St John And His Cup With a Snake In it

A bit more whittled away on St John.

A little more of St John's life:

There had begun a persecution of Christians under the emperor Nero (56-68).   They took the Apostle John for trial at Rome where St John was sentenced to death for his confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Lord preserved St John by a miracle:   The apostle was given a cup of deadly poison.  In my embroidery you will see a cup sitting on the ground beside him with a snake emerging from the cup.  The legend is that a snake miraculously appeared in the poisoned cup and sucked up the poison so that the saint was unharmed when he drank.

Later St John emerged unharmed from a cauldron of boiling oil into which he had been thrown on orders from the torturer.