medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (16. March) is also the feast day of:
Valentine and Damian of Terracina, martyrs (4th cent.,
supposedly).
Today's lesser known saints from the Regno are a bishop of
Terracina (LT), Valentine, and his adoptive son, Damian, whom he educated
from boyhood and elevated to the diaconate. Unknown to early martyrologies
or to other early ecclesiastical history, they are documented by a fabulous
and in places entertaining account of their lives, martyrdom, invention,
and translation to today's San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore (PE). These
Acta (or this Passio, as it is sometimes called; BHL 8467) are known
from a mid-sixteenth-century office from the latter town that is said to
have been transcribed from "Lombard characters" (i.e., Beneventan).
Whereas Beneventan was used quite late in several parts of the Regno,
internal evidence suggests that the Acta were originally written in the
twelfth century, as they align the town with its new Norman lords (to
the first of whom the translation is ascribed) rather than with its
former owner, the great Benedictine abbey of San Clemente a Casauria.
They draw upon the originally fifth-century legend of Constantine's
persecution of Pope Sylvester I, ascribe the martyrdom of V. and D. to
persecution under Julian the Apostate, locate their execution at a
wholly fictional "civitas Zappina" (variously but not very convincingly
identified either with Chieti [ancient Teate] or with some other locale
near the Pescara), and place their inventio in the "time of the
Lombards" when all Italy was finally Christian. When at this time their
bodies were discovered --- along with an inscription proclaiming them
those of the holy martyrs Valentine and Damian -- the fact that these
were indeed the remains of saints was confirmed by the sudden
resurrection of a dead man whose corpse had just been brought to the
burial church where V. and D. were found.
The eighteenth-century church of saints Valentine and Damian dominates the
skyline of San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore. It is attributed to the
distinguished Neapolitan architect Luigi Vanvitelli (but the present facade
is a post-earthquake reconstruction). Photographs of it (and one of a
medieval church in the vicinity) are available at this English-language
website:
http://roccalett.tripod.com/SanValentino.htm
Best,
John Dillon
PS: San Valentino in A. C. lies within the bounds of the Parco Nazionale
della Majella, whose website is here:
http://www.parcomajella.it/home.htm
The park's home page is currently displaying photographs of the its
March-blooming flowers. I thnk we may assume that these also existed
here during the Middle Ages.
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