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prettygoodword ([personal profile] prettygoodword) wrote2012-06-12 07:24 am

cephalophore

cephalophore (sef-uh-luh-FOR) - n., a saint depicted as carrying his/her own head.


Often but not always under the arm. Although these have been part of Christian iconography for millennia, the name was not coined until a 1914 article by Marcel Hébert, from Greek roots meaning head-carrying.

---L.