medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (11. February) is also the feast day of:
Castrensis (5th cent. ?). This less well known saint from the Regno is
listed for today on the Marble Calendar of Naples and was one of the
saints depicted in the now vanished fifth- or very early sixth-century
mosaics in the cupola of the church of St. Priscus near Santa Maria
Capua Vetere (CE). Venerated in Campania as an early martyr-bishop, he
became the leading figure in the thirteenth(?)-century _Vita sancti
Castrensis_ (BHL 1644), which fictively brings together twelve saints
from south Italian localities and makes them all Africans who in the
fifth century escaped Vandal persecution, made their way in an
unseaworthy vessel to Campania, and found death here.
Two mosaics illustrating C.'s miracles are part of the decor of Sicily's
Monreale cathedral, which latter since at least the very early
seventeenth century has claimed to have his relics and where his
translation was celebrated liturgically before 1605. But the frequently
encountered assertion that Monreale's founder, William II, brought him
here from Campania in the twelfth century lacks documentary confirmation
from the Middle Ages. In Campania, C. is associated especially with the
following places in today's Caserta Province: Capua, Sessa, Sinuessa,
and Castel Volturno. A locally developed variety of apricot, the San
Castrese, is named after him.
Best,
John Dillon
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