Saint Quentin: The Iconography

In Augusta Veromanduorum [now called St.-Quentin, Aisne] in Gaul, St. Quentin. He was a Roman citizen of senatorial rank who suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Maximinian. Fifty-five years later his body was revealed by an angel and found incorrupt. – Roman Martyrology for October 31

St. Quentin was beheaded after remarkably cruel tortures. The stained glass at right pictures the second day of his passion, in which he was tortured on the rack and then boiled in oil. After this he was taken to another town and nails were driven into his head and body. The latter torture is pictured in the Frontal de Durro, a 12th-century altar frontal studied in Camps y Montserrat (91).

DATES
  • Feast day: October 31
  • Died circa 285
BIOGRAPHY

Prepared in 2014 by Richard Stracke, Emeritus Professor of English, Augusta University, revised 2015-11-02.

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In the second day of St. Quentin's passion as recounted in the Golden Legend, the provost first ordered him tortured on the rack and then had boiling oil poured over him. This stained glass pictures the two torments as one event. (See the description page for the entire window.)