medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Thursday, January 19, 2006, at 7:36 pm, Phyllis wrote:
> Today (20. January) is the feast day of:
>
> Eustochia Calafato (d. 1468) Eustochia was a Sicilian from the
> area
> of Messina; she too was the offspring of a wealthy merchant couple.
Or perhaps not so wealthy. A brief, Italian-language account from the
Vatican characterizes them succinctly as 'modesti lavoratori'. See:
http://snipurl.com/lqwu
"Popular" accounts of E. often say that her parents were nobles of
comital rank (thus proving that some hagiographic stereotypes never
die). There's actually a fair amount of documentation about the family.
See Francesco M. Terrizzi SJ, "Documenti relativi alla 'Vita' della
Beata Eustochia Calafato", _Archivum Franciscanum Historicum_ 58 (1965),
280-329; 61 (1968), 464-68.
> E. (baptized Smeralda) grew up beautiful and virtuous. Her father
> and brothers wanted to marry her off, but she succeeded in becoming
> a
> Poor Clare. She lived a life of extreme renunciation, got involved
> with the Observant reform, and became abbess of a new convent at
> Montevergine. E. died at the age of 35. Her body is still
> incorrupt, encouraging a cult. The cult was confirmed in 1782 and
> E.
> was canonized in 1988.
Since the well known abbey and Marian sanctuary of Montevergine near
Avellino (AV) in Campania has always been Benedictine, the author(s) of
Phyllis' source probably did not think that their learned readers would
mistake it for the Franciscan E.'s convent at the not nearly so well
known Messinese locale of the same name. E.'s fifteenth-century church
now sports a seventeenth-century facade and lots of eighteenth-century
interior decor; views of it and of the adjacent convent building (1634;
restored, early twentieth century) are here:
http://www.torrese.it/Chiesa_di_%20Montevergine.htm
That's the very upright E. in the photo at the lower left. Here's
another view of her:
http://santiebeati.it/immagini/Original/38340/38340.JPG
And here she is again, in close-up:
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sainte42.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
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