Take this Symbols of the Saints Quiz! Tough Trivia | Christian People / Saints

Answer: The eagle

The eagle is also a symbol of Christ and His divine nature, which is the main theme of the Gospel of St. John, and that may explain why the eagle has become the symbol of this saint. It is a tradition in the liturgical churches to have the lectern in the shape of an eagle with outspread wings.

The lectern holds the bible, from which the scriptures are read in the congregation, and it may be that the eagle was chosen because the first words in the Gospel of St. John are "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word is God..." Since Christians believe that the bible is the word of God, and that Jesus is the Word, it is fitting that the bible rests on the eagle.

Interesting trivia fact: when you visit an Anglican church, check to see which way the eagle is facing. If it's facing left, that parish holds to the high (catholic) tradition of the Anglican Church. If the eagle is facing right, you're in a low (or evangelical) church. If the eagle is gazing straight ahead, the parish is part of the broad church tradition, the Via Media.

Answer: The winged ox

The winged ox is the symbol of St. Luke because the ox was an animal used in sacrifice in the Jewish tradition, out of which Christianity grew. It became the symbol of St. Luke because the sacrificial nature of Christ is emphasized in his gospel. The gospel writers' symbols - the winged man (St. Matthew), the winged eagle (St. John), the winged lion (St. Mark) and the winged ox - are drawn from the vision of the prophet Ezekiel, recorded in Ezekiel 1:5-14.

Answer: Two eyes in a dish

St. Lucy was a virgin martyr, at Syracuse in Sicily, c 304. Since her name means 'light' (from lux,lucis - Latin for light) and the eyes, we're told, are the windows of the soul and windows let in light, Lucy is often invoked for diseases of the eye. Hence, the eyes in the dish. Grisly, but appropriate, I suppose.

Answer: Three gold balls

The three golden balls symbolize the three bags of gold that, according to legend, were given anonymously by Nicholas to provide dowries for a poor man's three daughters, thus saving them from prostitution. Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor, in the fourth century.

He is the patron saint of children (surprise!), and also of pawnbokers, for some reason, which is why pawnbrokers used to have three gold balls hanging over their shop doors.

Answer: Two breasts on a dish

Very little is known about St. Agatha beyond the fact that she was a virgin martyr at Catania, Sicily in the third century. (There seems to have been a great many virgin martyrs.). Tradition has it that Quintian, the local Roman Consul, denounced Agatha as a Christian.

This was, presumably, because she spurned his suit. She was imprisoned and underwent torture, which included the cutting off of her breasts. Not surprisingly after such infamous treatment, she died. Artists of the day tended to show Agatha holding her two breasts on a dish, and in many of these depictions, the two breasts tended to look like bells. Consequently, based on bad art, Agatha became the patron saint of bell-founders, the folks who make church bells.

Answer: A pig

St. Antony was a pious young man who sold all his belongings and went off to live the life of hermit in the Egyptian desert. He is looked on as the founder of monasticism because, later in his life, he established a community of hermits (isn't that an oxymoron?). Most of his life, though, was lived in complete solitude.

He suffered many temptations, but remained faithful to Christ. The connection between St. Antony and the pig is somewhat tenuous. Evidently, in those days, pork lard was used to alleviate the pain of skin diseases, and St. Antony was often invoked by sufferers of various skin conditions.

The association of St. Antony and pork lard obviously evolved into St. Antony and a pig. Antony's life, by the way, is very well documented by his friend, St. Athanasius.

Interesting trivia: the smallest piglet in a litter is commonly referred to as the tantony pig (a corruption of St. Antony's pig).

Answer: A jar of ointment

Although she is never identified by name in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, the liturgical church tradition has it that the woman who anointed Jesus' feet with costly ointment is Mary Magdalene. (In the Gospel of St. John, it is Mary of Bethany, not the Magdalene, who anoints the feet of Jesus.) It was certainly Mary Magdalene who went to the tomb early on the third day to anoint the dead body of Jesus, only to find the tomb empty.

In her distress, she asks a man, whom she believes to be a gardener, where the body of Jesus is, and when he says her name she recognizes him as the risen Christ.

She makes haste to tell this news to the other disciples, and for this reason Mary Magdalene is known as the Apostle to the Apostles.

Answer: Stigmata

St. Francis, one of the best loved of all the saints, saw God in all aspects of creation. The son of a wealthy family, he repudiated his heritage, and became a wandering preacher (his family tried to have him locked up because they thought he was insane).

He soon had a following, which developed into the Order of St. Francis (aka the Franciscans) which emphasizes the rule of poverty, humility and evangelical freedom. In 1224, when he was deep in prayer on a mountainside, the five wounds of Christ appeared on his body.

The stigmata never left him, and he suffered intense physical pain and increasing weakness from loss of blood from that time until his death in 1226.

Answer: A spiked wheel

According to legend, Katherine was born into a wealthy noble family in Alexandria in Egypt. A devout Christian (and, no doubt, yet another virgin!), she made a very public protest to the Emperor Maxentius, denouncing the worship of idols. He assembled a group of fifty philosophers to argue the case with Katherine, and she wiped the floor with them. Maxentius, so the story goes, had the philosophers burned alive because they lost the argument, and then asked Katherine to marry him.

She refused, of course, so he imprisoned her and had her tortured.

She was bound to a spiked wheel and rolled down a hill, but survived unscathed. (The wheel broke into pieces, splinters of which killed several bystanders and prompted the immediate conversion of some two hundred others).

The emperor thereupon ordered her beheaded. By the way, there is no evidence that any of this ever happened!

Answer: A tower

The story of St. Barbara first appears in a pious romance written in the seventh century and has no basis in fact. Be that as it may, the story goes that Barbara's father, a chap named Dioscurus, locked up his very beautiful daughter in a tower to protect her against the unwanted attentions of amorous fellows from far and wide (it doesn't say if she was a virgin or not, but I wouldn't bet the farm against it). During her time in her lonely tower, Barbara became a Christian.

When her father found out he was furious, and ordered her to deny her faith.

When she declined, he denounced her. The local authorities ordered Dioscurus himself to put Barbara to death, and right after he had committed the deed he was struck by lightning and reduced to ashes. (Moral: don't mess around with Christian virgins.) Consequently, Barbara has been invoked as protection against lightning, and is also the patron of gunners and miners (and, I assume, anyone who uses dynamite.)