SANTA RESTITUTA D'AFRICA

Saint Restituta of Africa

The martyrdom of Saint Restituta is probably one of the most dramatic and poetic, both for its staging and for how spectacularly it was performed.
After being tortured for a long time, the saint was hung by her hair, her feet nailed to a rock. During the torture, two angels came down from the sky and rested beside her, one on her left and the other on her right. Their mission was to console her with psalms and canticles, without freeing her, thus confirming the divine will to accompany the martyrs in their extreme purpose. Restituta’s body admirably endured all the torments until proconsul Anulino, fed up with the woman's endless wandering towards death, ordered the executioners to proceed to a more effective execution.
Then, with her body already broken, the saint was tied to a pole and put on a boat filled with resin and tow to be burned alive on the high seas.
Nevertheless, when the torches that were to set the stake were lit, suddenly the wind began to whirl, directing the flames towards the boat of the executioners, which immediately caught fire. The executioners dived into the sea among columns of smoke and fire and swam away from that catastrophe.
A few moments later, Saint Restituta martyr emerged from such a scenery and soared towards the firmament led by the angels who had accompanied her.
Her body was intact.

 The stories of nineteen ancient martyrs told in an almost aseptic language and medieval style images
in an original book capable of blending the high and the low, the sordid and the mystical,
ancient icons and modern cultural references in a hermeneutics of martyrdom and punishment.

ATTI DELLA GLORIOSA COMPAGNIA DEI MARTIRI
by Nicolás Arispe
hardcover, 88 pages, 110x148 mm
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ISBN: 9788857610498