medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (25. October) is also the feast day of:
Gavinus of Porto Torres (d. 303??). One of the genuine ancient martyrs
of Sardinia, Gavinus (Gabinus; Italian: Gavino; Sardinian: Ainu [three
syllables]) occurs twice in the (pseudo- )Hieronymian Martyrology, once
on 30. May and again today; uniformly supported by the relatively late
documentary tradition of medieval Sardinia, it is this latter that has
become G.'s accepted _dies natalis_. A traditional Sardinian way of
referring to October is to call it G.'s month, _San(c)tu Gavini_ or
_San(c)tu Aini_.
G.'s place of martyrdom is recorded as Turres in Sardinia, i.e. the
ancient Turris Libyssonis, medieval Torres, and modern Porto Torres
(SS). His Passio (BHL 3291j) is late (early 12th-cent.) and unreliable;
so too an Inventio (BHL 3291k; 13th- or 14th-cent.) that links him to
two local saints of 27. October, Protus and Januarius. These texts,
which make G. out to have been a Roman soldier martyred during the
Diocletianic persecution, refer to, and are surely to be associated
with, G.'s ex-cathedral at Torres (once the capital of the Sardinian
judicate of that name), initially built in the eleventh century and
expanded to its present length in the twelfth, when it assumed its
present profile with an apse on either end. A series of predecessor
churches on the same site is said to go back as far as the fifth
century; the locale itself was a Roman-period cemetery whose
pre-Christian and Christian inscriptions are now housed in the
antiquarium at Porto Torres.
S. Gavino is Sardinia's largest "romanesque" church. Its ornamental
main portal is fifteenth-century "gothic". Brief accounts of this
building are here, in Italian:
http://www.ilportalesardo.it/monumenti/ssportotorres.htm
http://www.giroscopio.com/itinerari/sardegna3.html#1
http://www.shardanas.net/dettagli_da_visitare.asp?id_record=7
and in English:
http://www.stintino.net/Churches.htm
Exterior and interior photographs of various features and details are
here (click on "Porto Torres (Ss), S.Gavino do Torres"):
http://web.tiscali.it/romanico/flumenar.htm
And a sequence of photographs of important features is here (the last
two show the early modern polychromed catafalque of the three martyrs):
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/010
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/011
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/012
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/013
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/014
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/015
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/016
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/017
G. has been and is venerated in several parts of the island. Gregory
the Great in a letter of 599 refers to an abbess Gavinia at a monastery
of saints Gabinus and Luxorius in the diocese of Cagliari. The present
parish church of S. Gavino at San Gavino Monreale (CA) dates to the
fourteenth century and is noted for its sculptural representations of
later medieval judges of Arborea (though, just as in the case of the
Swabian royals at Bitonto, which individuals are represented is somewhat
controversial). See:
http://web.tiscali.it/sangavinos2k/chiese/sgavino.htm
http://www.international.rai.it/cristianita/santi/gavino/chiesa.shtml
http://www.ilprovinciale.it/ilprov/sgavino/present.htm
Eleanor of Arborea may even be buried in this church. See:
http://www.bibliotecadisangavino.net/arrogus.asp?m=4&a=2002
(In case anyone has forgotten, Sardinia was divided in the central and
later Middle Ages into four tiny monarchies whose rulers were called
judges. This Eleanor -- there were others -- ruled the judicate of
Arborea from 1383 to 1404 and is famous for her resistance to Aragonese
attempts at conquest.)
The oldest literary text we now have in Sardinian is Antonio Cano's
mid-fifteenth-century _Sa Vitta et sa Morte, et Passione de sanctu
Gavinu, Prothu et Januariu_. This has recently been edited by Dino
Manca (Cagliari: Centro di Studi Filologici Sardi; CUEC, 2002) with
good bibliography on other hagiographic writings on Gavinus. P. G.
Spanu's _Martyria Sardiniae: I santuari dei martiri sardi_ (Oristano:
S'Alvure, 2000) has a Latin text of G.'s Passio (last critically edited
by Giancarlo Zichi [Sassari: Chiarella, 1989]).
Best again,
John Dillon
PS: Porto Torres has a couple of ancillary sites connected with Gavinus'
cult. As in the better known case of Agatha's churches in Catania,
these give physical expression to significant moments in the saint's
Passion: his execution and his laying to rest (along with Protus and
Januarius) by the Christian community of Torres. A webpage from the
archdiocese of Sassari showing these:
http://www.diocesi.sassari.it/sgavino.html
also has photographs of:
remains of the fifth century chapel underlying S. Gavino:
http://www.diocesi.sassari.it/DSCN5142mini.jpg
a reused capital from the same chapel:
http://www.diocesi.sassari.it/DSCN5132mini.jpg
a marble lunette, showing a hunting scene, from a "romanesque" portal on
the church's north side (replaced by that side's fifteenth-century portal?):
http://www.diocesi.sassari.it/DSCN5133mini.jpg
an exterior view of the north side:
http://www.diocesi.sassari.it/DSCN5123.jpg
an exterior view of the east apse:
http://www.diocesi.sassari.it/DSCN5122.jpg
an interior view through the nave to the west apse:
http://www.diocesi.sassari.it/DSCN5126.jpg
the seventeenth-century catafalque of the three martyrs (different view
from those above):
http://www.diocesi.sassari.it/DSCN5128.jpg
and the early seventeenth-century martyrium in front of the crypt (from
the _corpi santi_ episode, when Sassari was battling Cagliari for the
primacy of Sardinia):
http://www.diocesi.sassari.it/DSCN5139mini.jpg
(Last year's posts, lightly revised)
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