medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
At 05:01 PM 3/21/2004 -0800, Phyllis wrote:
>Today (22. March) is the feast day of:
>
>Benvenuto Scotivoli (d. 1289)
d. 1282. See Giovanni Odoardi, "Benvenuto Scotivoli," _Bibliotheca
Sanctorum_, vol. 2, cols. 1252-53.
> Benvenuto was a native of Ancona. He
>studied law and then became archdeacon of Ancona. From 1264 until
>his death he was bishop of Osimo. I can't figure out what he did to
>merit veneration, except for turning his diocese from its Ghibelline
>affiliations to alliance with the papacy.
Well, there _were_ miracles. But these don't seem to have cut much ice in
Rome. Despite what one reads in Saint Patrick's Saints o' the Day
http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0322.htm
Benevenuto is an uncanonized saint (Martin IV merely appointed his
successor, in January 1283). For what is known about Osimo's unsuccessful
campaign (beginning in 1284) to have him canonized, see Diana Webb,
_Patrons and Defenders: The Saints in the Italian City-states_ (London, I.
B. Tauris, 1996), pp. 146-48 with notes 29-33 on p. 186. His cult is
attested to in the 14th-century statutes of Osimo (1308, acc. to Odoardi),
which stipulate that his feast is to be kept as a holiday just as are those
of the BVM and of Osimo's older saints Leopard, Vitalian, and Victor. As
some will remember from last year's discussion of Leopard of Osimo (20
October), the remains of this early bishop were formally discovered in
1296. According to Webb, cathedral authorities at Osimo were at this time
promoting Benevenuto's veneration. But perhaps they had already given up
on the idea of getting him canonized and were now shifting promotional
gears in favor of a predecessor of dim and distant antiquity, about whom
virtually nothing was (and is) known.
Three volumes of Benvenuto's episcopal acta are preserved in Osimo's
diocesan museum. He seems to have been especially vigilant in forbidding
the alienation of church property. His feast is celebrated in the
archdiocese of Ancona-Osimo, in the neighboring diocese of Cingoli ("The
Balcony of the Marche"), and, according to Odoardi, in the Franciscan order.
Best,
John Dillon
PS: If you're looking for someone whose merits are truly obscure, we have
the twelfth-century martyr-bishop (but we don't know why he was declared a
martyr) Adelpertus of Trent coming up on 27 March.
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