Reynaud Levieux
St. Denis Cures a Blind Man

Circa 1699
Oil on canvas
Church of St. Louis of France (San Luigi Francesi), Rome

In a vita that Caxton added into his translation of the Golden Legend, St. Paul challenges the Athenian philosopher Dionysius to command a blind man to see "In the name of Jesu Christ." When Dionysius says those words, the man does indeed gain his sight, a miracle so remarkable that the philosopher immediately asks to be baptized. After three years of study under St. Paul, Dionysius becomes bishop of Athens. In Levieux's painting, however, he performs the miracle while already wearing episcopal vestments. The artist has either followed a source unknown to me or made a decision to collapse the two elements in the story. The latter may seem unlikely in the artistic practice of the 17th century.

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Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.