medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (17. October) is the feast day of the prophet Hosea, of St.
Ignatius of Antioch (d. 107), of bishop St. Dulcidius of Agen (d. late 4th
or early 5th cent.), and of the Desert Father John Colobus (d. early 5th
cent.). Additionally, it once was the feast day of:
Catervus (late 1st / early 2d cent., supposedly). The patron saint of
Tolentino (MC) in the Marche, C. had a cult that was already in
existence in 1054, when church dedicated to him is recorded as having
existed there. In 1206 a local monastery of the same name is attested.
By 1254 C. was being called a martyr and, whereas Boniface VIII in an
indulgence of 1299 referred to him as _confessor_, he was still locally
held to be a martyr in 1474, when he is first recorded as Tolentino's
patron saint. A late medieval Vita (BHL 1656 b and c; 13th-cent.?)
makes him the son of noble parents who heard Peter and Paul preach at
Rome; according to this hardly credible document, C. exercised the
office of praetorian prefect and was married early to a highly placed
Roman named Septimia Severina, with whom he lived in chaste wedlock.
He preached, performed miracles, and converted many in Rome, in the
Holy Land, and finally at Tolentino in the March of Ancona, where he was
martyred for his faith. Septimia Severina saw angels carrying C.'s soul
off to heaven; his mortal remains she placed in a sculpted marble tomb
that the Vita describes in some detail.
That description, though in places inaccurate, is hardly fanciful. For
the sarcophagus exists (it has a place of honor in Tolentino's
cathedral of San Catervo) and its inscriptions, misread and/or
misinterpreted in the Middle Ages, together with its Christian
iconography clearly formed the basis for C.'s cult. This was the
resting place of the late fourth-century former praetorian prefect
Flavius Iulius Catervius, of his wife Septimia Severina, and of their
son Bassus. Septimia Severina had it made for her husband and,
ultimately, for herself: the two are shown on it together in marital union:
http://tolentinonline.com/images/MONUMENTI/cate4_b.jpg
An Adoration of the Magi from the same sarcophagus:
http://tinyurl.com/8ybtd
A distance view of the sarcophagus in the cathedral's Cappella di San
Catervo:
http://tolentinonline.com/images/MONUMENTI/cate3_b.jpg
There is not the slightest evidence, by modern standards, that any of
the occupants was particularly saintly.
According to an inscription on the sarcophagus, Catervius died on 17.
October of some year; hence Catervus' feast day. Septimia Severina was
celebrated liturgically at Tolentino on 27. November (the Vita makes it
clear that both husband and wife were saints). An inspection of the
sarcophagus in 1567 yielded remains of Bassus as well; he came to be
celebrated on 25 October. None of these worthies has ever graced the
pages of the RM.
The sarcophagus is shown and discussed in Josef Wilpert, _I sarcofagi
cristiani antichi_ (Roma: Pontificio istituto di archeologia cristiana,
1929-36), vol. 1, pp. 7, 90-91 and plates 72, 73, and 94. Its
inscriptions are at _CIL_, IX. 5566; they are given again in the
preface to Hippolyte Delehaye's posthumously published edition of the
Vita: "Saints de Tolentino: La _Vita Sancti Catervi_," _Analecta
Bollandiana_ 61 (1943), 5-48. D.'s acidulous comments on this text
make lively reading.
In addition to Tolentino's cathedral (rebuilt in the 1830s but still
retaining bits of its thirteenth-century predecessor) another medieval
monument now bearing C.'s name is Tolentino's Torrione San Catervo, a
restored thirteenth-century macchiolated tower that was once part of the
city's walls. It served as the Austrian command post at the battle of
Tolentino in 1815, where Murat's defeat insured Hapsburg dominance in
the north of Italy and Bourbon restoration in the south. Here's a view:
http://tinyurl.com/a3n7j
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post lightly revised)
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