Saint Denis wooden statue doll
***This Saint Denis of Paris doll will be made after purchase. Please allow up to three weeks for shipment. If you need it earlier please purchase my "Rush" listing here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/115368048/rush-order-for-saint-anne-studio
This item will resemble the photos essentially but will be different being that it is hand painted. If you wish to have a photo sent before it is shipped just notify me.***

This is a peg doll of St. Denis. He is painted with his name on the back and "Pray for us" underneath. He is 3 9/16 inches high.

"Denis (or Dionysius as he is also called) was born and raised in Italy. He was sent as a missionary to Gaul (now France) circa 250 A.D. by Pope St. Clement along with five other bishops.

Denis made his base of missionary activity an island in the Seine near the city of Lutetia Parisorium -- what would become Paris. For this reason he is know as the first bishop of Paris and the Apostle of France. There he was captured by the Parisians along with Rusticus and Eleutherius. Later writers have referred to these as Denis' priest and deacon, or his deacon and subdeacon, but we have no further information on them.

After a long imprisonment and several aborted executions, the three martyrs were beheaded with a sword and their bodies were thrown into the river. Denis' body was retrieved from the Seine by his converts and buried. The chapel that was built over his tomb grew into the abbey of Saint-Denis.

In the ninth century, Denis' story and identity became fused and confused with Dionysius the Areopagite and Pseudo-Dionysius, but later scholarship has re-established his identity as a separate saint." catholic.org

*Denis is usually pictured as he was martyred -- headless (with a vine growing over the neck) and carrying his own mitred head. I have decided to depict him reunited with his head for various reasons partly due to the fact that my items are sometimes given to children.*

All peg pieces are painted with non-toxic acrylic paint and sealer.