Ivory of Saints Benedict, Thaddeus, and another saint

Veneto, 11th or 12th century
Musée National de l'Age Médiévale, Paris

St. Benedict is at the top, identified by the inscription S[ANCTUS] BENEDICT[US] ABB[AS], "St. Benedict the Abbot."  His peaked cowl is like that seen on this saint in the 10th century fresco beneath San Crisogono in Trastevere, Rome, but with vertical and horizontal bands such as one would see on a bishop's mitre. Benedict was not a bishop, but he is sometimes pictured in a mitre nevertheless (example).

The inscription in the middle roundel begins with an S for "Sanctus" and continues with what could be NICOLA, with the letters HO on the other side.  He wears a pallium over a sleeved garment like those worn by the other three figures. The pallium is normally reserved for archbishops and the Pope.

The figure at the bottom with the forked beard is S[ANCTUS] THAD[DEU]S, i.e. the apostle Saint Jude Thaddeus, pointing to a gospel book. The strongly forked beard is not a feature of other images of the saint that I have seen.

Read more about images of St. Benedict and St. Jude Thaddeus.

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