medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (17. October) was and, for all I know, may yet be also the feast
day of:
Catervus (late 1st / early 2d cent., supposedly). The patron saint of
Tolentino (MC), C. had a cult that was already in existence in 1054,
when church dedicated to him is recorded as having existed there. In
1206 a local monastery of the same name is attested. By 1254 he was
being called a martyr and, whereas Boniface VIII in an indulgence of
1299 referred to him as _confessor_, he was still locally held to be a
martyr in 1474, when he is first recorded as Tolentino's patron saint.
A late medieval Vita (BHL 1656 b and c; 13th-cent.?) makes him the son
of noble parents who heard Peter and Paul preach at Rome; according to
this hardly credible document, C. exercised the office of praetorian
prefect and was married early to a highly placed Roman named Septimia
Severina, with whom he lived his life in chaste wedlock. He preached,
performed miracles, and converted many in Rome, in the Holy Land, and
finally at Tolentino in the March of Ancona, where he was martyred for
his faith. Septimia Severina saw angels carrying C.'s soul off to
heaven; his mortal remains she placed in a sculpted marble tomb that
the Vita describes in some detail.
That description, though in places inaccurate, is hardly fanciful. For
the sarcophagus exists (it has a place of honor in Tolentino's
cathedral of San Catervo) and its inscriptions, misread and/or
misinterpreted in the Middle Ages, together with its Christian
iconography clearly formed the basis for C.'s cult. This was the
resting place of the late fourth-century former praetorian prefect
Flavius Iulius Catervius, of his wife Septimia Severina, and of their
son Bassus; Septimia Severina had it made for her husband and,
ultimately, for herself: they are depicted on it together in marital
union:
http://www.termesantalucia.it/tolentino_dintorni/images/arte/foto3.jpg
An Adoration of the Magi from the same sarcophagus is shown here:
http://tinyurl.com/8ybtd
There is not the slightest evidence, by modern standards, that any of
the occupants was particularly saintly.
According to an inscription on the sarcophagus, Catervius died on 17.
October of some year; hence his feast day. Septimia Severina was
celebrated liturgically at Tolentino on 27. November (the Vita makes it
clear that both husband and wife were saints). An inspection of the
sarcophagus in 1567 yielded remains of Bassus as well; he came to be
celebrated on 25 October.
The sarcophagus is shown and discussed in Josef Wilpert, _I sarcofagi
cristiani antichi_ (Roma: Pontificio istituto di archeologia cristiana,
1929-36), vol. 1, pp. 7, 90-91 and plates 72, 73, and 94. Its
inscriptions are at _CIL_, IX. 5566; they are given again in the
preface to Hippolyte Delehaye's posthumously published edition of the
Vita: "Saints de Tolentino: La _Vita Sancti Catervi_," _Analecta
Bollandiana_ 61 (1943), 5-48. D.'s acidulous comments on this text
make lively reading.
Best,
John Dillon
PS: Another medieval monument (besides Tolentino's cathedral, rebuilt
in the 1830s now bearing C.'s name is Toletino's Torrione San Catervo,
a thirteenth-century macchiolated tower that was once part of the
city's walls. It served as the Austrian command post at the battle of
Tolentino in 1815, where Murat's defeat insured Hapsburg dominance in
the north of Italy and Bourbon restoration in the south. Two views are
here:
http://tinyurl.com/a3n7j
http://www.comune.alessandria.it/napoleon/immagini/79.jpg
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