St. Thomas Day

On St. Thomas Day, Dec 21, women would go a-gooding, collecting alms and giving benefactors sprigs of evergreen. Alms could be money, corn, or wheat. The miller grinds the grains gratis. In later times, the clergy graciously stepped in and "managed" these alms on behalf of the poor.



I did a picture based on the legends of St. Thomas.
This painting is inspired by my reading of The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine. He wrote a compendium of the saints. This one in particular is for St. Thomas the Apostle. Thomas was called the twin of Jesus, also Didymus, which means twin. I have represented Thomas as conjoined twins. Conjoined twins reinforce the notion of a spiritual connectivity, as feeling and living in the same body must give a unique connectivity that transcends what most people will ever experience. This particular twin configuration was inspired by the Tocci twins, Giacomo and Giovanni. Giacomo and Giovanni Tocci were conjoined twins born in Italy in the late 19th century.

Saint Thomas was an architect. So I've represented that with the building tools and the birdhouse. The holy spirit is usually represented as a dove, so I thought a birdhouse would be a most appropriate construction. The other hand is covered in blood because Thomas was a doubter, and he could only be convinced of the resurrection by putting his hand in the wound of Christ. The closure on the front of the jacket is in the shape of a Y, echoing the Y incision that a doctor would use in an autopsy. It is a wound that signifies inquiry and investigation.

This is a digital print of my original painting. Approximately 8" x 10.5" on 8.5" x 11" 110 lb matte card stock. The "My Good Babushka" watermark is for security purposes and is not on the print.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/159192443/didymus-print-fairy-tale-art-folk-tale?ref=listing-17