Whose Finger Was That?

July 9, 2012 7:13 PM

Which saint am I thinking of? Did I make her up?

When traveling in Spain (near Madrid, I think), I remember learning about a teenage saint in Spain who spent most of her childhood trying to be martyred--I think she ended up dying by being pierced with arrows. I also remember that there was a reliquary with her finger in it--but am I conflating this with St. Teresa of Avila? I have googled and googled and can't figure out who this is. Any ideas?

posted by aimeedee to Religion & Philosophy (8 answers total)

The Saint you're describing kind of sounds a lot like Leocadia, but I don't know if her finger is in Spain.

Documenting relics is kind of a hobby of mine and I know how hard it can be to track a name down. If you can remember the location of the church, you can usually hunt it down that way but there's no (published) official list. There's a book called Saints Preserved that lists a few hundred relics but is nowhere near complete. I would look it up for you but it's at home and I'm out of town until Wednesday.
posted by Thin Lizzy at 7:49 PM on July 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

The "teenager trying to be martyred" bit sounds like Eulalia of Merida. Merida is in Spain, but she wasn't martyred by arrows, and I cannot find any records of a finger relic specifically. There's also Eulalia of Barcelona, with a similar story.
posted by Paragon at 7:59 PM on July 9, 2012

While you're waiting for her personal help, you could look at Thin Lizzy's very cool saints project, which I think it's okay for me to remind you of here. I have no connection to the project whatsoever--I just remembered seeing the project when it was first posted and thinking it might come in handy some day when there was a saint I wanted to know about.
posted by gubenuj at 8:03 PM on July 9, 2012

You might be conflating someone else with Teresa of Avila. She ran off at age 7 with her brother, hoping to be martyred by the Moors, but her uncle found her and sent her back home. And one of her relics is the ring finger of her right hand. She wasn't actually martyred, of course, but those details match. Avila's only an hour and a half from Madrid.
posted by Alexander Hatchell at 8:12 PM on July 9, 2012

Also, in regards to the finger, skin-covered or skeleton?

If it's skin-covered you've got to be conflating with St. Theresa, if it's bone there are more possibilities.
posted by Thin Lizzy at 8:13 PM on July 9, 2012

Oh, and I just realized--in Teresa's most famous vision, an angel pierces her heart with a flaming arrows. So there's an arrow connection, too. One of Teresa's symbols is an arrow-pierced heart. (I'm not Catholic, but I read all of Teresa's writings several years ago, and my youngest daughter is named Teresa in her honor, so I'm maybe as close to a Teresa expert as MetaFilter has.) I'd really bet that you are mainly thinking of her.
posted by Alexander Hatchell at 8:17 PM on July 9, 2012

Lots of details, but all very common (just not all together!). I searched generally in English and Spanish for virgin martyrs with many of the details you gave. (Virgen, mártir, flecha, etc.) Sorry!
posted by resurrexit at 2:01 PM on July 10, 2012

Response by poster: Okay, I think it's got to be St. Teresa. To answer some of your questions--it was a finger with skin and a ring--that's Teresa, I know. I thought maybe the saint I had in mind was someone I heard about on the same trip, from the same region--but the detail of Teresa running away with her brother as teens so that they could be martyred was a huge part of what struck me about the saint I have in mind. I must have gotten muddled about the way she died and the fact that she didn't die as a teen--she just wanted to. I just read some more about Teresa and saw that her father was a Marrano...she sounds more fascinating with each read.

I really appreciate all the thoughtful responses! Thanks to you all, I also now have some other cool saints to learn about...
posted by aimeedee at 6:46 PM on July 10, 2012