Reliquary bust Saint Margaret of Antioch

This reliquary bust and several other images formed part of a large niched reliquary in the sacristy at the Rachol Seminary church, and which was fashioned after the European (and particularly Portuguese) model. St Margaret of Antioch is one of the patron saints of Asia.
Born in Antioch, she was an early convert to Christianity, despite being the daughter of a pagan priest. After refusing to renounce her faith by marrying a Roman, she was subject to a series of persecutions which ended in her imprisonment and martyrdom. Shut up in a cavern guarded by a terrible dragon which she deemed to be the devil, she eventually overcame it through force of prayer and by making the sign of the cross. The fabulous beast thus came to be associated with the martyr as the dragon’s presence makes her easy to distinguish from her namesakes St Margaret of Cortona and St Margaret of Scotland.
This image is represented with a well-defined cavity in her chest, marked by a Flemish-type cartouche appropriate for a reliquary. Elaborate clothing drapes her sinuous figure, lending it a baroque air that is perfectly recognizable as Indo-Portuguese.