Show your coins depicting "Saints"

ST. CONSTANTIUS

Italy CARMAGNOLA Michele Antonio di Saluzzo Cornuto n.d. (1504-28)

The cult of Saint Constantius was linked with that of the Theban Legion,who had converted en masse to Christianity and were martyred together in 286, to lend antiquity to a local saint about whom nothing was really known. According to this legend, Constantius survived the decimation of his Legion and fled to the Val Maira with some other survivors. They dedicated themselves to preaching the Christian religion. Constantius was eventually beheaded by the Romans on Monte San Bernardo, where a sanctuary dedicated to him was built in Villar, known as San Costanzo al Monte, which became a place of pilgrimage. Monsignor Tornabuoni, bishop of Saluzzo, declared Chiaffredo patron of his diocese during a synod of 1516, with Constantius as co-patron.

 

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ST. LUDGER

Germany Abbeys of WERDEN & HELMSTEDT Benedikt von Geismar Taler 1730

Saint Ludger (born at Zuilen near Utrecht c. 742; died 26 March 809 at Billerbeck) was a missionary among the Frisians and, supported by Charlemagne, the Saxons He was the founder of Helmstedt Abbey (795) and Werden Abbey (804) and the first Bishop of Münster in Westphalia. He has been called the "Apostle of Saxony". St. Ludger is often represented standing between two geese (as on this coin). Supposedly around 800 there was a large plague of gray geese in the Münsterland. Ludger is said to have got them to leave. Also, during a drought. he is said to have caused the geese to scratch their feet until they hit water and a well could be built at that spot.

 

ST. MATTHEW

Italy PAPAL STATES Innocent XI Piastre Year 1/ 1676-7

 

Beautifull "Saint" coins, thanks for sharing, talerman

 

Happy to see this thread active. This coin does not depict a saint, but it was issued by a saint.


Saxon penny, Edmund of East Anglia. Moneyer Eadmund. Reigned 855-869 or 870 AD. The last Saxon King of East Anglia, he was captured by the Great Heathen Army. Refusing to abjure Christ, he was sacrificed to Wotan on November 20th, 869 AD. After he was beheaded, his head was thrown into a forest, but recovered with the aid of an ethereal wolf who cried “Hic, hic, hic’” or “here, here, here.” O blesséd realm of East Anglia, where even the wolves were Latin scholars.
Saint Edmund’s remains were interred at Bury St. Edmund’s, and became a site of pilgrimage and miracles. The monastery there prospered as a result, until it was dissolved and destroyed under King Henry VIII. In 1848, antiquarians discovered a collection of wolf skulls there. One hopes St. Edmund’s lupine benefactor was not among them.
Purchased from Joe Linzalone of Wolfshead Coins 2007 AD.

 

@Hrefn WOW!! that is one beautiful coin. Thanks for sharing

 

I am afraid this is not a beautiful coin but it depicts a new saint

ST. JULIAN

Italy PAPAL STATES - MACERATA Pope Gregory XIII Quattrino n.d. (1572-85)

According to a book by Giacomo da Varazze, a 13th cent. Dominican priest, on the night Julian was born, his father, a nobleman, saw pagan witches secretly lay a curse on the boy that would make him kill both his parents. When Julian learned this at 10, he left his parents and settled in Galicia. 20 years later his parents went to visit him. Julian was out hunting but his wife welcomed them and put them up in their bedroom. An enemy told Julian his wife was sleeping with another man. He returned and slew the two people in the bed, who turned out to be his parents. After seeking redemption in Rome, Julian built 7 hospitals and 25 almshouses and the poor started flowing to him. Julian the Hospitaller is the patron saint of hunters, innkeepers and boatmen.

 

Another new saint on a not beautiful coin

ST. LUCIA

Italy MANTUA Carlo I Gonzaga Lira 1633

According to the 5th cent. Acts of the Martyrs, a disappointed suitor accused Lucia of being a Christian, and she was executed in Syracuse, Sicily, in the year 304 during the Diocletian Persecution. In medieval accounts, St. Lucia's eyes were gouged out prior to her execution. In some versions, when her body was prepared for burial in the family mausoleum it was discovered that her eyes had been miraculously restored. St. Lucia is the patron saint of those with eye illnesses.

On the reverse of this coin, she is holding a cup with her eyes in her right hand.

 

ST. LIBORIUS

Germany Bishopric of PADERBORN Theodor Adolf von der Recke 1/2 Taler 1657

Liborius of Le Mans (c. 348–397) was the second Bishop of Le Mans. Miracles are said to have occurred at his tomb. In 835 Bishop Aldrich placed some relics of his body into an altar in the cathedral, and in the following year, on the instructions of Emperor Louis the Pious, sent the body to Bishop Badurad of Paderborn, a diocese founded in 799 by Pope Leo III and Emperor Charlemagne that had no saint of its own. He became patron saint of the cathedral and archdiocese of Paderborn.

 

ST. THEODORE

Italy CASALE Bonifacio II Paleologo Testone n.d.(1518-30)

Nothing reliable is known about St Theodore except that he was martyred in the early 4th century. The stories about him are all myth and legend. It is said he was a recruit serving in the Roman army at Amasea (in northern Turkey). When he refused to join his fellow soldiers in pagan rites of worship, he was arrested, but then (perhaps because of his youth) set free after a warning. However, he again protested paganism by setting fire to the temple of Cybele at Amasea. He was then condemned and, after tortures, executed by being thrown into a furnace. He is a popular saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church. He became the first patron of Venice but in the 9th century Venice wished to free itself from Byzantine influence and replaced him with St. Mark.

 

I agree. Coins with a story are infinitely more interesting then those without.

 

Toscana/ Duchy
AV Fiorino d'oro 1725
Firenze Mint
Giovanni Gaston di Medici
Saint John the Baptist

 

Nice one!

 

After @panzerman's beauty, a much more modest coin but with a rarer saint.

St. MAURICE

Italy DESANA Pietro Berard Testone n.d. (1516-29)

Note: Pietro Berard, Signore de La Faucadiere, bought the fief of Desana in 1516 and then sold it in 1529 to the Duke of Savoy. Born in AD 250 in Thebes in Egypt, Maurice became a soldier in the Roman army and eventually the commander of the Theban legion, entirely composed of Christians. According to the Passio martyrum Acaunensium (“The Passion of the Martyrs of Agaunum”) by the 5th-century French bishop St. Eucherius, in c.286 they were sent by Maximian (later Roman emperor) to help quash a revolt of Christian peasants in Gaul. The legion met Maximian at Octodurum (now Martigny, Switzerland), but they refused to fight against their fellow Christians and withdrew in protest to Agaunum (now Saint-Maurice in Switzerland, site of the Abbey of St. Maurice). Maximian ordered one man in 10 to be executed (a military punishment known as decimation). When the men, encouraged by Maurice, still refused to comply, a second decimation was ordered. Finally, Maximian ordered all the remaining members of his legion to be executed. Among those martyred with Maurice were SS. Vitalis, Candidus, and Exuperius. Maurice’s relics are preserved at the Abbey of St. Maurice at Brzeg, Poland, and at Turin, Italy. Maurice is the patron saint of the Vatican’s Swiss Guard. (Encyclopedia Britannica).

St. Maurice also appears on coins of the archbishopric of Magdeburg, one of which I posted a while ago. According to Wikipedia, the relics of Maurice's body are supposedly held in Magdeburg.

 

After @panzerman's beauty, a much more modest coin but with a rarer saint.

St. MAURICE

Italy DESANA Pietro Berard Testone n.d. (1516-29)

Note: Pietro Berard, Signore de La Faucadiere, bought the fief of Desana in 1516 and then sold it in 1529 to the Duke of Savoy. Born in AD 250 in Thebes in Egypt, Maurice became a soldier in the Roman army and eventually the commander of the Theban legion, entirely composed of Christians. According to the Passio martyrum Acaunensium (“The Passion of the Martyrs of Agaunum”) by the 5th-century French bishop St. Eucherius, in c.286 they were sent by Maximian (later Roman emperor) to help quash a revolt of Christian peasants in Gaul. The legion met Maximian at Octodurum (now Martigny, Switzerland), but they refused to fight against their fellow Christians and withdrew in protest to Agaunum (now Saint-Maurice in Switzerland, site of the Abbey of St. Maurice). Maximian ordered one man in 10 to be executed (a military punishment known as decimation). When the men, encouraged by Maurice, still refused to comply, a second decimation was ordered. Finally, Maximian ordered all the remaining members of his legion to be executed. Among those martyred with Maurice were SS. Vitalis, Candidus, and Exuperius. Maurice’s relics are preserved at the Abbey of St. Maurice at Brzeg, Poland, and at Turin, Italy. Maurice is the patron saint of the Vatican’s Swiss Guard. (Encyclopedia Britannica).

St. Maurice also appears on coins of the archbishopric of Magdeburg, one of which I posted a while ago. According to Wikipedia, the relics of Maurice's body are supposedly held in Magdeburg.

 

Interesting how at one time scoring the remains of saints was considered a badge of prestige for any church, cathedral or basilica. If only they had Bitcoin back then to more prudently invest their funds! Mummified St. Maximianus under glass, Basilika St. Emmeram - Regensburg, Bavaria.

 

St. Martin, Bishop of Tours (316 or 336 – 397) was born in Szombathely, Hungary but spent much of his childhood in Pavia in Italy. While serving as a soldier in the Roman army, he had a vision. According to his hagiographer Sulpicius Severus, at the gates of Amiens, he met a beggar clad only in rags in the depth of winter.. He impulsively cut his military cloak in half to share with the man. That night, Martin dreamed of Jesus wearing the half-cloak he had given away. In another version, when Martin woke, he found his cloak restored to wholeness. He was baptised and in due course became a hermit. In 371 he was acclaimed bishop of Tours. The part of the cloak kept by Martin became the famous relic kept in the oratory of the Merovingian kings of the Franks at the Marmoutier Abbey near Tours, founded by Martin.

Germany Archbishopric of MAINZ Johann Adam von Bicken Reichstaler 1602




St. Martin was/is a popular saint. Apart from Mainz, he appears on coins of Colmar and Erfurt in Germany, Horn in the Netherlands, Schwytz and Uri in Switzerland, Lucca in Italy and surely more.

Post your St. Martin coins !

 

St. John the Baptist
Not a coin, but a token celebrating the 700th Anniversary of Basel hospital in Switzerland. 1965, 0.835 fine, 16g., 33mm. J.H. Waser designer. Nice uncirculated example I picked up for about a buck over melt.

 

Eichstadtt/ Erzbistum
AV Dukat 1738
Johann Anton II von Freyberg 1736-57 Archbishop
Saint Willibald

 

This is a nice coin but I think it is St. Lucius, not St. Luke. St. Lucius of Chur was a Christian missionary from the Prätigau in the 5th/6th century. He is supposedly the first bishop of Chur. Here he is again on an undated Taler of Johann V Flugi von Aspermont, Bishop of Chur (1601-27), this time seated on his episcopal throne: