Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/286

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. HI. APKIL u, 1917.

simae Martyris in oratorio ad Sancta sanctorum honorifice seruatur."

Sancta Sanctorum L the name given to the much venerated chapel at the top of the Scala Santa in Rome. From the time of St. Gregory the Great, there are references to an oratory dedicated to St. Laurence in the Lateran patriarchate, or pontifical palace. In this oratory the most precious relics were generally exposed, and so great was their number' that Leo III. in 850 caused the words Sancta Sanctorum to be carved on a cypress-wood reliquary there contained. In the thirteenth century Honorius III. (1216-27) and Nicholas III. (1277-85) entirely renewed and elaborated the chapel. The Lateran palace having been damaged by earthquake and fire, Sixtus V. (1585-90) undertook to rebuild it. Fresh plans were drawn up, and as the consequence of the opening of a new street, the sacred oratory was completely isolated. To form an ascent to it the Pope then placed there the Scala Pilali, or Scala Santa, brought from Jerusalem by St. Helena, and which hitherto had been venerated before the portico of the palace. Sixtus V. further reconstructed the whole front of the build- ing to cover the twenty-eight steps. The sculptures in the vestibule by Jacometti were executed by order of Pius IX., who entrusted the care of this hallowed edifice to the Passionist Fathers.

MONTAGUE SUMMERS, F.R.S.L.

I am able to give a few examples of repre- sentations, in ancient painted glass, of St. Barbara, in addition to those mentioned in M. TURPIN'S very interesting communica- tion at the last reference. They are as follows :

1. In a tracery light of the north transept of Great Malvern Priory is the standing figure of the saint, wearing a golden crown, and clad in a crimson robe, over which is a white, gold - bordered, mantle. Her left hand supports a white and gold tower wherein are three lancet openings. The background, which is purple, is enriched by a diaper of ovals. The figure is surmounted by a white and gold architectural canopy. Date of glass c. 1501.

2. A figure of St. Barbara appears in the tracery of one of the north windows of the nave in the same church. Here the saint is seated upon a golden bench, turned to the right, and wearing a blue dress over which is a white mantle, bordered with gold. On her head is a golden crown. She has long golden hair, and a white halo with golden

dge. In her right hand is a golden palm branch ; in her left is a white tower. The figure, which is surmounted by a small canopv, is placed upon a rubv background. Date c. 1485.

3. The third example appears in one of the windows of the north choir aisle in Winchester Cathedral, and is of early sixteenth- century date. This figure has a white halo and golden hair, and is clad in a blue dress, over which is a white mantle. She holds a white tower, wherein are three windows.. The background of the panel is of pale green.

4. The fourth and last example of which I have any particulars appears in the east window of Fromond's Chantry in Win- chester College, and may date c. 1480-83. The saint has long golden hair, and a white halo with golden border. Her robes are white, enriched by a powdering of golden flowers. In one hand is a palm-branch, and by her stands a large white tower. The pavement has black and white tiles. The figure is surmounted by an arch, beneath which is a golden vault with white ribs, the whole supported upon white pillars.

JOHN D. LE COUTEUR.

To the useful matter that has been col- lected abo\xt this saint, it may be well to add the following lines from Barnabe Googe's rendering of the ' Regnum Papis- ticum ' of Naogeorgus, or Kirchmeyer :

Saint Barbara lookes that none without the body

of Christ doe dye, Saint Cathern favours learned men, and gives

them wisedome hye.

Third Booke, p. 38 (Hope's reprint).

On Corpus Christi Day :

The Challis and the singing Cake, with Barbara is

led, And sundry other Pageants playde in worship of

this bred. Fourth Booke, p. 54.

The belief that St. Barbara did not allow any of the faithful to die unhouseled led, naturally, to her being accepted as the patron of those exposed to sudden death in warfare or in storms. ST. SWITHIN.

The Times of Feb. 23, 1917, in an article on the new Cathedral Church of St. Mary, Edinburgh, speaks of " the Barbara spire having been dedicated in May, 1915 appro- priate for the reason that St. Barbara is said to be the patron saint of munitions of war." W. B. H.

THOMAS GORDON : THE DATE OF HIS BIRTH (12 S. iii. 146). If Gordon refers to himself as being 29 in ' The Humourist ,' published 1720, he cannot have been born