medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
At 05:09 PM 5/10/2004 -0700, Phyllis wrote:
>Today (11. May) is the feast day of a record 31 saints in the
>listings of the Benedictine book of saints. The highlights are
>decidedly Cluniac...
<snip>
>Vivald (d. 1300) Vivald (aka Ubaldo or Gualdo) was a disciple of Bl.
>Bartholomew Buonpedoni who nursed his leprous mentor for twenty
>years. After that, V became a hermit living in a hollow chestnut
>tree in Tuscany. His cult was approved in 1908.
These two are often known as V. of San Gimignano and B. (Bartolo) of San
Gimignano. Bartolo's year of death is 1300, but it is not certain that
Vivaldo also died in that year. How long he survived his mentor is
unknown. V.'s ordinary feast day is 1 May; perhaps 11 May is his date
among the Benedictines (or just a typo in their book of saints).
V. was "adopted" by the Franciscans when in 1497 they took over a ruined
church dedicated to him on a hill near Montaione in the Valdelsa and later
converted this into a pilgrimage site replicating famous locales in
Jerusalem. This site, whose surviving buildings are originally of the
sixteenth century and whose surviving sculptures are important pieces of
period "popular" art, is now a national monument (buildings and sculptures
restored). See, e.g.:
http://www.aracne.com/valde/svivaldo.htm
and
http://www.girando.it/montaione/san_vivaldo.php
V.'s Life, originally written in Italian, seems to be the work of the
sixteenth-century Franciscan annalist Mariano da Firenze; it was published
on the occasion of his canonization by Faustino Ghilardi in his "Vivaldo
eremita del terz' ordine di San Francesco nominato santo," _Archivum
Franciscanum Historicum_ 1 (1908), 521-35. The Latin Life in the Acta
Sanctorum is a translation of this. This Life locates the chestnut tree of
V.'s final time on earth in the vicinity of Montaione (albeit in a valley);
consequently, V. is also sometimes referred to as V. of Montaione.
See Giorgio Picasso, "Vivaldo (Ubaldo) di San Gimignano," _Bibliotheca
Sanctorum_, vol. 2 (1969), cols. 1316-17; also Sergio Gensini, ed., _La
"Gerusalemme" di San Vivaldo e i sacri monti in Europa_ (Montaione: Comune
di Montaione; Pisa: Pacini, 1989).
Best,
John Dillon
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