medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (11. February) is also the feast day of:
Secundinus (7th cent.?), venerated at Troia (FG). Well, today was this
less well known saint from the Regno's feast day medievally, as
evidenced by his listing for III id. Feb. in the 13th-century sanctorale
of the former neighboring diocese of Bovino as summarized in 1534 by the
church historian G. P. Ferretti. The website of the Diocese of
Lucera-Troia has neither a calendar nor a listing of its local and/or
patron saints, making it difficult to determine when this local saint is
celebrated liturgically now; according to the _Gazzetta del
Mezziogiorno_, in 2004 he was celebrated on 13. February.
Troia occupies a spur of the southern Appennines extending into the
northern plain of Puglia. It is said to have been founded (in 1019) by
the East Roman katepan Basil Boioannes** as a fortress defending the
Capitanata against military attack by the area's former master, the
Lombard principality of Benevento. As an habitation it replaced on
approximately the same site the decayed Roman town of Aecae. According
to both the eleventh-century _Historia inventionis corporis sancti
Secundini_ (BHL 7554/55) and S.'s so-called Vita by the later
eleventh-century Cassinese hagiographer Guaifer (BHL 7556; an expansion
of the Inventio), while the town was being rebuilt a sarcophagus bearing
the name of _sanctus et venerabilis Secundinus episcopus_ and noting his
day of death was discovered at Aecae's church of St. Mark by builders
looking for ancient spolia. Within was a marble urn containing the
remains of the aforementioned saintly person. These were wrapped in a
clean shroud and brought into the new city; placed temporarily in the
church of the Holy Cross they were, after a miracle that overcame
episcopal reluctance, brought into Troia's cathedral.
Guaifer, whose _Vita sancti Secundini_ is an important document for the
medieval valorization of classical antiquity (old Troy vs. new, and so
forth), was also a poet. We have two poems from him on S.: a longish
praise piece in elegiac distichs transmitted with the Vita and a brief
hymn in the sapphic strophe. These are nos. IV and V in the PL edition
of Guaifer's _Carmina_ (vol. 147, cols. 1289-91).
S.'s sarcophagus survives; it's now in the Museo Civico di Troia. Said
now to be of the seventh century (but its inscription has also been
dated to the fifth or sixth century), it is shown here:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/guidoiam/arte/guidoiam/Images/sarcofago.jpg
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/64wnc
Where it spent the Middle Ages after the removal of the relics to the
new town is unknown. At some point prior to 1968 (when it was in the
cathedral treasury of Troia), it was discovered serving as the basin for
a fountain behind Troia's monastery of the Combonian Missionaries. The
inscription is said to be as described in the eleventh-century accounts,
except that it lacks the word _episcopus_. But as it is also reported
to say that S. restored (_renovavit_) the churches of the saints, the
inference that S. had in fact been a bishop seems justified. And
probably a local one, despite conjectures that S. is really one of the
other sainted bishops of this name venerated in early medieval southern
Italy.
One of Troia's patron saints, S. is one of the two flanking saints on
the architrave of the main portal of Troia's cathedral:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/guidoiam/arte/guidoiam/porta_centrale.htm
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/5597j
The cathedral itself (finished in 1127) is worth a look:
http://www.itineraweb.com/it/gt/cr_troia.php
http://www.mondimedievali.net/Edifici/Puglia/Foggia/Troia.htm
http://www.circolofilnumdauno.it/troiafoto.html
http://www.pugliadocitalia.it/parte_istituzionale/romantico_gotico_pugli
ese2.htm
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/4axeh
Also (facade):
http://www.pugliago.it/itinerari/troia.html
and an extensive, multi-page site in Italian, with numerous .jpgs:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/guidoiam/arte/guidoiam/index.htm
A much less extensive English-language introduction is here:
http://www.masseriacanestrello.it/english/pagine_web_eng/troia_eng.htm
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/5beb4
Best,
John Dillon
**Given the name of Troia's founder, it is perhaps no accident that its
oldest church is the eleventh-century San Basilio, shown here:
http://www.comune.troia.fg.it/sanbasilio.htm
http://web.tiscali.it/prolocotroia/
and in ground plan here:
http://www.zen-it.com/symbol/geo/Tbasilio1.htm
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