medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Monday, May 2, 2005, at 10:00 pm, Phyllis wrote:
> Today (3. May) is the feast day of:
> Juvenal (d. c. 376) Juvenal was a priest and physician from
> somewhere in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. He migrated to
> Italy and became first bishop of Narni. He saved the city with his
> prayers, when a massive downpour drowned 1000s of invading barbarians.
According to his Life as printed in the Acta Sanctorum (BHL 4614;
Papebroch's conflation of several related texts), J. came to Italy from
Africa; no indication is given that he had ever been anywhere else. The
same Life's treatment of the invading enemy makes them not barbarians
but rather North Italian descendants of previous occupants of the site
who had been driven out in the days of Augustus. Their end is
accomplished in truly spectacular fashion: not just rain, but also
thunder and lots of lightning bolts, plus jets of water rising up from
dry ground and, finally, the earth opening up and swallowing 3000 of them.
Real Cecil B. de Mille stuff. The same version of events is recounted,
in rather less detail, in the sequence in J.'s honor printed in the Acta
Sanctorum from a Narni missal; if memory serves, this or something very
like it also occurs as one of the later additions in the central Italian
hymnary formerly known as the _Hymnarius Severinianus_, most of whose
contents appear to have already been in existence by the early tenth
century. Phyllis' source seems by contrast to have been drawing on a
modern, rationalizing version more interested in relating reconstructed
secular history than in representing vividly the awesome retributive
power of the God of Hosts.
Best,
John Dillon
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