medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (29. June) is the feast day of:
Peter and Paul (d. c. 64 and c. 67) Too famous to need any comment. Last
year there was an interesting discussion about why they share a feast,
which brought up (among other points) that the two were already firmly
paired by the time of Augustine.
Judith and Salome (9th cent.) J & S were recluses at Altaich (Bavaria).
Their vita reports that Salome was an English princess and Judith her aunt
who left England to find her kinswoman. Farmer suggests that Salome might
be identified as Edburga, daughter of Offa of Mercia. She was the wife of
Beorhtric of Wessex but murdered several nobles and, by accident, her
husband---who drank out of a poisoned glass by mischance. She was exiled,
and took up a wandering life on the Continent.
Gero of Cologne (d. 976) Gero was born in c. 900 to a German family of the
high nobility. He became a court chaplain to Otto I, and in 969 archbishop
of Cologne. Gero's activities in his diocese included the foundation of
the monastery of Gladbach and acquiring the relics of St. Pantaleon for
another new foundation. He got Pantaleon's relics while on a mission for
Otto I to Constantinople. Gero is most famous today for commissioning the
Gero Crucifix, one of the earliest representations of Christ dead on the
cross in western art, which is still displayed in Cologne Cathedral. [A
personal request: can anybody guide me to recent works on the Gero
Crucifix?]
Emma of Gurk (d. 1045) Emma, born in c. 970/980 was another noble German
(I really am trying to vary from my German interests, but my Italian
encyclopedias were very unhelpful today), a relative of Emperor Henry II.
Her husband died young, and after her sons were killed, in 1036 Emma
founded the Benedictine convent of Gurk. She also endowed the monastery of
Admont in the diocese of Salzburg. Emma herself became a nun in her newly
founded community. A cult began immediately after her death; it received
official approbation in 1287; a formal canonization process began in 1466;
and Emma was declared a saint in 1938.
Dr. Phyllis G. Jestice
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