Saint Sylvester and the Dragon

Saint Sylvester and the Dragon

The legendary lives of the saints were, once upon a time, as famous as stories from the Bible itself. Throughout the Middle Ages, the lives of the saints were well known all over Europe and those stories were told and retold in all manner of religious art, from the tiny miniature illustrations in medieval manuscripts to the grand frescoes and monumental sculptures decorating the churches of Europe. While the cult of the saints is still of tremendous importance in the Catholic church, the Protestant churches have downplayed the lives of the saints. As a result, many people today may be baffled by the unfamiliar stories they see depicted prominently in Europe’s churches and museums. Let’s take, for example, this fresco by Maso di Banco (d. 1348), an Italian painter of the early Renaissance who worked in Florence, Italy. His most important surviving frescoes are in the beautiful Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence. Those of you who are admirers of Italian painting might notice similarities in style here to the work of Giotto di Bondone (d. 1337), who was a great influence on Maso: Miracle of the Dragon. By Maso di Banco. Circa 1340. View larger image » Take a close look at the painting: do you recognize the story? It is the legend of Saint Sylvester and the Dragon. Saint Sylvester was one of the early popes of Rome, who lived at the same time as the Emperor Constantine, who famously converted to Christianity. The legends of Saint Sylvester are closely entwined with those of the Emperor Constantine. In addition to the story of Saint Sylvester and the Dragon depicted here, Maso’s cycle of frescoes in Santa Croce showing the life of Saint Sylvester includes paintings of the Baptism of Constantine by Saint Sylvester, Constantine and the Magicians, and the Dream of Constantine. To discover just what story Maso tells us in this painting, we can turn to the life of Saint Sylvester as recorded in the famous Legenda Aurea (“Golden Legends”), a massive collection of the lives of the saints compiled by Jacobus de Voragine around the year 1260. The Legenda Aurea was translated into the vernacular languages of Europe starting already in the fourteenth century, and the advent of printing in the fifteenth century allowed the book to become even more widely known. The pioneering English printer William Caxton published his first edition of the Golden Legend in 1483. Here is an excerpt of Caxton’s version of the story: In this time it happed that there was at Rome a dragon in a pit, which every day slew with his breath more than three hundred men. Then came the bishops of the idols unto the emperor [Constantine] and said unto him: O thou most holy emperor, sith the time that thou hast received Christian faith the dragon which is in yonder fosse or pit slayeth every day with his breath more than three hundred men. Then sent the emperor for S. Silvester and asked counsel of him of this matter. S. Silvester answered that by the might of God he promised to make him cease of his hurt and blessure of this people. Then S. Silvester put himself to prayer, and S. Peter appeared to him. Peter gives instructions for how Silvester can subdue the dragon, which Silvester follows. Here is what happens next: When [S. Silvester] came to the pit, he descended down one hundred and fifty steps, bearing with him two lanterns, and found the dragon, and said the words that S. Peter had said to him, and bound his mouth with the thread, and sealed it, and after returned, and as he came upward again he met with two enchanters which followed him for to see if he descended, which were almost dead of the stench of the dragon, whom he brought with him whole and sound, which anon were baptized, with a great multitude of people with them. Thus was the city of Rome delivered from double death, that was from the culture and worshipping of false idols, and from the venom of the dragon. (Read a full version online.)