medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phyllis Jestice" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2003 5:26 PM
Subject: [M-R] saints of the day 27. July
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Today (27. July) is the feast day of:
>
> Pantaleon (Panteleimon) (d. c. 305) Degraded to local calendar status in
> 1969, despite the gorgeous church dedicated to him in Cologne (where
> Empress Theophanu is buried, by the way).
St Panteleon's, Cologne, also contains a splendid reliquary carrying the
name of "Saint Albin" (which is Alban of Verulamium to distinguish him from
the local-to-Cologne Alban of Mainz ) These bones of A of V were believed to
have been the ones taken from A's tomb by Germanus of Auxerre when he
visited Britain in either c. 430 or c. 444, and which formed part of
Tiffany's dowry when she married Emperor Otto II in 972.
However, the shrine was moved recently from the treasury into the nave and
the contents inspected. There were found more bones than expected including
a skull bound with a fillet of gold. Which is what King Offa of Mercia is
reported to have done to the skull of the Saint Alban when he rediscovered
Alban's tomb in Verulamium and founded the present abbey in 793.- over 300
years AFTER Germanus' visit to Britain.
Local historians are now cautiously suggesting that the bones of Saint Alban
(or at any rate the bones identified as being St Alban's in 793), far from
being destroyed in 1539 by order of Henry VIII's agents as has always been
the official version, were in fact smuggled out of England and taken to the
one place in Christendom where there was an existing cult of St Alban of
Verulamium and where the bones could be appropriately housed without drawing
anyone's attention to the fact. Had H8 discovered that he had been cheated,
there might well have been a roll call of martyrs among the monks of St
Albans ..
We do know that the other great treasure of St Albans Abbey (the Albani
Psalter about which there was a post recently and which is now on-line
courtesy of Aberdeen University) was smuggled out of England and ended up in
Hildesheim, also in Germany.
If books, why not bones ?
And if at St Albans, is it not possible that other relics in English
monasteries were rescued and worthless substitutes given to the royal agents
to destroy ?
Brenda M C
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