St. Catherine Altoid Tin Shrine - Patron Saint of Artists

St. Catherine of Bologna - Altoid Tin Shrine

Patron Saint of Artists

St. Catherine of Bologna was an Italian nun and artist born as Catherine de' Vigri on September 8, 1413 in Bologna, Italy.

She was the member of an aristocratic family and the daughter of a diplomat to the Marquis of Ferrara. Catherine received a wonderful education in reading, writing, singing and drawing while being raised at the court of the Duke of Ferrara. Catherine excelled in painting, Latin and the viola.

In 1426, at 13-years-old, she entered the convent of Corpus Domini at Ferrara and became a Franciscan Tertiary.  Catherine was openly willing to serve the more humble roles in the convent. She was a laundress, a baker and a caretaker for the animals.  In 1432, Catherine and other young women of Ferrara founded a monastery of the Order of Poor Clares (an order founded by St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi) where she was later appointed as Superioress.  In 1456, Catherine returned to Bologna with her superiors and the governors there requested she found a second monastery of the same Order and be the Abbess of the convent.

Catherine continued to paint and to write beautiful spiritual guides and poetry. She wrote the Treatise on the 7 Spiritual Weapons Necessary for Spiritual Warfare. 

During the Lenten season of 1463, Catherine became seriously ill, and on March 9th she passed away.

She was buried without a coffin and her body was exhumed eighteen days later because of many cures attributed to her at her graveside and the sweet scent coming from her grave. Her body was discovered incorrupt (undecayed) and remains so today.  Catherine is dressed in her religious habit seated upright on a golden throne behind glass in the chapel of the Poor Clares in Bologna.  Her skin has since been blackened due to exposure from oil lamps and soot.

Saint Catherine was beatified in 1524 by Pope Clement VII and canonized on May 22, 1712 by Pope Clement XI. She is the patron saint of artists, the liberal arts, the City of Bologna, and against temptations.

Her feast day is celebrated on March 9.

My Altoid Tin Shrine - St. Catherine of Bologna

 I had a ton of fun making this shrine.  The paintbrushes surrounding the shrine are from OffCenter -- several times while volunteering at OffCenter - organizing supplies -- they allowed me to take home all the paintbrushes that had been ruined with hardened paint.  I sawed off those paintbrushes and used them to surround St. Catherine.

The little painting on the left side of the photo of the Madonna and Child is a painting that is attributed to St. Catherine.

On the right side of the shrine at the base is a small pile of miniature artist's tools which were a delight to make -- the case of Faber-Castell pastels, two tiny paintbrushes, a palette and a tube of blue paint.

Here's a view of the backside of the shrine which is covered with metal belt links and a concho.

St. Lucy Altoid Tin Shrine

Another Altoid Tin Shrine -- St. Lucy

Lucy, whose name can mean "light" or "lucid," is the patron saint of the blind and those with eye afflictions. She is often seen with a pair of human eyes on a plate or in a bowl. In paintings, she is often depicted with a golden plate which holds her eyes and she often holds a palm branch, which is a symbol of victory over evil.

Lucy's history has been lost and all we really know for certain is that this brave woman who lived in Syracuse, Italy, lost her life during the persecution of Christians in the early fourth century. Her veneration spread to Rome so that by the sixth century the whole Church recognized her courage in defense of the faith.

Because people wanted to shed light on Lucy's bravery, legends began to crop up. The one that has passed the test of time tells the story of a young Christian woman who vowed to live her life in service of Christ. Lucy's mother tried to arrange a marriage for her with a pagan man and Lucy knew her mother could not be swayed by a young girl's vow, so she devised a plan to convince her mother that Christ was the better partner for life.

After several prayers at the tomb of Saint Agatha (a highly venerated virgin saint who also had experiences similar to Lucy's), Lucy saw the saint in a dream. St. Agatha told Lucy her mother's longstanding illness would be cured through faith.  Lucy used this information to persuade her mother to give the dowry money to the poor and allow Lucy to commit her life to God.

While Lucy and her mother were grateful to God, the rejected bridegroom was deeply angered and betrayed Lucy's faith to the governor Paschasius. The governor attempted to force her into defilement at a brothel, but the guards who came to take her away were unable to move her, even after hitching her to a team of oxen.  (Go Lucy!)

The guards heaped bundles of wood around her but it wouldn't burn so they finally resorted to their swords, and Lucy met her death.

Lucy's legend did not end with her death. According to later accounts, Lucy warned Paschasius he would be punished. When the governor heard this he ordered the guards to gouge out her eyes; however, in another telling, it was Lucy who removed her own eyes in an attempt to discourage the persistent suitor who greatly admired them.

When her body was being prepared for burial, they discovered her eyes had been restored.

Accounts say that Lucy's body remained undisturbed in Sicily for 400 years until Faroald II, Duke of Spoleto, seized the island and transferred Lucy's remains to Abruzzo, Italy. It was later removed by Emperor Otho I in 972 to Metz and left in the church of St. Vincent. There is much confusion about what happened to her body after its stay at St. Vincent's, but it is believed that several pieces of her body can be found in Rome, Naples, Verona, Lisbon, Milan, Germany, France and Sweden.

My St. Lucy Altoid Tin Shrine

Since I have several issues with my eyes, I've added St. Lucy to my personal team of Saints.

On the right side of  the shrine is a little basket filled with hand-made loaves of bread.  St. Lucy was known for feeding the poor.

I found some wonderful hand-made, hand-painted ceramic eyeball beads in a local bead  store.  Here's a close-up of the eyeballs which are on the plate on the left side of the photo.  I hadn't fully researched St. Lucy at the time I adhered the plate to the shrine base, or the plate would have been golden . . .

I also used blue and white glass eye beads from Turkey around the perimeter of the shrine.

And on the upper left of the shrine is a metal milagro from Mexico -- a pair of eyes.