medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (26. May) is also the feast day of:
Pardus (7th cent., perhaps). Today's less well known saint from the Regno,
the patron of Larino (CB) in Molise, is the subject of a brief _Vita et
Translatio_ written by one Radoin, deacon of Larino, probably in the tenth
or early eleventh century, and edited in the _Acta Sanctorum_ under today's
date (BHL 6465). Two other early modern editions deriving from the same
textual source, the _sanctorale_ of the chapter library at Bovino (FG) in
Apulia, show a text so editorially altered that they received their own BHL
number (6464). This text was already mutilated when the three editions in
question were made; however, the missing portion (the bulk of the
conclusion) has since been recovered from extensive notes on the Bovino
manuscript made in 1534 by the humanist scholar G. P. Ferretti and
surviving among his autograph manuscripts in the Vatican.
Radoin can be dated by his reference to the Hungarian sack of Larino in 947
and by his Beneventan Lombard outlook, which seems to indicate composition
prior to the eleventh-century Norman conquest of the duchy of
Benevento. According to him, Pardus was a Greek bishop from the
Peloponnese who, evicted by heretics from his diocese, retired to Rome,
declined on account of age and ill health to return when his repentant
flock asked him to, and instead received papal permission to settle in
Apulia. Traveling thither with a great company of admirers, he chose to
live in Lucera and spent his last few years there as a hermit. As Radoin's
historical knowledge is not bad, he could be right in dating Pardus' death
to a time not long before Constans II's destruction of Lucera (in
663). But the events that follow are part of the complicated tangle of
translations between Lucera, Lesina, and Larino in which the people of
Lesina (settled from Lucera) appropriate the relics of Larino's martyrs
Firmian and Primian (15 and16 May; Primian is the patron saint of Lesina
[FG]) and the people of Larino then discover Pardus' relics in ruined
Lucera and take them in compensation. [All clear? There may be a quiz on
this!] In view of that history, Radoin's biographical details of Pardus
seem ideally suited: a saint of ecclesiastical dignity, suitably foreign
(just like Constantius of Capri and Canion of Atella and many other
episcopal patron saints over in Campania), residing in Lucera but never
bishop _of_ Lucera and so on no account to be handed over to the rival
Lesinesi. Chances are excellent that he's completely fictional.
But of course Larino's cathedral is named after him. This is an
architectural monument of at least regional distinction. See:
http://www.pagus.it/progetto/comuni/larino/cattedrale/
http://www.pagus.it/progetto/comuni/larino/cattedrale/frame/dx/descriz.htm
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/larinoweb/html/luoghi/chiese/cattedrale.htm
http://domino.comune.larino.cb.it/comuni/larino.nsf/0/f1a70926e2da8db7c12569
ab0044e289?OpenDocument
(watch the wrap on this one!)
also (in English):
http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/rta/rgardner/cathedra.htm
and, for its history (in Italian; no pictures):
http://www.pagus.it/progetto/comuni/larino/cattedrale/frame/dx/storia.htm
a good photo of the front portal is here:
http://www.giubileo.molise.it/itinerari/eucaristico/concattedrali01.htm
The building was severely damaged in the earthquake of 4.November 2002.
For Radoin's _Vita et Translatio_ see now F. Dolbeau, "Le legendier de la
cathedrale de Bovino," _Analecta Bollandiana_ 96 (1978), 125-52, esp. pp.
126-29, 132, 144-45.
Best,
John Dillon
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|