Early Christian martyr Saint Just, a boy aged only seven executed by the Romans in Spain. Pillar statue in the north portal of the Basilique Saint-Just at Valcabrère, Occitanie, France. Above the face of St Just, a Romanesque sculpted capital depicts in quite gruesome detail the beheading of Just and his 13-year-old brother, Pastor, for denouncing the Roman religion.
Valcabrère, Occitanie, France: Saint Just, a seven-year-old schoolboy martyred by the Romans in Spain in 304 AD, stands on the east side of the north portal to the Romanesque Basilique Saint-Just-de-Valcabrère (Basilica of St Just), consecrated in the year 1200. The lichen-encrusted pillar statue represents Just or Justus as an adult dressed as a priest. The basilica is dedicated both to St Just and to his 13-year-old elder brother, St Pastor. According to their legend, both died on 6 August 304 AD, during the persecution of Christians across the Roman Empire by Emperor Diocletian. The boys are said to have chosen to give their lives for Jesus Christ. They ran from their school in the Roman city of Complutum, now the Spanish city of Alcalá de Henares, to confess to the Roman governor, Dacianus, that they were Christians and were reluctant to sacrifice to idols. Dacianus tried to win them over with gifts, but then decided to torture and execute them for denouncing the Roman religion. Relics believed to be those of Justus and Pastor were discovered in the 8th century and interred beneath the high altar of Alcalá’s cathedral. They are the patron saints of the city, near Madrid. Saint Pastor is represented by a similar statue on the opposite side of the north portal at Valcabrère. Both statues are surmounted by sculpted capitals visualising their arrest, torture and execution. This one, above the statue of St Just, shows the brothers being decapitated in quite gruesome detail. The basilica stands apart from the village of Valcabrère in the central French Pyrenees. It was built on the burial ground of the ancient Roman settlement of Lugdunum Convenarum and many Gallo-Roman architectural fragments were re-used in its construction.
Size: 2832px × 4256px
Location: Valcabrère, Occitanie, France.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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