medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Castrensis (d. 5th cent., supposedly). Venerated in Campania as an early martyr-bishop, this less well known saint of the Regno is recorded for today in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, in the early eighth-century Calendar of St. Willibrord, and in the ninth-century Marble Calendar of Naples. He is especially associated with the following places in today's Caserta province: Castel Volturno (whose ninth-century bishop Radipert is recorded as having been buried at an altar containing Castrensis' remains), Capua, and Sessa Aurunca. Castrensis is the leading figure in the synthesizing and highly legendary eleventh- or twelfth-century _Vita sancti Castrensis_ (BHL 1644-1645), which brings together twelve saints from the southern Italian mainland and makes them all Africans who in the fifth century escaped Vandal persecution, made their way in an unseaworthy vessel to Campania, and died there in various places.
Since at least the late sixteenth century the cathedral of Monreale has laid claim to Castrensis' relics. Alleged to have been brought there in 1182 and to have been placed in the sole altar of what was then William II's new national cathedral for the kingdom of Sicily, etc., these -- or other remains believed to be they -- were translated in 1596 to the cathedral's present Cappella di San Castrense. A Benedictine convent dedicated to Castrensis was founded at Monreale in 1499; its church, expanded in the eighteenth century and still retaining the original dedication, now serves a local parish. Castrensis (in Italian, Castrense or Castrese) is the principal patron of the archdiocese of Monreale as well as the patron saint of Monreale (PA) and, in Campania, of Castel Volturno (CE), Marano di Napoli (NA), and Sessa Aurunca (CE).
Castrensis has given his name both to one of Campania's many locally developed varieties of apricot, the San Castrese, and to a Sicilian pastry, the _biscotto castrense_, reputedly first made by the sisters at his convent at Monreale.
Castrensis' image in a much degraded, seemingly tenth-century fresco in the Grotta dei Santi at Calvi Risorta (CE) may be made out here (left-hand column, second view; labelled as Fig. 10):
http://www.cattedrale-calvirisorta.com/imgrottasanti.htm
Castrensis operating two miracles as depicted in a late twelfth-century mosaic in the nave of the basilica cattedrale di Santa Maria Nuova in Monreale:
http://tinyurl.com/djppyy
Castrensis (at right; at left, St. Vitus; at center, the BVM and Christ Child) as depicted in a later fifteenth-century altarpiece in the Galleria regionale Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo:
http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/foto/80000/56400/56204.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
(matter from an older post lightly revised)
Best,
John Dillon
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