The Sword
Simeon’s word to Mary, “a sword will pierce through your own soul also” (Luke 2:35); in a saint’s hand, the sword of martyrdom or of the fight against evil.
Our Lady of Sorrows. When Mary and Joseph presented the Child in the Temple, the old man Simeon told her, “A sword will pierce through your own soul also” (Luke 2:35). So the Mother of Sorrows is shown with a sword in her heart. Some images give her seven swords, one for each of her Seven Sorrows, from Simeon’s prophecy to the burial of her Son.
St Michael. The archangel’s sword is the sword of God’s army, raised against the dragon (Revelation 12:7).
St Paul. As a Roman citizen Paul could not be crucified, and was beheaded with a sword in Rome. He holds the sword and the book of his letters.
St James the Greater. The first of the apostles to die, “killed with the sword” by King Herod (Acts 12:2).
The word of God. Scripture calls the word of God “the sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:17), “sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12).
Where you’ll see it
The Passion and the martyrs
All symbols →
The Crown of Thorns
Christ’s suffering in his Passion, mocked as a king by the soldiers (Matthew 27:29).
Arrows
The martyrdom of St Sebastian, shot with arrows for his faith; long invoked against plague.
The Gridiron
The martyrdom of St Lawrence, deacon of Rome, put to death on a gridiron in 258.
The Anchor
Hope, “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6:19); also the martyrdom of St Philomena and St Clement.
The Skull
“Remember that you will die” (memento mori): a call to penance. At the foot of the Cross it is Adam’s skull, on Golgotha, the Place of the Skull.
A statue with the sword?
Every statue is made from scratch in our studio in Mangalore.