Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common carotid artery, while all other organs are deprived of the involuntary functions that are needed for the body to function. The term beheading refers to the act of deliberately decapitating a person, either as a means of murder or as an execution; it may be performed with an axe, sword, or knife, or by mechanical means such as a guillotine. An executioner who carries out executions by beheading is sometimes called a headsman. Accidental decapitation can be the result of an explosion, a car or industrial accident, improperly administered execution by hanging or other violent injury. The national laws of Saudi Arabia and Yemen permit beheading. Under Sharia, which exclusively applies to Muslims, beheading is also a legal punishment in Zamfara State, Nigeria. In practice, Saudi Arabia is the only country that continues to behead its offenders regularly as a punishment for capital crimes. Cases of decapitation by suicidal hanging, suicide by train decapitation and by guillotine are known.
Denis of France was a 3rd-century Christian martyr and saint. According to his hagiographies, he was bishop of Paris in the third century and, together with his companions Rusticus and Eleutherius, was martyred for his faith by decapitation. Some accounts placed this during Domitian's persecution and incorrectly identified St Denis of Paris with the Areopagite who was converted by Paul the Apostle and who served as the first bishop of Athens. Assuming Denis's historicity, it is now considered more likely that he suffered under the persecution of the emperor Decius shortly after AD 250.
Martial, called "the Apostle of the Gauls" or "the Apostle of Aquitaine", was the first bishop of Limoges. Venerated as a Christian Saint, his feast day is 30 June.
Osgyth was a Mercian noblewoman and prioress, venerated as an English saint since the 8th century, from soon after her death. She is primarily commemorated in the village of St Osyth, in Essex, near Colchester. Alternative spellings of her name include Sythe, Othith and Ositha. Born of a noble family, she became a nun and founded a priory near Chich which was later named after her.
Solange was a Frankish shepherdess and a locally venerated Christian saint and cephalophore, whose cult is restricted to Sainte-Solange, Cher. Saint Solange was the patron of the traditional Province of Berry, of which Cher is a part.
Felix and Regula are Coptic Orthodox and Roman Catholic saints. They are the patron saints of Zürich.
Paul of Narbonne was one of the "apostles to the Gauls". They had been sent out during the consulate of Decius and Gratus. Their mission was to Christianise Gaul after the persecutions under Emperor Decius had all but dissolved the small Christian communities. According to the hagiographies, Fabian sent out seven bishops from Rome to Gaul to preach the Gospel: Paul to Narbonne, Gatien to Tours, Trophimus to Arles, Saturnin to Toulouse, Denis to Paris, Austromoine to Clermont, and Martial to Limoges.
The beheading of John the Baptist, also known as the decollation of Saint John the Baptist or the beheading of the Forerunner, is a biblical event commemorated as a holy day by various Christian churches. According to the New Testament, Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee under the Roman Empire, had imprisoned John the Baptist because he had publicly reproved Herod for divorcing his first wife and unlawfully taking his sister-in-law as his second wife Herodias. He then ordered him to be killed by beheading.
Saint Lucian of Beauvais is a Christian martyr of the Catholic Church, called the "Apostle of Beauvais." He was killed in the 3rd century during the Diocletian persecution, although later traditions make him a martyr of the 1st century instead. This was because the church of Beauvais attempted to claim apostolic origins for itself. Odo, bishop of Beauvais during the 9th century, was the first writer to designate Lucien as the first bishop of Beauvais.
Quiteria was a second-century virgin martyr about whom little is certain except her name, the day and the place of her death, and her cult. She is listed under the date of 22 May in the Roman Martyrology. She is one of the patron saints of Toledo, Spain. Accounts of her life are "absolutely legendary".
Saint Nicasius of Reims was a Bishop of Reims. He founded the first Reims Cathedral and is the patron saint of smallpox victims.
Nicasius, Quirinus, Scubiculus, and Pientia were venerated as martyrs and saints. Their feast day is 11 October. Their historicity is uncertain, and "no trustworthy historical reports of [them] exist."
Nicasius of Sicily is venerated as a martyr in the Catholic Church.
Justus of Beauvais is a semi-legendary saint of the Roman Catholic Church. He may have been a Gallo-Roman martyr, but his legend was confused with that of other saints, such as Justin of Paris.
Ginés de la Jara is a semi-legendary saint of Spain. He is associated with the region surrounding Cartagena, of which he is co-patron. A hermitage was founded adjacent to the Mar Menor, and ruins of a monastery bearing his name date from before the Moorish conquest of 711 AD, that is, from the Visigothic era.
Aphrodisius is a saint associated with the diocese of Béziers, in Languedoc, Southern France.
Valerie of Limoges is a legendary Christian martyr and cephalophore, associated with the Roman period, whose cult was very important in Limousin, France, during the medieval period. She has been an important subject for Christian art since the Middle Ages and for porcelain figurines over several centuries.
Saint Noyale, also known as Noaluen, was a semi-legendary 5th-century Celtic saint and virgin martyr. She is a popular saint in both Brittany and Cornwall, where she is memorialized at Newlyn East. According to legend, it is there that a fig tree growing from the south wall of the church grew from Noyale's staff. A holy well nearby was the site of her martyrdom. She was one of the numerous Celtic settlers who travelled to Brittany during the Anglo-Saxon invasion of England.
Saint Nicasius of Rouen, often known as the Apostle of the Vexin, was a 3rd-century saint and martyr in Gaul. He is sometimes considered the first Bishop of Rouen.
