St. Christopher and the little mermaid: warning for pilgrims and sailors (original) (raw)

St. Christopher was often invoked regarding matters such as the dangers of the journey, a sudden death without confession, devilish temptations or the Black Death. He is represented carrying the Child Jesus on his shoulders, through a river inhabited by sea monsters -and even sirens, in the exceptionally preserved frescoes of Santa Maria del Azogue (Benavente, Zamora) and the parish of Tardobispo (Zamora). In them we can find a little mermaid painted as looking to a mirror while combing her hair. This image has many parallel figures in the margins of illuminated manuscripts, capitals, corbels anf keystones of some buildings, and it also appears next to the legs of St. Christopher in a fresco in the cloister of Bressanone Cathedral (Bolzano), a Flemish anonymous Mayer van den Bergh Museum in Antwerp and several British, Belgian and French late Gothic and Renaissance murals. Many of the Spanish representations of St. Christopher are preserved on locations with a deep tradition of nomadic sheepherding. Is there, perhaps, a connection to the peregrinatio posed by nomadic activity? In addition to it, some lithologic issues are discussed (since the grinding stone is one of the attributes that characterices the saint) as well as issues regarding the cult of Christopher, whose mark has been registered the ballads, place names and popular devotions.