medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (28. May) is/was also the feast day of:
Emilius and Priam (??). The (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology lists for
today a group consisting of Emilius, Felix, Priamus, and Felicianus
(the latter sometimes given as Licianus or Lucianus), said in most
witnesses to have been martyred in Sardinia. Twentieth-century
hagiographical scholarship usually views this entry as a garbled
doublet of that for for the Roman martyrs Primus and Felicianus of 9
June and interprets the "In Sardinia" part as a mistake. Sardinians
have been a bit more accommodating on this score but even so only
Emilius and Priam seem to have been venerated on the island. Here the
two of them are the patrons of the diocese of Bosa, while P. has a
sanctuary at Lanusei (NU) and a church near Muravera (CA) and E. (under
the name "Gemiliano") has church dedications and patronal festivals at
Villanova Truschedu (OR) and at Sestu (CA) and Samassi (CA) as well as
a local legend making him (under the name "Aemilianus"/"Emiliano") a
martyred early bishop of Cagliari. Much of this recognition appears to
be no earlier than the late sixteenth century.
But the churches dedicated to Gemiliano at Sestu and at Samassi are
both from the latter half of the thirteenth century. Each replaced an
earlier church at the site and at Samassi the predecessor church with
the same dedication is attested in a charter of 1119.
An Italian-language site, with exterior photographs and a floor plan,
on the rural church of San Gemiliano at Sestu (CA) is here:
http://web.tiscali.it/itgnervi/gemiliano.htm
Most of the photographs are at the bottom of the page.
The link below that ("Torna Chiese Romaniche") brings you to a page
with links to similar treatments of other (mostly also
small) "romanesque" churches in the area.
Another Italian-language page on this church, with three photographs
(incl. an interior view of the "gothic" front portico), is here:
http://www.ilportalesardo.it/monumenti/casestu.htm
This church is said to have been reworked in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. Possibly the portico was added then (its
construction is in a style that on Sardinia was still being employed in
the early seventeenth century).
An Italian-language account, together with a photograph, of the church
of San Gemiliano at Samassi occupies the lower portion of this page:
http://www.hellosardinia.it/dicembre99.htm
The church of San Gemiliano (San Miliano) at Villanova Truschedu was
begun in "romanesque" style in the 1500s and completed in next century
in Catalan Gothic. As an example of how "medieval" building styles
continued to be used in some quarters well into the Early Modern
period, it is perhaps not entirely extralimital for this list. Various
small external views of this church are here:
http://www.oristanoedintorni.it/online/cat082.htm
http://web.tiscali.it/acres/
http://www.oristanoedintorni.it/fdg/2005/02/16.htm
Nos. 8-12 of this slide show are views (somewhat muddy) of this church
and of its baroque appointments; no 13 seems to be a modern sculptural
representation of the saint (whose mitre and crozier are enough to
dispel any confusion with an oversized garden gnome):
http://www.barigadu.it/000V_IM.asp
Best,
John Dillon
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