John Coakley wrote:
>
> Dear listmembers,
>
> In his vita of Marie d'Oignies, Jacques de Vitry describes Marie as
> repeatedly helping him in his labors as a preacher by praying a
> hundred Ave Marias at the very moment when he is delivering a sermon,
> "sicut praedicante Hilario Martinus orabat." AASS June vol. 5
> (Antwerp ed.), p. 655, num. 69. I have looked in some obvious
> places -- Sulpicius, Gregory of Tours, the Golden Legend, and a couple
> of iconographical dictionaries -- but find no reference to St. Martin
> praying for St. Hilary while he preached. I thought that before I
> started to look in less obvious places, I'd ask you all: does this
> ring a bell?
>
> John Coakley
<It does, in an unexpected way. Ms. Wuerzburg M. P. Th. 29 has on f. 32
the well known illustration of the monastery of Cassiodorus at Vivarium,
with the two churches dedicately, respectively, to Sanctus Martinus and
Sanctus Hilarius (you can probably see it on www.cassiodoro.it, the site
of the Istituto Cassiodoro of Squillace). I always thought that
Cassiodorus chose those two patrons saints because they fought heresy in
their own time, and the monastic foundations at Vivarium existed for the
same purpose. But why the two saints together? In the manuscript
illustration the churches clearly belong together, although we cannot
twell - until an archaeological investigation is done - whether their
proximity was symbolic, or also topographically real (that is quite
possible, that piece of land is now occupied by sheep).
One thing is clear, though. The church of Sanctus Martinus was in the
geographical area of monasterium castellense, devoted to contemplative
life, while the church of Sanctus Hilarius is on or near the Alessi
river, the Fosso della Coscia and the Roman road, in the area of the
monasterium vivariense, devoted to active life (care of the sick,
religious instruction). The two churches, then, as represented in the
manuscript tradition, may well be the counterpart of the concept
expressed by Jacques de Vitry: Hilarius preached, Martin prayed.
Luciana
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Luciana Cuppo Csaki
Societas internationalis pro Vivario
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.geocities.com/athens/aegean/9891/
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