Note: The Sibyl Cucullata predicted the time of the death of the Savior, Corazon.

On dark nights, sitting around their fires, many parents scare their children with tales of the Sibyl Cucullata. After all, she prophesied the brutal death of the Savior Corazon (may her name live forever!). While the story of how Corazon died will have to wait for another time, the story of this sibyl is usually told in whispers.

It was brutally cold and the sky was pale blue but dusk was quickly approaching. From a stand of pine trees, hidden within shadows, the Sibyl Cucullata stood watching as the body of the Savior was carried to its final resting place by worshippers and loved ones. Just inside Corazon’s marble crypt, the body was cleansed with water and fragrant soaps and rubbed with magical oils and unguents in preparation for her final transformation. The body was then cocooned in gauzes and silks and wrapped with colorful ribbons which where tied with special knots that could be untied by reciting a spell should the Savior regain consciousness and rise from the dead (the words of the spell were lost many years ago when the last of the original disciples died). There was much grief and anguish and the tears of all present drenched the shroud, staining the silk wrapping.

Eventually, everyone left the crypt and it was sealed with molten lead and spelled locks to keep out the grave robbers and followers of the Burning Bush. At that very moment, when the sealing was finished, all present thought they saw a great shadow fall upon the sealed door. A huge cracking noise shook the earth and the door to the crypt fell in two pieces and the wrappings of the Savior was strewn about the ground but the body was nowhere to be found. Cucullata spoke from within the pines, “my work is now done for the savior is dead!”

Some say that the Savior’s body was stolen by the sibyl. Some say she is the angel of death. Some say she used the body of the Savior in her dark ceremonies. This is all ridiculous and was told to scare children and the simple minded.

As we all know, this is not the end of the story and Cucullata went on to make many other prediction, all of which came true.

Watercolor and gold on paper, copyright 2010 Kelley Vandiver