The Story of SevilleGallichan, Walter M. (Walter Matthew)
History
The Story of Seville
Gallichan, Walter M. (Walter Matthew)
Seville (Spain)
_The Convent Church of La Trinidad._ The associations of the church are
of considerable interest. In the time of the Roman rule in Seville, the
palace, ecclesiastical court, and dungeons of a governor were built upon
this ground. The church is dedicated to the saints of Seville, Justa and
Rufina, the guardians of the Giralda. When the Romans conquered the
Spaniards, they sought to convert the subject-people to the Pagan
religion. Among the potters of Trajan's town, now known as the suburb
of Triana, were two girls, both of great beauty, named Justa and Rufina.
The maidens were renowned for their Christian piety. They refused to
worship the Roman gods, and in their zeal they became iconoclasts. Their
image-breaking brought them beneath the tribunal; they were sentenced to
extreme punishment. The wretched victims were scourged, and forced to
walk barefooted on the bleak mountains of the Sierra Morena. But this
persecution failed to shatter their fervent devotion to Christianity.
They continued to protest against the religion of the Romans. Justa was
imprisoned and slowly starved to death, while Rufina was cast to the
lions in the arena.
The portraits of the youthful saints have been painted by several of the
Sevillian artists. Murillo's SS. Justa and Rufina is in the picture
gallery at Seville. The treatment is conventional. The saints are
holding a model of the Giralda in their hands, and the martyrs' palms.
At their feet are broken crockery, showing the nature of their calling.
To the left are the ruins of a building. The figures of the maidens are
large, and halos surround their heads.
In the same gallery are two pictures of the Sevillian saints by an
unknown artist. One is a portrait of Santa Justa. The saint is holding a
white vase and the martyr's palm in her hands. Santa Rufina, in the
other painting, is bearing a plate and a palm branch. The Santa Justa is
the more notable of these works. The conception is beautiful and the
colouring subdued.
H. Sturmio's painting of Justa and Rufina is in the Cathedral, and so is
that of the celebrated Luis de Vargas. From the artistic standpoint, the
picture of the two saints by Francisco Goya is the finest of all. It is
to be seen in the _Sacristía de los Cálices_ in the Cathedral.
In the crypt of the Convent Church of La Trinidad is shown a rock, to
which the saints were bound when scourged by their persecutors. There is
a poor shrine in a dim cellar; and the sacristan shows a long, dark
passage, full of water, which is said to be a part of the Roman prison,
where heretics were confined and starved to death. The story of the
saints of Triana is legendary; but it is no doubt credited as actual
history among the devout of the city.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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