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| Hans Bol Landscape with St John on Patmos 1564 oil on panel Mauritshuis, The Hague |
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| Hans Bol Landscape with St John on Patmos (detail) 1564 oil on panel Mauritshuis, The Hague |
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| Denis Calvaert Mystic Marriage of St Catherine ca. 1590-95 oil on copper National Trust, Stourhead, Wiltshire |
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| Denis Calvaert Mystic Marriage of St Catherine ca. 1590 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Pieter Coecke van Aelst The Lamentation before 1550 oil on panels (altarpiece) Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao |
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| Albert Cornelis Penitent Magdalen in a Landscape ca. 1520 oil on panel National Gallery, London |
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| Willem Key St Jerome ca. 1550-68 oil on panel National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin |
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| Bernard van Orley The Deposition (detail) ca. 1520 oil on panel (central panel of the Haneton Triptych) Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels |
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| Jan Provoost St Elizabeth of Hungary (detail) before 1529 oil on panel (altarpiece fragment) Palazzo Bianco, Genoa |
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| Jan Provoost St Peter (detail) before 1529 oil on panel (altarpiece fragment) Palazzo Bianco, Genoa |
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| workshop of Jan Provoost St Andrew in a Landscape ca. 1515-20 oil on panel Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht |
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| Pieter de Witte (Pietro Candido) King David and St Cecilia making Music for God in Heaven ca. 1575-80 oil on canvas Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht |
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| Pieter de Witte (Pietro Candido) The Annunciation ca. 1590 oil on copper Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Helsinki |
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| Pieter Coecke van Aelst Conversion of St Paul (detail) ca. 1540-45 oil on panel (outer panel of triptych) Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon |
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| Pieter Coecke van Aelst Conversion of St Paul (detail) ca. 1540-45 oil on panel (outer panel of triptych) Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon |
The Conversion of Saint Paul
In 1956 I was the shepherd boy
with nothing to offer the infant Jesus.
Kissed goodbye, I left the walk-up
in a white, ankle-length, terrycloth robe,
flailing my grandfather's wooden cane
wrapped from crook to tip in foil.
Secretaries stared from passing buses
at this Biblical apparition
leading his invisible sheep to school,
O little, wild-eyed prophet of Brooklyn!
Older, I portrayed the leper
gifted with half of St. Martin's cloak
and, with paper arrows & red play-dough,
evoked the passion of St. Sebastian.
Then I had to fake a terrible fall
to honor the conversion of St. Paul –
when I changed into costume
in the boys' musty coatroom,
Sister Euphrasia knelt to hike
the elastic waistband of my briefs
to better arrange my torn-sheet toga.
In second grade, this ageless ogre
had pasted Easter seals on my skull
and locked me in a cobwebbed cubicle,
pretending to air-mail me to China
where I'd never again see my mother!
Funny enough today, I guess,
but then I pleaded for forgiveness.
Now her sour breath flushed my face
when – classmates clamoring their impatience –
she whispered Jesus
would be judging my performance,
then thrust me from her failing sight
to be apprehended by all that light.
– Michael Waters (1986)