medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Proculus, Eutyches, and Acutius (d. 305, supposedly) are among the canonical companions in martyrdom of St. Januarius venerated at Naples. They are said to have been a deacon and two laymen of ancient Puteoli, now Pozzuoli (NA) in Campania. In the developed Januarian story all the martyrs are caught up in the Great Persecution and are sentenced to exposure to wild beasts in the amphitheatre of Puteoli. But this sentence is not carried out and they are instead decapitated at the Forum Vulcani, at or near the Solfatara in the Phlegraean Fields. In a synopsis relayed by St. Bede the Venerable (followed by the ninth-century martyrologists St. Ado of Vienne and Usuard of Saint-Germain) as well as in a more detailed translation account (BHL 4116), people of Puteoli bring the saints' remains to the town's basilica of St. Stephen.
Later translation accounts (BHL 4137, 4133) have Naples' eighth-century bishop Stephen II translating the remains of Eutyches and Acutius to that city and the Lombards making off with those of Proculus and taking them to Benevento. A supposedly ninth-century translation account has the relics of all three removed to Reichenau. In the later eighteenth century, when these accounts had come to light and relics said to be theirs were found at Reichenau, Pozzuoli received half of the putative remains of each saint that were then at Naples (including those of Proculus, who had somehow managed to find his way there from Benevento) and the other halves were re-interred under the main altar of Naples' cathedral (where within a few years they were joined by the putative relics of Naples' St. Agrippinus). An inspection of the Campanian relics in 1964 was followed by a declaration that these were lacking the bones belonging to the set at Reichenau.
In the sixth century inhabited Puteoli / Pozzuoli had shrunk to its fortified acropolis, today's Rione Terra. The town's paleochristian cathedral of St. Stephen was abandoned and an ancient temple (today's so-called Tempio di Augusto) became the new cathedral, dedicated to Proculus. This remained free-standing until 1643, when it was incorporated into the then newly built cattedrale di San Procolo. In 1963 the cathedral suffered a disastrous fire; in the following year remains of the ancient temple and medieval cathedral were revealed when the fabric surrounding them was removed. After restoration these remain largely visible:
http://www.lacooltura.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/tempio.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/jeyqprb
http://www.pozzuoli21.it/wp-content/uploads/copertina41.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/z3l6rwg
In the Roman Martyrology today (18. October) is the day of commemoration of Sts. Proculus, Eutyches, and Acutius. Proculus is the patron saint of the diocese of Pozzuoli. Since 1718 his feast there has been kept on 16. November; previously it had been celebrated today.
Some period-pertinent images of Sts. Proculus, Eutyches, and Acutius:
a) Eutyches and Proculus as depicted in a ninth-century fresco in Naples' catacombe di San Gennaro:
http://tinyurl.com/yzvzjlc
b) Acutius as depicted (at right; at left, St. Desiderius of Benevento) in a ninth-century fresco in Naples' catacombe di San Gennaro:
http://tinyurl.com/llyzbv
c) Proculus as depicted in the late eleventh- or early twelfth-century cycle of Januarian portraits in the chiesa di Sant'Aniello at Quindici (AV) in central Campania:
http://www.moschiano.net/Quindici/pages/affresco%2022_jpg.htm
Best,
John Dillon
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