medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (12. May) is the feast day of:
Nereus and Achilleus (2nd cent.?) The cult of N and A in Rome was
established at a very early age. According to a 4th-century inscription,
they were soldiers who converted to Christianity and threw away their arms.
They were then martyred. A church was built over their tomb in the
cemetery of Domitilla in the 4th century; the (now empty) tomb was
discovered in 1874. Legend makes N and A eunuchs in the service of the
lady Flavia Domitilla.
Pancras of Rome (d. early 4th cent.) Another important early cult in Rome,
but in this case nothing is known about the saint except that his cult
centered on a church on the Via Aurelia. Legend reports that Pancras was a
Phrygian, brought to Rome by his uncle, and tells that he was then martyred
at the age of 14.
Epiphanius of Salamis (d. 403) A Jew by birth, Epiphanius converted and
became a monk in Palestine at a young age. After some traveling, he
directed the monastery of Eleutheropolis for 30 years, noted for his
scholarship and austerity (which won him the nickname "Oracle of
Palestine"). Then E. became bishop of Salamis (Cyprus) in 367. He was
active in the heresy-hunting and theological world of the time; in fact, he
died while returning in disgust from Constantinople, where he realized he
was being engineered into condemning John Chrysostom.
Ethelhard (d. 805) Ethelhard enjoyed a formal cult for quite a short time;
he was one of the victim's of Lanfranc's cleanup of the English calendar in
the late eleventh century. E. was abbot of Louth (Lincolnshire), and
archbishop of Canterbury from 793 on. He oversaw Canterbury's restoration
to metropolitan status (after Kent escaped Mercian overlordship), and
played an important role in restoring Canterbury's prestige.
Fremund (d. 866) Fremund had the royal blood of both Mercia and East
Anglia in his veins. So, although he became a hermit, he was still a
threat to his apostate kinsman Oswy, who sikked the Danes on poor F.
Although F. may have been purely fictional, both Dunstable and Cropredy
claimed his relics in the later Middle Ages.
Dominic of the Causeway (d. c. 1109) This very useful Basque hermit tried
to become a Benedictine monk at Valvanera. When he was turned down, he
became a hermit instead, soon settling on the pilgrimage road to
Compostella. There he built a road, a bridge, and a hospice for pilgrims.
Imelda Lambertini (blessed) (d. 1333) Little Imelda was the daughter of
the count of Bologna. She was very pious, and at the age of nine she went
to live at a Dominican convent, where she seems to have spent all her time
longing for her first communion. She begged and begged and begged, and
finally when she was eleven a glowing chalice in the air above her head
convinced the convent priest to give in. So she had communion---and
immediately died. She's now the patron saint of first communicants.
Dr. Phyllis G. Jestice
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