medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Sunday, January 23, 2005, at 7:47 pm, Phyllis wrote:
> Today (24. January) is the feast day of:
> Felician and Messalina (d. 254) Felician worked as a missionary in
> Umbria and was first bishop of Foligno. He served as bishop for c.
> 50 years before being arrested during Decius' persecution. He was
> tortured and flogged and died of his wounds just outside of Foligno,
> when he was being taken off to Rome for execution. Messalina, B's
> devoted follower who had tended to him in prison, was clubbed to
> death at the same time.
Like the recently celebrated Epiphanius of Pavia, Felician of Foligno
experienced Ottonian translation from Italy to points north. But unlike
Epiphanius, F. seems to have had two such translations: one in 965 to
Minden an der Weser and one in 969 to Metz, the latter as part of the
well known collecting activity of bishop Theoderich I. F.'s Acta as
printed in the _Acta Sanctorum_ (BHL 2846) came from manuscripts at Metz
and at Trier and though often dated to between the fifth and seventh
centuries may in the form in which we have them (which could be the
original or one not far removed from it) actually be of the tenth. For
a general consideration of this problem of late-witnessed western Acta
of early martyrs, see Clare Pilsworth, "Dating the _Gesta martyrum_: a
manuscript-based approach", _Early Medieval Europe_ 9 (2000), 309-24.
A bit from F.'s remains at Metz was returned in 1673 to Foligno, whose
much reworked twelfth-century cathedral of San Feliciano is said to have
replaced one or more predecessors built over the saint's late antique
_martyrium_. This structure is noteworthy for having two facades: an
earlier "primary" one facing the piazza Duomo and a later "secondary"
one on the left transept, facing the piazza della Repubblica. Distance
views, showing both facades and the palaces between them, are here:
http://foligno.hiexpress.com/fogit/picsbig/folfol03p011.jpg
http://www.bellaumbria.net/Foligno/piazza-foligno.jpg
Primary facade (piazza Duomo):
http://www.italiaincampagna.it/Umbria/GRATO/foligno/piazza2.htm
http://www.beniculturali-patrimoni.it/umbria/giornateeupatrimoni/cattedralesanfeliciano.html
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/578lg
http://www.seekitaly.com/tourism_italy/umbria/foligno_norcia/foligno_cathedral003.jpg
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/3rfzq
Secondary facade (piazza della Repubblica; 1201, with fourteenth-cent.
modifications; restored, 1904):
http://www.medioevoinumbria.it/images/citta/foligno2.jpg
http://www.medioevoinumbria.it/ita/citta/foligno_2.htm
http://www.bellaumbria.net/Foligno/duomo_foligno.jpg
http://www.bellaumbria.net/Foligno/facciata-duomo.jpg
http://www.seekitaly.com/tourism_italy/umbria/foligno_norcia/foligno_cathedral001.jpg
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/66ta6
Portal, secondary facade:
http://www.seekitaly.com/tourism_italy/umbria/foligno_norcia/foligno_cathedral002.jpg
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/3mxxw
Detail thereof:
http://www.italiaincampagna.it/Umbria/GRATO/foligno/portale.htm
While we're here, another of Foligno's medieval churches is the
interesting Santa Maria Infraportas (11th-cent. with earlier bits).
Views and discussion are here:
http://www.argoweb.it/foligno/santamariainfraporta.jpg
http://www.bellaumbria.net/Foligno/santa-maria.jpg
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Umbria/Perugia/Foligno/Foligno/churches/S.Maria_Infraportas/home.html
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/67qd5
To return briefly to F., a classic of medieval Italian literature from
Umbria is Pier Angelo Bucciolini's (d. 1436) verse legend of this saint.
There is a recent edition by Pasquale Toscano, _Leggenda di San
Feliciano_ (San Sisto: Effe, 1999).
Best,
John Dillon
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