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A cephalophore (from the ancient Greek for 'head-carrier') is a saint who is generally depicted carrying their severed head. In Christian art, this was usually meant to signify that the subject in question had been by decapitation. Depicting the requisite halo in this circumstance offers a unique challenge for the artist: some put the halo where the head used to be, and others have the saint carrying the halo along with the head. Associated legends often tell of the saint standing and carrying their head after the beheading.
The term "cephalophore" was first used in a French article by Marcel Hébert, "Les martyrs céphalophores Euchaire, Elophe et Libaire", in Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles, v. 19 (1914).
Thus, an original and perhaps the most famous cephalophore is Denis, patron saint of Paris, who, according to the Golden Legend, miraculously preached with his head in his hands while journeying the seven miles from Montmartre to his burying place.In the rational atmosphere of the Enlightenment, Mme du Deffand observed "il n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte", "it's only the first step that matters"; her mot was repeated in Baron Grimm's Correspondance littéraire, 15 May 1764. Although St Denis is the best known of the saintly head-carriers, there were many others; the folkloristics Émile Nourry counted 134 examples of cephalophory in French hagiographic literature alone. Les saints céphalophores. Étude de folklore hagiographique, Revue de l’Histoire des Religions (Paris), 99 (1929), p. 158-231. Given the frequency with which relics were stolen in medieval Europe, stories like this, in which a saint clearly indicates their chosen burial site, may have developed as a way of discouraging such acts of furta sacra."Kephalophoroi saints, of whom there were a hundred or so in Western tradition, usually performed this prodigy in order to indicate the emplacement of the shrine where their relics should be venerated" .
The legend of Aphrodisius of Alexandria was transferred to Béziers, where his name was inserted at the head of the list of bishops. In the hagiography accounts, Aphrodisius was accompanied by his camel. As he was preaching, a group of pagans pressed through the crowd and beheaded him on the spot. Aphrodisius picked up his head and carried it to the chapel he had recently consecrated at the site. It is identified today as Place Saint-Aphrodise, Béziers. France pittoresque: coutumes et traditions 1908 Himerius of Bosto is said to have survived his decapitation and, after collecting his head, climbed on horseback. He rode to meet his uncle, a bishop, on a small mountain before he finally died. Passio di San Gemolo
A legend associated with Ginés de la Jara states that after he was decapitation in southern France, he picked up his head and threw it into the Rhône. The head was carried by sea to the coast of Cartagena, Spain, where it was venerated as a relic (Cartagena was the centre of this saint's cult).
In the Golden Legend, Paul the Apostle at his martyrdom "stretched forth his neck, and so was beheaded. And as soon as the head was from the body, it said: Jesus Christus! which had been to Jesus or Christus, or both, fifty times." When the head was recovered and was to be rejoined to the body as a relic, in response to a prayer for confirmation that this was indeed the right head, the body of Paul turned to rejoin the head that had been set at its feet. The Golden Legend: The Life of Saint Paul the Apostle .
In legend, the female saint Osgyth stood up after her execution, picking up her head like Denis of Paris and other cephalophoric martyrs and walking with it in her hands to the door of a local convent before collapsing there. Similarly, Valerie of Limoges carried her severed head away to her confessor, Saint Martial.
Cuthbert is often depicted with his head on his neck/shoulders and carrying a second head in his hands. However, he is not a cephalophore. The second head is that of Saint Oswald of Northumbria, who was buried with him at Durham Cathedral.
The speaking severed head appears memorably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
The motif Head in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk LiteratureCopenhagen, 1957. reveals how universal is the "anomaly" of the talking severed head. Aristotle is at pains to discredit talking heads' stories and establish the physical impossibility of the windpipe severed from the lung. "Moreover," he adds, "among the barbarians, where heads are chopped off with great rapidity, nothing of the kind has ever occurred."Aristotle, De partibus animalium 3.10. Aristotle was doubtless familiar with the story of the singing disembodied head of Orpheus and Homer's image of heads severed so rapidly they seemed still to be speaking, Iliad 10.457, and Odyssey 22.329. and Latin examples could be attested. A link between Latin poets and the Middle Ages in transmitting the trope of the speaking head was noted by Beatrice White, in the Latin poem on the Trojan War, De Bello Troiano by Joseph of Exeter. Hector whirls in the air the severed head of Patroclus, which whispers "Ultor ubi Aeacides", "Where is Achilles Aeacides, my avenger?"
Some modern authors link the legends of cephalophores miraculously walking with their heads in their hands"The stories of St. Edmund, St. Kenelm, St. Osyth, and St. Sidwell in England, St. Denis in France, St. Melor and St. Winifred in Celtic territory, preserve the pattern and strengthen the link between legend and folklore", Beatrice White observes. . to the Celtic cult of heads.
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