Cephalophore

[1] In a sermon on Saints Juventinus and Maximinus, John Chrysostom asserted that the severed head of a martyr was more terrifying to the devil than when it was able to speak.

[2] "He then compared soldiers showing their wounds received in the battle to martyrs holding their severed head in their hands and presenting it to Christ.

[3] Thus, an original and perhaps the most famous cephalophore is Denis, patron saint of Paris, who, according to the Golden Legend, miraculously preached with his head in his hands while journeying the seven miles from Montmartre to his burying place.

[4] Although St Denis is the best known of the saintly head-carriers, there were many others; the folklorist Émile Nourry counted no less than 134 examples of cephalophory in French hagiographic literature alone.

[5] Given the frequency with which relics were stolen in medieval Europe, stories like this, in which a saint clearly indicates their chosen burial site, may have developed as a way of discouraging such acts of furta sacra.

After his head had fallen to the ground, Nicasius continued the psalm, adding, "Vivifica me, Domine, secundum verbum tuum" ("Revive me, Lord, with your words").

[10] A legend associated with Ginés de la Jara states that after he was decapitated in southern France, he picked up his head and threw it into the Rhône.

[12] In legend, the female saint Osgyth stood up after her execution, picking up her head like Denis of Paris and other cephalophoric martyrs and walking with it in her hands to the door of a local convent before collapsing there.

Aristotle is at pains to discredit talking heads' stories and establish the physical impossibility of the windpipe severed from the lung.