Martyrdom of Saint Eusebius

Sacro Monte di Crea, Serralunga di Crea ; This scene, sculpted between 1595 and 1599, is in the first chapel at the Sacro Monte di Crea. It memorializes an unsuccessful attempt to kill Eusebius, the first Bishop of Vercelli. He defended the Nicaean Creed against heretical critics, which made him an ideal saint for the church to promote during the Counter Reformation. The image of the Madonna housed in Crea's sanctuary is believed to have been placed there by Eusebius himself. On his journey to Crea, Eusebius is also said to have struck the rock with his staff and, like Moses, caused the spring underneath the chapel to begin to flow. The spring was an important resource for the sanctuary, which was otherwise quite far from other water sources. The terracotta sculptures are made to be seen from a single vantage point. From outside the wooden grates in the chapel's windows and doors the figures appear whole, but the sculptures are only partially finished, most with large openings in the back. Jean de Wespin (c. 1567 - 1615) and Guglielmo Caccia (called Moncalvo), who painted the frescos, dressed their figures in fanciful eastern-inspired and modern-looking clothes that could be easily distinguished by seventeenth-century pilgrims. The city of Vercelli paid for this chapel to honor their bishop. Moncalvo memorialized their patronage and emphasized the location of this event by including the distinctive façade of Vercelli's Abbey of Sant'Andrea prominently in the background. / The hill at Crea has used as a pilgrimage site since the Middle Ages, when locals began to honor a miraculous image of the Black Madonna that was said to have been brought there by Saint Eusebius (c. 283 - 371). A community of Augustinians occupied the monastery at Crea beginning in 1176, but they were succeeded by the Lateran Canons Regular, who cared for the sanctuary between 1482 and 1798. Since the Sacro Monte was founded in 1589, local rulers had a direct hand in supporting it, including the Paleologue and Gonzaga dukes of Monferrato. Most ...