this unit, the women bravely facing evil in the forms of demons, dragons, and evil men are definitely my favorites.

Marthe et la Tarasque sur le Bréviaire à l'usage de Paris vers 1414. (Source: WikiMedia Commons)

Bibliography: Golden Legend: Saint Martha by F.S. Ellis