San Diego de Alcala - San Diego, CA
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Metro2
N 32° 43.922 W 117° 09.026
11S E 485904 N 3621590
This sculpture is in the San Diego Museum of Art.
Waymark Code: WMNA97
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 01/30/2015
Views: 2
This work depicts San Diego about 3 foot high in his Franciscan friar robes. He holds an unclear object or two in his hands (probably his attributes, a cross and lily) before him as he looks forward. A Museum placard indicates that the artist is Pedro de Mena and the piece is made of polychromed wood. It is dated 1665. See the Museum's video about the work at (
visit link)
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Didacus of Alcalá, (or the more familiar Spanish: Diego), also known as Diego de San Nicolás, was a Spanish lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor who served as among the first group of missionaries to the newly conquered Canary Islands. He died at Alcalá de Henares on 12 November 1463 and is now honored by the Catholic Church as a saint...
Didacus was born c.?1400 into a poor but pious family in the small village of San Nicolás del Puerto in the Kingdom of Seville. His parents gave him the name of Diego, a derivative of Santiago (St. James), the patron saint of Spain. As a child, he embraced the hermit life and, later, placed himself under the direction of a hermit priest living not far from his native town. He then led the life of a wandering hermit. Feeling called to the religious life, he applied for admission to the Observant (or Reformed) branch of the Order of Friars Minor at the friary in Albaida and was sent to the friary in Arruzafa, near Córdoba, where he was received as a lay brother.
During his years living in that location, he journeyed to the villages in the regions surrounding Córdoba, Cádiz and Seville, where he would preach to the people. A strong devotion to him still exists in those towns."