medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Saturday, March 12, 2005, at 7:21 pm, Phyllis wrote:
> Today (13. March) is the feast day of:
> Heldrad (d. c. 842) Heldrad was a noble of Provence. He inherited a
> fortune, which he used to build a church and a hospice. H. then
> became a professional pilgrim, and finally settled at the monastery
> of Novalese in the foothills of the Alps. In time H. became abbot.
> He built a hospice at the Lautaret Pass of the Alps and worked out
> methods to rescue stranded travelers from Mt. Cenis. H's cult was
> approved in 1903.
Phyllis' source seems to have suffered a misprint (or to have repeated
one from one of _its_ sources): the monastery in question is of course
the abbey of Sts. Peter and Andrew at Novalesa, in Piedmont on the
Italian side of the pass of Mont-Cenis/Moncenisio. Founded in 726 and
devastated by a Muslim raid in about 906, whereupon the community
relocated to its daughter house at Breme in eastern Lombardy, the
monastery here experienced an uptick in in its fortunes in the eleventh
century, when as a priory of Breme it was substantially rebuilt and also
received a written history in the form of its imaginative chronicle, the
_Chronicon Novaliciense_. Heldrad (in modern scholarship sometimes
referred to as Eldrad) is one of its heroes, but neither from this
source nor from his Life (BHL 2445) do we really know much about him.
In his time, though, the abbey operated a hospice at the Mt. Cenis Pass
and also had a priory further to the southwest at Pagno (fairly close to
the Lautaret Pass); their establishment is sometimes attributed to him.
The monastery at Novalesa was secularized in 1798 but was re-acquired by
Benedictines in the early 1970s and resettled in 1972 with monks from
Venice. Restoration of the surviving buildings and
conservation/restoration of their surviving mural paintings begain
almost immediately. Some of the results are indicated below.
The abbey in winter:
http://www.abbazianovalesa.org/images/dallalto-n_piero_small.jpg
Chapel of Sts. Eldrad and Nicholas (10th-11th cent.; internal frescoes,
2d half of 11th cent.):
http://www.abbazianovalesa.org/s.Eldrado.htm
http://www.vdveer.myadsl.nl/assets/images/novalesa1.jpg
apse frescoes:
http://www.abbazianovalesa.org/abside_eldrado.htm
cycle of St. Eldrad:
http://www.abbazianovalesa.org/ciclo_s.eldrado.htm
cycle of St. Nicholas:
http://www.abbazianovalesa.org/ciclo_s.nicola.htm
The 18th-cent. abbey chapel has fragmentary frescoing from its 11th-cent.
predecessor in the presbytery. Shown is the stoning of St. Stephen:
http://www.abbazianovalesa.org/images/affresco-s.stef_small.jpg
12th-cent. fresco from cloister:
http://www.abbazianovalesa.org/images/01010094_small.jpg
The abbey also has several free-standing chapels on the premises. Shown
are:
the Mary chapel (8th cent.; restored in 11th):
http://www.abbazianovalesa.org/S_Maria.htm
St. Michael chapel (8th-9th cent.(:
http://www.abbazianovalesa.org/s.michele.htm
Holy Savior chapel (11th cent.):
http://www.abbazianovalesa.org/salvatore.htm
Apart from its literary qualities, which are not negligible, the
_Chronicon Novaliciense_ is also an interesting specimen of early
medieval historiography. There is an English-language treatment of it
in Patrick J. Geary, _Phantoms of Remembrance: Memory and Oblivion at
the End of the First Millennium_ (Princeton Univ. Pr., 1994).
Best,
John Dillon
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