THE THEBAN LEGION. According to pious legend, 6,666 soldiers, recent converts to Christianity, were martyred as a group in 286 CE for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman emperor: an act of treason. This panel from an altarpiece of patron saints by Stefan Lochner, now in Cologne cathedral, dates from c.1440.

AMBROSE OF MILAN. As recently elected bishop of Milan (374) Ambrose became a focal point of nonviolent resistance to civic power, defying the emperor himself. This mosaic portrait in the church of St. Ambrose in Milan is most likely a contemporary likeness of the saint. See Peace Readings, Chapter 4.

MARTIN OF TOURS. The newly converted Martin (d. 397) renounces his military commission to begin his life of peacemaking. A fresco of c.1325 by Simone Martini in the Lower Church of the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. See Peace Readings, Chap. 5.

GERMANUS OF AUXERRE (d. 448). Elected bishop in 418, he resigned his military post and set out to convert the barbarians then invading Britain and Gaul, combining peacemaking and social justice. From a manuscript of Haymo of Auxerre’s Exegesis on Ezechiel from c.1000 (Paris BnF lat. 12302 f1v) . See also Peace Readings, Chap. 5.

SEVERINUS OF NORICUM (d. 482). Appearing mysteriously on the Roman Danube border, Severinus organized a nonviolent resistance to the invading barbarians. This image is from a 15th century (?) wooden polychrome statue of Severinus in an unidentified site in Passau, Germany. See also Peace Readings, Chap. 5.

GENEVIÈVE OF PARIS (d. c.500). A disciple of Germanus of Auxerre, is the patron saint of Paris, which she saved, without violence, from both Attila the Hun and the Franks. This image is from a book of hours, Paris usage, of c.1475–1499, now in the Free Library of Philadelphia. See also Peace Readings, Chap. 5.

BONIFACE OF CREDITON (d. 754) was both a harsh critic of social injustice and a proponent of nonviolent conversion. This illustration of St. Boniface baptizing and his martyrdom is taken from from the 10th-century Sacramentary of Fulda (Udine, Archivio capitolare, Ms. i). See also Peace Readings, Chap. 5.

GALGANO GUIDOTTI. This historical figure (d. 1181) took on the aspects of Arthurian myth soon after his death. A knight converted to nonviolence, he supposedly thrust his sword into the rock that can still be seen at the monastery of S. Galgano in Tuscany. This portrait by Ugolino Lorenzetti dates from 1325 and is in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena.

FRANCIS OF ASSISI (d. 1226) is the patron saint of peacemakers: both for his life of simplicity and imitation of Christ and for his deep reverence for all of creation. This image of Francis meeting the sultan of Egypt, from the Francis cycle (1297–1300) attributed to Giotto, is from the Upper Basilica of S. Francesco in Assisi. See Peace Readings, Chaps. 7-8.

CATHERINE OF SIENA (d. 1380) embodied many of the contradictions of late medieval Christianity. She encouraged a crusade against the Turks but sought nonviolent reconciliation of factional strife in Italy and justice for the poor and powerless. This contemporary image, by Andrea Vanni (d. 1413), is in the church of San Domenico, Siena. See Peace Bibliography, Chap. 6.