Saints Maria Goretti & Potamiaena

"Saint Maria Goretti" & "Saint Potamiaena"
Available through Raison D'être Gallery at Inkology Tattoo & Art Gallery, presented by Inked Magazine.
For purchase inquiries, please contact Raison D'être.

Opening tonight at Inkology, NYC, Cassie Meder's new saints will appear alongside wonderful works by Kate Zambrano, Felix Velvet, Jed Leiknes and many more. You are invited to see these pieces with your own eyes tonight at 270 West 36th street NY, NY 10018 from 6pm-10pm. I hear there will also be a giveaway held tonight, with the winner receiving a gorgeous, free tattoo! Hope you can make it!

"Saint Maria Goretti" by Cassie Meder. 2016.

20 x 14 inch work in 27 x 17 antique frame.

Graphite, charcoal, watercolor, holy water, pastel, and 24K gold leaf.

St. Maria Goretti (October 16, 1890 – July 6, 1902), patron saint of rape victims, is an Italian virgin-martyr of the Roman Catholic Church, and one of the youngest canonized saints. She was born to a farming family. Her father died when she was nine, and they had to share a house with another family, the Serenellis. Maria took over household duties while her mother, brothers, and sister worked in the fields. One afternoon, Alessandro, the Serenellis' son, made sexual advances to her. When she refused to submit to him, he stabbed her fourteen times. She was taken to the hospital but she died forgiving him. He was arrested, convicted, and jailed. During imprisonment he repented. After twenty seven years he was eventually released from prison, and visited her mother to beg forgiveness, which she granted. He later became a lay brother in a monastery, dying peacefully in 1970. She was beatified in 1947, and canonized in 1950.

(via Wikipedia)

"Saint Potamiaena" by Cassie Meder. 2016.

20 x 14 inch work in 27 x 17 antique frame.

Graphite, charcoal, watercolor, holy water, pastel, and 24K gold leaf.

A virgin and patron saint of rape victims, Potamiana, or Potamiaena (205 AD), is venerated as a Christian saint and martyr. According to her legend, she, along with her mother Marcella, were arrested in Alexandria, Egypt, and Potamiaena was threatened with being handed over to gladiators to be raped, if she refused to renounce her Christianity. Instead she managed to anger the judge such that, avoiding either fate, she and her mother were sentenced to be sunk feet first by degrees in a cauldron of boiling pitch, or rumored to have been martyred by the boiling pitch being poured over every part of her body: this is the first recorded example of this torment.

After Potamiana had been sentenced to death, Basilides, an officer of the court, led her to execution; on the way, he protected her against the insults of the mob. In return for his kindness Potamiana promised him not to forget him with her Lord when she reached her destination.

Soon after Potamiana's death Basilides was asked by his fellow-soldiers to take a certain oath; on answering that he could not do it, as he was a Christian, at first they thought he was jesting, but seeing he was in earnest they denounced him and he was condemned to be beheaded.

While waiting in jail for his sentence to be carried out some Christians visited Basilides and asked him how he happened to be converted; he answered that three days after her death, Potamiana had appeared to him by night and placed a crown on his head as a pledge that the Lord would soon receive him into his glory. Basilides was then baptized and the next day he was beheaded.

(via Wikipedia & Oxford Reference)