St. Gorgonius

St. Gorgonius died in the early 4th century. Not very much of his biography is known, but we do know that he was a Christian persecuted during the reign of Diocletian. He and a group of other martyrs were tortured and died by strangulation. This slight bit of information comes from Eusebius, a church historian who also lived in the early 4th century.

Since the mode of death was strangulation, I decided a choker was appropriate. This particular choker was way too long when I bought it, so I didn't wear it for years. As I have mentioned before, I don't like to alter my stuff. Generally, if it's not the way I want it when I buy it, I end up not wearing it (so why do I buy it? That's a good question...). So, with my new change of heart about these things, I took a pair of pliers to this choker and made it fit my neck. Yay!

St. Nicholas of Tolentino

St. Nicholas of Tolentino was an Augustinian monk who lived in Italy in the 13th century. He had many visions of Purgatory and is known for praying for the souls there. In his iconography, he is often depicted in the black robes of the Augustinian order and he is also often holding white lilies as he is in this picture. This statue is in the church at Tolentino:



So, I went with a black and white floral theme for the day in his honor:



These are the shoes I had labeled as Too Fancy For Work. I have entirely changed my mind on that matter. They may be Too Fancy For Rain and Tornadoes, however, so I may be switching them for my pirate boots, at least around campus.

St. Adrian of Nicomedia

St. Adrian, like St. Sozon from yesterday, is an Orthodox saint, but he is also Kind of a Big Deal in the Catholic saint calendar. Both churches celebrate his feast day on Sept. 8.

The story goes that he was a Roman officer in the early 4th century serving as a bodyguard to Emperor Galerius in Nicomedia, which is now the city of Izmit in Turkey. Adrian participated in the torture of 22 Christians, and he was so impressed by their courage that he became a Christian himself. He was subsequently arrested and imprisoned, then executed.

I went with a military-ish look for today since St. Adrian started out as a Roman officer: fitted jacket, khaki skirt, and boots.

St. Sozon of Cilicia

I didn't know this when I was doing my research, but St. Sozon is primarily an Orthodox saint, and as far as I can tell, he's not really a big deal in the Catholic church. His feast day is today in the Orthodox church calendar.

St. Sozon was a shepherd in the region of Cilicia, which is part of modern southern Turkey. As he was tending his sheep, he had a vision of his own martyrdom. In order to fulfill the vision, he walked to the Roman-controlled city of Pompeiopolis. When he reached the city, he entered one of the temples and broke off the hand of one of the golden idols then distributed it in pieces to the poor. When the Roman officials discovered it, they arrested him and tortured him by forcing him to wear boots with iron nails sticking into the soles as he walked to his own trial. At the trial, they beat him to death and were about to burn his body when it began raining, and they could not light a fire.

Here is a lovely icon of him:

I think it is very interesting how the Catholic martyrs are almost always depicted with a symbol of their martyrdom (ie, St. Bartholomew and his skin suit). I think this is so you can identify the saint. Makes total sense to me. But in this icon at least, there is no evidence of St. Sozon's martyrdom. If there wasn't a little label next to his head that said "Sozon," I'd probably think he was Jesus or someone. And then I wonder if the average Greek person (or Orthodox, more generally) in the Middle Ages was more likely to be literate than the average Westerner. I have no idea.

Anyway, on to the outfit. I have no spiky boots, which would have been ideal. So I did red for fire, blue for rain, and gold shoes and accessories for the vandalized idol: