medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (29. April) is also the feast day of:
Severus, bp. of Naples (d. 409). Bishop of the Parthenopean city from
363 to 409, S. enjoyed the friendship of Ambrose of Milan and the esteem
of Q. Aurelius Symmachus. The early catalog of the city's bishops
credits him with the erection of four basilicas, one of which is today's
rebuilt San Giorgio Maggiore. He is now also usually credited with the
construction of western Christianity's oldest surviving baptistry,
Naples' San Giovanni in Fonte (for fairly obvious reasons, this is by no
means the only baptistery so named), though in the later Middle Ages the
credit went instead to Constantine the Great. This monument adjoins the
early Christian basilica of Santa Restituta (part of the late medieval
and modern cathedral of Naples) and is well worth a visit. The perhaps
not entirely fluent English-language version of the cathedral's website
has a section on the baptistery here:
http://www.duomodinapoli.com/
(click on "Baptistery" in the menu on the top).
This has a good slide show of the (restored) mosaics reached by clicking on
the arrows in the right-hand frame.
Severus also constructed a burial church at Naples' catacombs and housed
here the relics of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius sent to him by Ambrose;
frescoed remains of their arcosolia (and those of other saints mentioned in
early Neapolitan records) were discovered in 1865 under the early modern
church of San Severo alla Sanita'. He too was buried here and here he
remained until some unknown time before the ninth century, when his
remains were transferred to San Giorgio Maggiore, which latter for a
while was also known as San Severo. In the ninth century he was
reinterred in the basilica of San Salvatore (also known as the
Stephania), along with Santa Restituta one of the predecessors of
today's cathedral. In 1310 he underwent a further translation, this
time to the high altar of the present cathedral; the latter was then
still under construction and would not be dedicated until 1314. At this
time S.'s cult was renewed and he became one of the few early saints of
Naples proper to be accorded great prominence in the later Middle Ages.
One has to be reminded sometimes that neither of the city's two most
famous saints, Januarius and Severinus, was actually _from_ Naples.
Severus' later medieval feast day was 30. April. It was changed to
today after the discovery in 1742 of the Marble Calendar of Naples with
its ninth-century record of S.'s commemoration on 29. April. An
English-language translation of the Marble Calendar of Naples is here:
http://www.ucc.ie/milmart/naples.html
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post, revised)
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