“June”, kalendar page from Les Petites Heures d’Anne de Bretagne (The Little Hours of Queen Anne of Bretagne), by the Maître des Triomphes de Pétrarque. From Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (France).
With the Christianization of the empire, the lares and penates were banned, leaving a gaping hole in the personal devotions of families across Europe. The worship of these household gods was replaced by the worship of saints, who acquired patronages of different aspects of everyday life, and whose efficacy was attested by any number of miracles attributed to their direct intervention.
This worship of saints is a thoroughly Papist practice, and No True Protestant™ would be involved in such activities. Article XXII of the Thirty-Nine Articles states that the Invocation of Saints “is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the word of God” (BCP, p. 607). But medieval peasants, faced with horrors like the Black Death, sought help wherever the could; hence, the Fourteen Holy Helpers (or “Auxilliary Helpers”, to use their fancy Latin appellation).
The Fourteen Holy Helpers were a collection of saints who offered protection against a gamut of horrors. The original three were the virgin martyrs Margaret, Barbara, and Catherine. (The Romans have always been fixated on the sexual status of female saints. They’re classified as virgins, matrons, or widows; any other categorization is a distant second.) The following table lists the saints, their feast days, a brief summary of their Legend, and the causes for which they are invoked. There is considerable overlap in the invocations; the protection of domestic animals is a fairly common invocation.
Each saint has his or her own feast day, but for a while, they had a group commemoration on August 8.
| Saint | Feast Day | Brief Summary of Legend | Invocation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agathius (Acacius) of Byzantium | May 7 | A 4th-century martyr under the emperor Galerius. He was tortured and eventually beheaded for converting soldiers. | against headaches |
| Barbara | December 4 | A 3rd-century martyr who angered her rich and protective father by converting to Christianity. He denounced her to the local authorities, who had her tortured and beheaded. According to legend, her own father beheaded her, for which impiety he was immediately struck by lightning. | against fever, sudden death, lightning, and fire |
| Blaise (Blase) | February 3 | A 4th-century Armenian bishop martyred under the governor of Cappadocia. He was tortured and beheaded for refusing to denounce his faith or sacrifice to pagan gods. | against throat ailments |
| Catherine of Alexandria | November 25 | A 4th-century martyr under the emperor Maximinus. The daughter of the Queen of Egypt, she converted her own mother before the latter’s death, and later rebuked Maximinus when he started persecuting Christians in Egypt. After debating the emperor’s best scholars (and converting many of them), she was scourged, imprisoned, and eventually beheaded. | against disease of the tongue, and sudden death |
| Christopher | July 25 | A 3rd-century Turkish convert martyred under the emperor Decius. After converting nearly 50,000 of his countrymen, he was tortured by being shot with arrows and eventually beheaded (much like Sebastian). | against plagues, dangers while traveling, and sudden death |
| Cyriacus the Martyr | August 8 | A 4th-century martyr under the emperor Maximinus. Originally in favor with the emperor Diocletian for curing the emperor’s daughter, he fell afoul of Diocletian’s successor. He was tortured on the rack and eventually beheaded. | against diseases of the eye, demonic possession, and temptations, especially at time of death |
| Denis of Paris | October 9 | A 3rd-century Bishop of Paris martyred under the emperor Domitian or, more likely, the emperor Decius. After being beheaded on Montmartre (“The Martyrs’ Mountain”) he carried his head to a spot several miles distant, originally marked by a small shrine that developed into the Saint Denis Basilica. | against headaches and demonic possession |
| Erasmus (Elmo) | June 2 | A 4th-century bishop of Formia persecuted by the emperor Diocletian. He was fed by a raven while hiding on Mount Lebanon, and later tortured by having part of his intestines pulled out by hot rods. He apparently survived and eventually died of natural causes. | against abdominal maladies; for the protection of domestic animals |
| Eustace (Eustachius) | September 20 | A 2nd-century Roman army general martyred under the emperor Trajan. He converted to Christianity after seeing a vision of a Crucifix that appeared between the antlers of a deer he was hunting. He and his wife were burned to death after refusing to participate in a pagan ceremony. | against family trouble, fires |
| George | April 23 | A 4th-century martyr under the emperor Diocletian. He was tortured and killed for refusing to arrest Christians or offer sacrifices to Roman gods. | against herpetic diseases; for the protection of domestic animals |
| Giles | September 1 | A 7th-century monk in the area of Athens. He retreated to the wilderness to found a monastery under the rule of Saint Benedict, and unlike the other Holy Helpers, died peacefully. | against plagues, epilepsy, and mental illness; for a good confession |
| Margaret of Antioch | July 20 | A 4th-century martyr under the emperor Diocletian. Disowned by her father for converting to Christianity, she attracted the attentions of a Roman who wanted her as his wife or concubine. She refused him, so he ordered her to denounce her faith or die. She survived being burned and boiled alive, and was eventually beheaded. | against backache and kidney disease; for safe childbirth |
| Pantaleon (Pantaleimon) | July 27 | A 4th-century martyr under the emperor Diocletian. He was denounced as a Christian by pagan peers jealous of his rich inheritance. He was tortured with burning torches and baths of lead, but was successfully beheaded only after he desired his own martyrdom. | against cancer and tuberculosis; for the protection of domestic animals |
| Vitus | June 15 | A 4th-century martyr under the emperor Diocletian. He was tortured for refusing to denounce his faith and eventually put to death on the rack. | against epilepsy, chorea, storms, animal bites (especially those who are venomous or rabid): for the protection of domestic animals |
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