medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (10. June) is also the feast day of:
Maximus of Aveia (d. 250 or 251, supposedly). Today's less well known
saint of the Regno is the principal patron of the city and the diocese
of L'Aquila (AQ), whose cathedral is dedicated to him. According to his
brief Passio (BHL 5829; said to have come from St.-Germain-des-Pres), M.
was a deacon who suffered martyrdom in the province of Asia; in an
expanded Passio (BHL 5847) he is said to have been from Aveia, the
ancient Roman city of the Vestini located not very far from L'Aquila
(which latter is where this Passio comes from). As M. is also said in
Usuard (the only early matryrology to mention him) to have suffered
martyrdom _Apud Aviensem provinciam_, the general assumption has been
that Aveia was meant and that BHL 5829's _apud Asiam provinciam_ is
erroneous. _Aviam_ or _Aviensem_ would certainly be the _lectio
difficilior_. But as that place was never a Roman province, it seems at
least possible that someone in the early Middle Ages localized an Asian
martyr M. in central Italian Aveia, near to the _Civitas Sancti Maximi_
(today's Civita di Bagno; identified in BHL 5847 with Forcona) where M.
was venerated as the local saint of a bishopric transferred to L'Aquila
in the thirteenth century.
The Asian saint of BHL 5829 is in that text said to have suffered
martyrdom on 14. May, whereas in all his early sources the M. said to be
of Aveia is given a laying to rest on either 19. or 20. October (he's in
the _Acta Sanctorum_ under 19. Oct.). But at L'Aquila his feast appears
to have been celebrated today since shortly after 1360; as he now
appears in several Italian calendars as a saint of 10. June, I presume
that this is also where he has wound up in the latest version of the
Roman Martyrology.
M.'s remains were transferred to L'Aquila in 1413 and installed in that
city's cathedral (destroyed in the earthquake of 1703 and replaced by
today's neoclassical structure). Also from the fifteenth century comes
a forged charter with a slightly overwritten and obviously fictitious
account of a visit, prompted by M.'s miracles, that Otto I is alleged to
have made to Forcona and of a miraculous vision that he is said to have
experienced there; for details, see the Commentarius Praevius in the
_Acta Sanctorum_'s treatment of our saint.
The URL given below has a photograph (on p. 1) of the exterior of
L'Aquila's present cathedral of San Massimo as well as views of other
structures (some medieval) and of local scenery from L'Aquila and
vicinity (all the way to Sulmona on p. 6):
http://www.turismoaq.com/cartoline.php
Best,
John Dillon
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