Carding (torture) - Notable Victims

Notable Victims

In the 6th century BC, when Croesus's half-brother Pantaleon failed to seize and hold the throne of the Lydian Empire, one of his supporters was captured. According to the description given by Herodotus, Croesus tortured the life out of his captive by having him "hauled over a carding-comb."

As described in the Mishnah, Akiba ben Joseph, a Judean tanna of the latter part of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century, said the Shema prayer as he was carded to death by agents of Ancient Rome. Evoking this memorable incident, a writer for Haaretz metaphorically described political corruption in contemporary Israel as "an iron comb of torture."

Carding continued to be used as means of torture during the persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire. The Acts of St. Blaise, a Greek text describing the 3rd century Armenian bishop Saint Blaise, recount how he was captured by the governor of Cappadocia and beaten, carded, and beheaded for not renouncing Christianity. Eventually becoming a popular saint in Medieval Europe and venerated as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, the frequent depiction of St. Blaise in iconography with the iron combs of his martyrdom led to his adoption as the patron saint of wool combers in particular and the wool trade in general.

St. Antonius of Beba, a martyr venerated in the Coptic Orthodox Church, was also tortured with iron combs before being beheaded. St. Hilaria, another Coptic martyr, survived torture by combing and other sadistic methods before finally being dismembered, beheaded, and thrown into a fire. A third Coptic martyr, the ascetic virgin St. Febronia in the reign of Emperor Diocletian, lived through carding, being crushed by a wheel, and other tortures, before she too was beheaded.