Medieval Saints Spain Brought to the Philippines
The Martyrdom Of Saint Sebastian. ca 1472. Staatliche Sammlung. Munich The Waning of the Old Gods and the Rise of the Saints It took millennia for Christianity to supplant the polytheistic Graeco-Roman religion across most of Western Europe. This new faith placed humanity at the center of the cosmos, with a single God intimately connected to human suffering – Jesus Christ, the incarnate son of God, as one branch of the new religion proclaimed. However, this new faith harbored its own form of demigod veneration. Many came to revere "saints," individuals believed to possess divine powers who inspired action, healing, and conversion in the name of Christ. While some saints were early martyrs or key figures in the church's growth, others bore a striking resemblance to the demigods of the Graeco-Roman pantheon. Similar to the ancient Greek city-states, communities and cities throughout Europe venerated saints as patron protectors and benefactors, much like the way Greek myth...