STORPIA, GUARIGIONE della. - The Gospel of St. Luke recounts the miraculous healing of a woman who had been crippled for eighteen years: « et erat inclinata nec omnino poterat sursum respicere » (13, 10-13).
In the cemetery « inter duas lauros », the scene of this miracle performed by the Saviour is represented within an arcosolium in a cubiculum dating from the first half of the fourth century. The other representations in the arcosolium also refer to women, namely the healing of the woman with the issue of blood, the Redeemer’s conversation with the Samaritan woman, and the deceased woman praying. The woman is depicted bent over, with her arms extended before her; the Lord holds his pallium with his left hand and, resting his left foot on a stone, bends toward the sick woman in order to lay his right hand upon her head and heal her, precisely as the Gospel text states: « et imposuit illi manus et confestim erecta est » (Lc. 13, 13). This scene is the only one thus far known in ancient Christian iconography; it has been reproduced at V. MIRACOLO, vol. VIII, coll. 1069-70.