El Santo desfallecía

El Santo desfallecía
 

There is a paragraph in Primeria memoria

El Santo desfallecía en la hornacina, entre nardos y lirios de cera, los ojos de cristal implorante, las velas, medio derretidas, se retorcían el los peqeuños candelabros, y una araña se deslizó, parda y cautelosa, pared arriba.

The topic is distinctly different from the preceeding or succeeding paragraphs.

What is the meaning of
"El Santo desfallecía"

When I use a machine translator on "pared arriba" I get several completely different suggestions, none of which seem to suit.

The Saint (as in a statue or an image of a saint that you can find in some churches) fainted (was fainting) ...

up a/the wall (a direction of travel) - the spider was sneaking up the wall.

Gracias
I know nothing of saints or their representations in churches, would the saint of the statue actually be fainting? Is that a common depiction?

No, most likely not too common. I didn't author the piece, and I'm not all that familiar with the images that can be found in churches, but perhaps the author was alluding to how the statue or image of the saint was made to look like the saint was in the act of fainting or collapsing or about to give way to fainting. :twocents:

Gracias

Absolutely. They are often represented suffering terribly, so it's the expression of the saint as if he were fainting of pain what comes to my mind with such paragraph.