The Skull, penance.
The Anvil, as an attribute of martyrdom, belongs to St. Adrian only.
The Palm, the ancient classical symbol of victory and triumph, was early assumed by the Christians as the universal symbol of martyrdom, and for this adaptation of a pagan ornament they found warrant in Scripture: Rev. vii. 9, ‘And after this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude stood before the throne clothed with white robes and with palms in their hands.‘... ‘And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation.’ Hence in pictures of martyrdoms an angel descends with the palm; hence it is figured on the tombs of early martyrs, and placed in the hands of those who suffered in the cause of truth, as expressing their final victory over the powers of sin and death.
The sensual think with reverence of the palm
Which the chaste votary wields.
The palm varies in form from a small leaf to the size of a palm branch, almost a tree. It is very small in the early Italian pictures, very large in the Spanish pictures. In the Siena pictures it has a bunch of dates depending from it. It is only in late pictures that the palm, with a total disregard to the sacredness of its original signification, is placed on the ground, or under the feet of the saint.
The Standard, or banner, is also the symbol of victory, the spiritual victory over sin, death, and idolatry. It is borne by our Saviour after his resurrection, and is placed in the hands of St. George, St. Maurice, and other military saints; in the hands of some victorious martyrs, as St. Julian, St. Ansano, and of those who preached the Gospel among infidels; also in the hands of St. Ursula and St. Reparata, the only female saints, I believe, who bear this attribute.
The Olive, as the well-known emblem of peace and reconciliation, is figured on the tombs of the early martyrs; sometimes with, sometimes without, the dove. The olive is borne as the attribute of peace by the angel Gabriel, by St. Agnes, and by St. Pantaleon; sometimes also by the angels in a Nativity, who announce ‘peace on earth.’
The Dove in Christian Art is the emblem of the Holy Ghost; and, besides its introduction into various subjects from the New Testament, as the Annunciation, the Baptism, the Pentecost, it is placed near certain saints who are supposed to have been particularly inspired, as St. Gregory, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Hilarius, and others.