medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (27. September) is also the feast day of:
Deodatus (??), venerated at Sora. Today's perfectly obscure saint from
the Regno is in fact venerated rather well upstream from Sora (FR), but
in the same diocese, at San Giovanni Valle Roveto, a _frazione_ of
today's San Vincenzo Valle Roveto (AQ) located near the headwaters of
the Liri in Italy's central Appennines. The question marks in the
parenthesis after his name could easily be multiplied. Not only are
his approximate dates unknown but so also are virtually everything else
about him apart from his name, his veneration at this locale, and
evidence (noted below) indicating that his cult there is at least late
medieval in origin.
In 1617 the bishop of Sora, Girolamo Giovannelli, discovered in the
church of St. John in the aforementioned Valle Roveto community of the
same name an altar inscribed in "Gothic letters" to a Deodatus and
bearing in relief a depiction (since dated to the fourteenth century)
of the dedicatee. The latter, Giovannelli learned, was from time
immemorial (_a tempore immemorabili_) celebrated annually on 27.
September with a mass from the common of confessors with the collect
for an abbot. The altar, which according to Giovanelli had not been
been mentioned in accounts of previous episcopal visitations, had a
_fenestella_ cut into it, indicating that the body of a saint might be
present; the altar was removed and, sure enough, remains were found in
a largely disintegrated burial case tucked away down below. A formal
recognition followed and Giovannelli had a new chapel constructed in
the church (now San Giovanni Vecchio) to house a new altar that he then
had built for D. On 4. June 1618 the bishop, who had procured a papal
indulgence for those present at this event, translated D. (now enclosed
within a suitably dressed effigy) to his new resting place above this
altar; at the same time, he saw to it that the portion of the old altar
bearing D.'s inscription and relief was mounted there in a visible
location.
D.'s display coffin and effigy are still present at San Giovanni Valle
Roveto; a view of them is here:
http://tinyurl.com/85bwu
and a page on the church, including an unfortunately not-yet-expandable
thumbnail of the relief from D.'s old altar, is here:
http://www.sezione8.terremarsicane.it/chiesemonu/sang.htm
The "Santi Beati" website carries an unattributed account of D. that
identifies him with the abbot of Montecassino whom prince Sicard of
Benevento deposed in 834 in order to get his hands on the abbey's
treasury and who died imprisoned in Benevento on 9. October of the same
year:
http://www.santiebeati.it/search/jump.cgi?ID=91167
Both this identification and the assertion that Montecassino's abbot
saint Bertarius (d. 883) hid D.'s body at San Giovanni Valle Roveto in
order to protect it from Muslim raiders are undocumented speculation.
Best,
John Dillon
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