medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 17:32:45 -0700 Phyllis wrote:
>Today (13. June) is the feast day of:
>
>Peregrine of Aquila (d. c.600) Peregrine was bishop of L'Aquila
>(Abruzzi). He didn't get along well with Lombards (Arians). When P.
>tried to intercede for a condemned prisoner, they not only failed to
>release the prisoner but drowned P. in a river.
>
The river of P.'s story is the Aternum, today's Pescara. L'Aquila didn't exist c. 600. Its date of founding is unknown (12th cent., perhaps; the traditional view of its foundation by Frederick II derives from a charter now thought to be a forgery). It was elevated to episcopal status in 1257. In the Roman period, the chief town in the vicinity was Amiternum (the historian Sallust was born here), whose site has been discovered at nearby San Vittorino. When Amiternum was abandoned is also unknown; like other Roman towns in Abruzzo and Molise it probably survived the sixth century in extremely weakened condition and was replaced in the early Middle Ages by samll settlements at more defensible locations.
So Peregrine (in Italian, Pellegrino), if he was indeed a bishop, will have been bishop of Amiternum, a seemingly ancient see never formally dissolved (its present titular use, commencing in 1967, is another reason for not calling a bishop of Amiternum bishop of L'Aquila).
But our only evidence for P.'s having been bishop of Amiternum comes from his rather problematic Acta (BHL 1730; described in the _Bibliotheca Sanctorum_, vol. 3, p. 1163, as "molto favolosa"). This document, in which the saint's real name is given as Cetheus (Italian: Cetteo) and in which Peregrinus is said to have been how he was called at the place where his corpse washed up, seems to have been written to support a cult elsewhere (perhaps Zara in Illyria). Whether any of its details is trustworthy is very doubtful. As Cetheus P. has been venerated in Chieti for centuries; in 1977 his remains were translated from there to Pescara, whose modern cathedral is dedicated to him.
In or prior to 1263 the Acta's central story was attached to the cult of a local San Pellegrino, the dedicatee of an oratory at the Benedictine abbey of Bominaco (formerly Momenaco) not far from L'Aquila. In that year its abbot, Theodinus, rebuilt the oratory and presumably commissioned the first of the series of later thirteenth-century frecoes for which it is now famous; these include scenes from P.'s Acta.
Whether the Acta were originally written here or were instead adapted, perhaps with the addition of the local color they have now, from another source is unknown. It is worth pointing out that the abbey of Bominaco (said to have been an eleventh-century foundation expanding an already existing dependency of the imperial abbey of Farfa) had for years been an object of contention between its abbots and the bishops of Valva, a circumstance that might well have caused the abbey to seek an episcopal forbear of its own from another diocese now no longer functioning.
The abbey of Bominaco was destroyed in the early fifteenth century: its principal remains are the oratory of San Pellegrino and the church of Santa Maria Assunta. A brief sketch in English is here (the last two photographs are of the oratory):
http://abruzzo2000.com/abruzzo/laquila/bominaco.htm
The Abruzzo-Romanico site's page on these two buildings (with enlargeable jpegs) is here:
http://www.liceoscientificosulmona.it/ROMANICO-ABRUZZESE/Schede-edifici/BOMINACO/BOMINACO.htm
Englargeable photographs of the oratory's frescoes are here (click on the hotlinks in the text, e.g., at "vita di San Pellegrino"):
http://www.inabruzzo.it/bominaco/oratorio_san_pellegrino.htm
An enlargeable view (click on "ZOOM") of the oratory's frescoed vault and walls is here:
http://www.discoveritalia.com/luoghi/virtualTour.asp?IstatCod=13066022001&lingua=en
Detail of the vault:
http://www.giteinabruzzo.com/prg/chiese/folder1/img11.htm
Some exterior and interior shots:
http://www.comune.caporciano.aq.it/notiziestoriche/sanpellegrino.htm
Ditto (click on "Santa Maria Assunta e San Pellegrino a Bominaco"):
http://www.agriturismo.abruzzo.it/Arte_Medioevale/Arte_Medioevale.htm#Santa%20Maria%20Assunta%20e%20San%20Pellegrino%20a%20Bominaco
Finally, two pages on Bominaco's church of Santa Maria Assunta are here (click on "Santa Maria Assunta" towards bottom):
http://www.webabruzzo.it/bominaco/default.htm
and here:
http://www.inabruzzo.it/bominaco/santatm_maria_assunta.htm
Best,
John Dillon
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