Johann Baptist Zimmermann
St. Liborius Intercedes for a Woman with Calculus
1753-53
Fresco
Church of St. Peter, Munich, Germany
Liborius is the patron saint of persons suffering from "calculus," a term which covers kidney stones, gall stones, etc. In the fresco, he intercedes with the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus for a woman suffering from this ailment, who lies in the lower left corner. Between that woman and Liberius is a woman or angel holding a pan of calculi that have been passed. As a bishop, Liborius holds a crozier and wears a mitre and cope.
The reliquary at the foot of the fresco is unrelated to the image. The inscription says it contains the head of St. Erasmus, "bishop and martyr." That would be St. Erasmus of Formia, a bishop who died in 303 during the persecution of Diocletian.
On an altar beneath the fresco is yet another reliquary with the body of "Munditia," patron saint of single women. (The name "Munditia" can be translated "cleanliness" or "purity.") According to Kindelbacher the body was given to the cathedral in 1675 and had been originally in a niche in the catacombs of St. Cyriaca, with the head resting on a marble stone inscribed DDM Mundicie Protogenie benemerenti quae vixit annos lx quae ibit in pace xv kal apc, "To the pious memory of the meritorius Mundicia Protogenia. She lived 60 years. She went in peace on November 17 APC." The "APC" may refer to 310, the year when the consuls were Andronicus and Probus. According to Nuwer it was common in the 17th century for South German churches to obtain, bejewel, and venerate bodies of presumed saints from the Roman catacombs. Most of the bodies are now lost, but this one is celebrated with a festival every November 17.
View this image in fresco in full resolution.
Read more about St. Liborius.
Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.