Dorothy

Dorothy dresses modestly and carries a basket filled with apples and/or flowers. Sometimes an angel/child presents the basket to her. Instead of a basket full of posies or fruit, sometimes Dorothy carries a bouquet of roses in her arms.

Probably only existing in legend, Dorothy was a beautiful Christian girl from Cappadocia who was sentenced to death for refusing to marry and refusing to honor false gods. As she was being led to her execution, Theophilus, the government’s lawyer, mockingly called out to her and told her not to forget to send him some roses and apples from the garden in Paradise. The legend says that at the moment of her death, an angel in the guise of a small child appeared carrying a basket filled with three apples and three roses. The child walked up to Theophilus who was so stunned by the event he converted to Christianity. Soon, after, he was also martyred.