medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today is the feast day of pope saint Gregory I, celebrated until
recently on 12. March, his _dies natalis_. Here's Phyllis' entry on him
from last year:
"Gregory the Great (d. 604) One of the very few popes to win the
soubriquet "the great" (I can only think of Leo I and, with somewhat
less justice, Nicholas I), Gregory was the last of the four fathers
of the Latin church. He was a wealthy Roman patrician who served as
prefect of the city before converting his home into a monastery and
becoming a monk. He was soon drafted into papal service, and in 590,
much against his will, was elected pope---consecrated on this day in
590. He proved to be a splendid pontiff---a great diplomat, a
painstaking administrator, a good pastor, and even a great theologian."
Also not a bad author, the low opinion of some classicists
notwithstanding. Were they not so engagingly written, his _Dialogues_
would almost certainly not have remained the classic that they are.
James O'Donnell's "The Holiness of Gregory", a brief introduction to
this multi-faceted personality, is here:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/holiness.html
G.'s monastery of St. Andrew was erected on family property on Rome's
Caelian Hill. Its church dedicated to that apostle was rebuilt in the
twelfth or thirteenth century and again in the early seventeenth
century. Formally the Chiesa di Santi Andrea e Gregorio Magno al Celio,
it is now usually referred to simply as San Gregorio Magno (or as San
Gregorio al Celio). Adjoining its Cappella San Gregorio is a little
room traditionally held to have been G.'s cell; in it is a late Roman
chair said to have been his. Two views of the chair are here:
http://www.camaldoli.it/web_it/sg_storia/sg_storia00.htm
A brief, Italian-language account of this complex (includes three
adjacent oratories, two of which are also medieval), with indications of
surviving medieval elements, is here:
http://www.medioevo.roma.it/saggi/chiese/gregoriocelio.htm
The church of San Gregorio Magno at Ascoli Piceno (AP) is built into a
former Roman temple:
http://www.rinascita.it/rinascita_web/pag_ascoli/foto_ascoli/san_gr_m.JPG
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/c66ek
A brief, Italian-language discussion of it is here:
http://tinyurl.com/7svdb
G. is the patron saint of Vizzini (CT), whose principal church
(fifteenth-century; rebuilt in the eighteenth century) is dedicated to
him. An exterior view, showing a Catalan Gothic portal, is here:
http://www.vizzinidascoprire.it/foto/htm/mm1.htm
I can't find a Web-available interior view allowing one to see the
arcades in the nave, so instead (even though it's in no way medieval)
here's a view of this church's Cappella di San Gregorio Magno with its
unexpressive cult statue and its architecture evoking St. Peter's in Rome:
http://www.vizzinidascoprire.it/foto/htm/4.htm
Best,
John Dillon
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