medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
At 06:28 PM 3/26/2003 -0800, Phyllis wrote:
Today (27. March) is the feast day of:
Augusta of Treviso (5th cent.) I'm trying to figure this one out; the
account I found is vague and seems chronologically improbable. Augusta is
supposed to have been the daughter of a Germanic (my source doesn't say
which tribe) duke of Friuli. When she converted to Christianity, her
father was so angry that he killed her.
This Augusta is perhaps better known as Augusta of Serravalle (and is said
to be sometimes referred to as Augusta of Ceneda, the adjacent town that
together with Serravalle is now Vittorio Veneto). These places are in the
March of Treviso but she is not significantly associated with that
city. Our sole detailed source for her life and passion is the _Acta_
penned by the apostolic protonotary Minuccio Minucci (1551-1604), a native
of Serravalle, later secretary to Clement VIII and finally archbishop of
Zara (1596-1604). This brief memoir, first published in 1581 at Koeln in
the supplementary vol. 7 of an edition of Laurentius Surius, _De probatis
sanctorum historiis_, is accessible in various editions of the _Acta
Sanctorum_; in Carnandet's editio novissima (Paris, 1863ff.) it's at Martii
tomus tertius, pp. 686-87. The Germanic tribe is not specified because
Minuccio is being deliberately vague, placing the events during the period
of barbarian rule after the collapse of the Roman state. The entire tale
is an apparent fabrication providing a suitable aition for a local cult and
is linked to the latter both near the beginning, where Augusta's father (in
the Latin, Matrucus) has his palatium on a height not far from Serravalle,
and at the end, when, some years after her decapitation, her body was found
on that height and a temple was erected there in her honor. According to
Minuccio, there are no physical remains of that first structure, only
_vetustissima memoria_. The present structure would appear to date from
the 15th century, which is when Augusta's remains were discovered and a
classicizing sarcophagus carved to house them. See
http://www.anaconegliano.it/luoghi/vittorio.htm
(at foot: Santuario di Santa Augusta)
and
http://www.tmn.it/vittorio_veneto/Serravalle/scopr1.html
Minuccio gives three feast days for Augusta: 27 March (her main feast; so
recorded in Filippo Ferrari's _Catalogus sanctorum Italiae_ [Milano, 1613]
and in subsequent editions of the Roman Martyrology), 22 August (the
_inventio_), and the octave of Easter (_consecratio templi_). Jodocus
Hondius (1563-1612), whose _Descriptio Italiae_ has a brief description of
the cult (very similar to Minuccio in respect of the martyr herself), says
that she is celebrated on 1 August, in connection with a local fair. This
fair is still (again?; I can't speak to its continuity) held in August and
now ends on the 21st or 22d, i.e., is connected with the celebration of
Augusta's _inventio_.
Modern accounts of Augusta -- there's one with a black-and-white
reproduction of her in a detail of a 16th-cent. painting by Palma the elder
at http://www.giornaledibrescia.it/giornale/2000/03/27/11,CRONACA/SANTO.html
-- often refer to Matrucus and Augusta as Goths and date the original
church to the fifth century (when at least one surviving church in the
immediate vicinity is said to have been first erected). But, as noted
above, our sources are not so specific. Nearby Ceneda, the site of the
medieval and modern bishopric (but since 1939 the diocese too has been
called Vittorio Veneto), is said to have risen to regional prominence only
in the Lombard period. Lombards would actually fit Minuccio's account
better than Goths: he says that Matrucus and Augusta were "natione, ut
ferunt, Alemannum".
Best,
John Dillon
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