XIII Death

All Saints’ Day

In honor of All Saints’ Day, here are gruesome paintings of their trials. Visit Daydream Tourist’s Shocking Paintings of Martyred Saints for a full article and more paintings.

Giovanni Bellini – *The Murder of St Peter the Martyr* (detail), 1509, Courtauld Gallery, London

Following his decapitation in 258 C.E., St. Denis is said to have picked up his head, walked 6 miles, and given a sermon. *St. Denis Picking up His Head*, 19th century, Panthéon murals, Paris (Photo)

Ghostly Figure Leads Time and Death

Flitting Ghosts, from *Puck on Pegasus*, 1868
Source: Old Book Illustrations

A ghostly female figure floats in the night, one arm wrapped around the chimney of a locomotive, as she points forward and leads the way for the figures of Time and Death following in her wake.

In 1973, a group of archaeologists opened the tomb of the 15th-century Polish king Casimir IV Jagiellon in Kraków, Poland. As with the opening of King Tut’s tomb 50 years before, European media hyped up the event, and the researchers involved allegedly joked that they were risking a curse on the tomb by opening it.

When some of the team members began to die shortly after, some media outlets speculated it was due to a curse. Later, experts discovered traces of deadly fungi inside the tomb that can cause lung illnesses when breathed in. This was the cause of their deaths.