medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
At 07:37 PM 5/2/2003 -0700, Phyllis wrote:
>Today (3. May) is the feast day of:
>
>Juvenal of Narni (d. 369) Juvenal was first bishop of Narni (central
>Italy). Legend reports that he saved Narni from invaders by calling down a
>thunderstorm (although it seems odd that anybody would have been invading
>central Italy during his lifetime). Gregory the Great reports that J. was
>martyred.
Gregory's calling Juvenal of Narni a martyr is usually interpreted to mean
that J. sacrificed himself for the faith, not that he was actually put to
death for it. For this broader conception of martyrdom see, e.g., Carole
Straw, "Martyrdom and Christian Identity: Gregory the Great, Augustine, and
Tradition," in William E. Klingshirn and Mark Vessey, eds., _The Limits of
Ancient Christianity: Essays on Late Antique Thought and Culture in Honor
of R. A. Markus_ (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1999), pp.
250-66.
Medieval texts pertaining to Juvenal of Narni are printed and discussed in
Carnandet's editio novissima of the _Acta Sanctorum_ at Maii tomus primus,
pp. 390-410. The legend referred to is in J.'s Vita (loc. cit., pp.
391-94): J. calls upon God to destroy the invaders (descendants of former
inhabitants from some 400 years previous) and God responds by breaking up
their assault with lightning bolts, thunder, founts of water appearing in
dry ground, and the earth being rent to its foundations. Oh, and
whirlwinds as well. Some three thousand of the enemy were swallowed
up. It makes good reading, better in fact than does the related and rather
fabulous history of ancient Narni occurring earlier in this Vita, though
that too is revealing in various ways. The Vita is dated after the 7th
century; how much after is unclear.
A hymn to Juvenal of Narni, broken up into three parts for liturgical use,
occurs in the basically late 9th- or early 10th-century central Italian
hymnary formerly known as the Hymnarius Severinianus (after the Neapolitan
monastery honoring the apostle of Noricum). Beginning "Clarescat terris
Iuvenalis gloria", it's in accentual-quantitative sapphics and draws upon
the Vita in a fairly detailed way, though "Gluttivit terra inimicos civium
/ Ore patenter" may be thought less compelling than the Vita's account of
the miraculous event detailed above. The poem has been edited twice, by
Peter Stotz in his _Sonderformen der sapphischen Dichtung_ (Muenchen:
Wilhelm Fink, 1982), pp. 362-71, and by Claudio Leonardi, "_Sic nonis
martyr Iuvenalis bella fatigat_: Giovenale di Narni nell'innario
umbro-romano," in Ulrich Justus Stache, Wolfgang Maaz, and Fritz Wagner,
eds., _Kontinuitaet und Wandel: Lateinische Poesie von Naevius bis
Baudelaire: Franco Munari zum 65. Geburtstag_ (Hildesheim: Weidmann, 1986),
pp. 347-63.
Best,
John Dillon
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