St. Jude Thaddeus

19th century
Boggsville Historic Site, Las Animas, New Mexico/Colorado, USA

St. Jude is portrayed as in European tradition, holding a halberd with one hand and an image of Jesus in the other. But the decorative elements are local to the region. The three flowers are typical of the claret cup cactus (Echinocereus triglochidiatus engelm), which is probably what is represented by the low bush to the right of the saint. To the left are two "columnar cacti," many species of which grow in the New Mexico desert.

This is one of a number of santos that Ramalda Luna Boggs collected in the 19th century for the Boggs home in Las Animas, which was then a part of New Mexico but is now in Colorado.

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Photographed at the site by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.