You’re used to seeing a man on a cross, right? But Jesus wasn’t the first or last to suffer that fate. This painting, by Gabriel Cornelius von Max, pictures Saint Julia of Corsica. A young Christian woman traditionally said to have been crucified for refusing to renounce her faith.
Von Max does not illustrate her final moments but the silence after. Julia hangs under a darkened sky, her body pale, almost luminous. Her torment is over. What remains is her stillness, her dignity, and an invitation to consider her unyielding resolve.
According to tradition, she was an enslaved believer taken from Carthage who refused to participate in pagan sacrifice. For that refusal, she was nailed to a cross. Her story takes on the same shape as Christ’s: obedience that costs everything.
Curious Christian 
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