The Lives of the Saints through 100 Masterpieces

Martha

The Lives of the Saints 156 Martha July 29 “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and upset about many things.” This affectionate reproach, which Jesus directed to the mistress of the house as she fretted about how to better receive him, made “this noble hostess,” as The Golden Legend calls her, the patroness of homemakers , whose thankless vocation often goes unacknowledged. Therefore, Saint Martha logically is portrayed bearing kitchenware and a chain of keys. However, the bucket and ladle are at times confused for symbols that reflect another piece of her life: the holy water pail and the aspergillium (sprinkler) with which she triumphed over the dragon Tarasconus, a victory that took place at a site that ever since has been called Tarascon, a city in southern France. The amphibious animal, wider than an ox and longer than a horse, had come from the Eastern region of Galatia, home of the Gauls of Asia Minor, to settle among the Gauls of the West. According to tradition, Martha came to Provence with her brother Lazarus and her sister Mary Magdalen to evangelize the region. There, she showed the same intensity she had applied to managing her household—converting the population, bringing the dead back to life, and erecting a statue of Jesus Christ in her garden, the first Christian statue of which there is any record. Thus, besides illustrating those episodes in the Gospels featuring Saint Martha, artists have also portrayed her life in Provence, including the moment of her death when the Lord himself came to take away his hostess and, in his turn, welcome her into his own home. Jan Vermeer (1632–1675) Christ at the Home of Martha and Mary National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh ...