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 ST. 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 "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."". chap. 16.

prison. He implores the protection of St. James, who, leading him to the summit of the tower, commands the tower to bow itself to the ground, and the merchant steps from it and escapes; or, according to the version followed in the fresco, the apostle lifts the tower on one side from its foundation, and the prisoner escapes from under it, like a mouse out of a trap. 6. A poor pilgrim, having neither money nor food, fell asleep by the way-side, and, on waking, found that St. James had placed beside him a loaf of bread, which miraculously supplied his wants to the end of his journey. These two last stories are told also of St. James of Galicia, but I have never met with any pictures of his life in which they are included. Here they undoubtedly refer to St. James Minor, the chapel being consecrated to his honour.

ST. SIMON ZELOTES (or THE ZEALOT). ST. JUDE (THADDEUS, or LEBBEUS).

Ital. San Simone; San Taddeo. Fr. S. Simon le Zelé. S. Thaddée. Ger. Judas Thaddæus. Oct. 28.

THE uncertainty, contradiction, and confusion which I find in all the ecclesiastical biographies relative to these apostles, make it impossible to give any clear account of them; and as subjects of art they are so unimportant, and so uninteresting, that it is the less necessary. According to one tradition, they were the same mentioned by Matthew as our Lord's brethren or kinsmen. But, according to another tradition, they were not the same, but two brothers who were among the shepherds to whom the angel and the heavenly host revealed the birth of the Saviour. Those painters who followed the first tradition represent Simon and Jude as young, or at least in the prime of life. Those who adopt the second represent them as very old, taking it for granted that at the birth of Christ they must have been full-grown men; and this, I think, is the legend usually followed. It seems, however, generally agreed, that they preached the Gospel together in Syria and Mesopotamia, and together suffered martyrdom in Persia: in what

manner they suffered is unknown; but it is supposed that St. Simon was sawn asunder, and St. Thaddeus killed with a halberd.

In a series of apostles, St. Simon bears the saw, and St. Thaddeus a halberd. In Greek art, Jude and Thaddeus are two different persons. Jude is represented young, Thaddeus old. St. Simon in extreme old age, with a bald head, and long white beard. In the Greek representation of his martyrdom, he is affixed to a cross exactly like that of our Saviour, so that, but for the superscription O CIMON, he might be mistaken for Christ. I do not know of any separate picture of these apostles.

There is, however, one manner of treating them, with reference to their supposed relationship to our Saviour, which is peculiarly beautiful. Assuming that the three last-named apostles, James, the son of Mary Cleophas; Simon and Jude; Joseph or Joses the Just, also named by Matthew among the brethren of Christ; together with James and John, the sons of Mary Salome, were all nearly related to the Saviour; it was surely a charming idea to group as children around him in his infancy those who were afterwards called to be the chosen ministers of his Word. Christianity, which has glorified womanhood and childhood, never suggested to the Christian artist a more beautiful subject, nor one which it would be more easy, by an unworthy or too picturesque treatment, to render merely pretty and commonplace. This version, however, of the Sacra Famiglia is rarely met with. There is an example in the Louvre, signed "Laurentius" (Lorenzo di Pavia, A. D. 1513), which is remarkable as a religious representation; but the most beautiful instance of this treatment is a chef-d'œuvre of Perugino, in the Musée at Marseilles. In the centre is the Virgin, seated on a throne; she holds the Infant Christ in her arms. Behind her is St. Anna, her two hands resting affectionately on the shoulders of the Virgin. In front, at the foot of the throne, are two lovely children, undraped, with glories round their heads, on which are inscribed their names, Simon and Thaddeus. To the right is Mary Salome, a beautiful young woman, holding a child in her arms. St. John, afterwards the evangelist. Near her is Joachim, the father of the Virgin. At his feet another child, James Major. To the left of the Virgin, Mary the wife

of Cleophas, standing, holds by the hand James Minor: behind her, Joseph, the husband of the Virgin, and at his feet another child, Joseph (or Joses) Justus. I have also seen this subject in illuminated MSS., and, however treated, it is surely very poetical and suggestive.'

ST. MATTHIAS.

Ital. San Mattia. Fr. St. Mathias. Feb. 24.

ST. MATTHIAS, who was chosen by lot to fill the place of the traitor Judas, is the last of the apostles. (Acts, i.) He preached the Gospel in Judea, and suffered martyrdom at

the hands of the Jews, either by the lance or by the axe. In the Italian series of the apostles, he bears as his attribute the lance; in the German sets, more commonly the axe. The ceremony of choosing St. Matthias by lot, is the subject of a mediocre picture by Boschi. St. Denis says that the apostles were directed in their choice by a beam of divine splendour, for it were impious to suppose that such an election was made by chance. In this picture of Boschi, a ray of light falls from heaven on the head of St. Matthias.

There is a figure of this apostle by Cosimo Roselli, holding a sword by the point: what might be the intention of that capricious painter it is now impossible to guess. Separate pictures of St. Matthias are very rare, and he is seldom included in sets of the apostles.

3

Matt. xiii. 55.; Mark, xv. 40.

2 Fl. Gal.

3 Fl. Acad.