medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Today (9. March) is also the feast day of:

Vitalis of Castronuovo (d. 893).  A wandering Italo-Greek ascetic,
today's less well known saint from the Regno is documented by a Latin
Life (BHL 8697) translated in 1194 from a now lost Greek original
thought to be of the very late ninth or early tenth century.  According
to this, V. was born at Castronuovo in western Sicily, entered religion
at the famous monastery of Saint Philip of Agira at Agira near Enna,
travelled after five years to Rome on pilgrimage, stopped off in
Calabria for two years of eremitical solitude on his way back, and then
returned to Agira or its environs where he spent the next twelve years
in a monastery near that of St. Philip.  The ongoing Muslim conquest of
Sicily then caused him to return to Calabria, where he spent time in the
mountainous border region of the Merkourion and passed thence into the
also mountainous region of Latinianon in Basilicata (both areas of
extensive Greek monastic settlement). After spending time at the
monastery of St. Elias at Carbone (later, of Sts. Elias and Anastasius
and in time one of the Norman-Swabian kingdom's royally chartered Greek
abbeys), he retreated to a cave near Armento where he founded a
community of his own.  Later he traveled to Bari and was received there
by the katepan; returning to Basilicata, he founded another monastery,
was captured by Muslim raiders, and was treated badly before being
released.  V.'s last foundation was a monastery near Rapolla on mount
Vulture (near Melfi); having chosen and instructed his successor, he
died here at a very advanced age.


One of V.'s foundations was that of Sant'Angelo in Monte Raparo in the
upper Agri valley.  As its name indicates, this was a Michaelsmount;
like its more famous namesake on the Gargano, it too began as a
rupestrian settlement.  In the earlier twentieth century its church
(with an interesting cupola) and some other buildings still survived,
albeit in ruinous condition.  Earthquakes have since reduced these to
rubble, but three largish photographs of the place -- including one of
the cave that according to the Life constituted the initial monastery --
 can be viewed in the Italian-language article reproduced here
(caution: the dates in this piece are not always reliable):
http://www.carispaq.it/gruppobper/incontri/pdf_65/pdf/12_65.pdf
This monastery was sited fairly high up in a rocky valley but close to
a spring at the headwaters of a seasonal torrent (dry in winter) that
flows into the Agri.  Some notion of the terrain in this general area
can be formed from these photographs of the nearby town of San Chirico
Raparo (PZ):
http://www.income.it/sanchirico/terra.gif
http://www.income.it/sanchirico/madre.gif
According to the Life, St. Luke of Demenna, the founder of the
aforementioned monastery of Sts. Elias and Anastasius at Carbone,
visited V. in his monastery here and was offered a piece of an onion
typical of the monastery's simple fare.  Biting into it, he collapsed
to the ground as though dead but made a miraculous recovery through
V.'s prayerful intercession.  One wonders what the relations between
the two monasteries were like when this was written.

V.'s final foundation, the one near Rapolla, was similarly located on a
mountainside near the headwaters of a little stream.  Abandoned in 1306
but later reoccupied by Benedictines, it too is now rubble.  While
we're here, though, Rapolla's seemingly twelfth-century cathedral
(belltower dated 1209, present main portal constructed in 1253) is
worth a look.  Repeatedly damaged by earthquakes, it has through
several reconstructions maintained a medieval-appearing exterior.  Two
reliefs on the south wall (Original Sin; Annunciation to the BVM) are
especially notable.

distance views:
http://www.eolos.it/images/rapolla.jpg
http://www.graffitinews.it/graffiti/foto/rapolla1.jpg
http://www.aglianica.it/img/Rapolla.jpg

facade:
http://www.basilicata.cc/lucania/rapolla/09chM1/za1.JPG
http://digilander.libero.it/scuolatoniolo/antologia04/immagini/quinte/ba
silicata15.jpg
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/5l9x8

photo gallery (several pages):
http://www.comune.rapolla.pz.it/storia/chiese/gallerie/galleria_cattedra
le.htm
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/5b48f

Original Sin:
http://www.masseriacanestrello.it/foto_paesaggi/foto_basilicata/bassoril
ievo%20duomo%20rapolla%
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/5799d
http://www.mondes-
normands.caen.fr/france/Patrimoine_architectural/Italie/mezzogiorno/basi
licate/05rapolla_chiesa_madre/C.htm
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/538o3

Annunciation:
http://www.culturalia.info/italiano/itinerari/potenza.html
http://www.mondes-
normands.caen.fr/france/Patrimoine_architectural/Italie/mezzogiorno/basi
licate/05rapolla_chiesa_madre/B.htm
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/6lapd

An even earlier monument in Rapolla is its late eleventh-century church
of Santa Lucia:
http://www.graffitinews.it/graffiti/foto/rapolla2.jpg
http://www.lucaniatours.it/pagine/citta/rapolla/images/slucia_jpg.jpg
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/6n4vb


Together with Luke of Demenna (San Luca abate) V. is a co-patron of
Armento (PZ); he is also the patron saint of Castronuovo di Sicilia
(PA), where his cult is relatively recent.  His remains (less some
relics that were taken for the cathedral at Tricarico) repose in the
crypt of the eleventh-century church dedicated to him at Armento.  That
building's superstructure collapsed in 1946 or 1947 but the crypt
remains and constitutes Armento's Cappella di San Vitale.  Shown here
in its baroque decor:
http://www.fondazionesassi.org/turismocultura/images/ARMENTO Cappella
San Vitale.jpg
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/4duws
, it has an early nineteenth-century statue of V. holding the onion
mentioned in his Life:
http://marie.bravepages.com/images/altar.gif
and an early seventeenth-century fresco of the Crucifixion with St.
Michael the Archangel on one side and St. Nicholas of Myra (already
looking much like the modern St. Nick) on the other:
http://marie.bravepages.com/images/altar2.gif

Best,
John Dillon
(expanding on and correcting last year's post on this saint)

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