medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (3. January) is also the feast day of:
Daniel of Padua (d. ca. 304?). On 26. December 1075 in the suburban
monastery of Santa Giustina at Padua an ancient marble sarcophagus was
unearthed and declared to contain the remains of a hitherto unknown
Daniel, deacon and martyr. On 3. January of the following year the
city's bishop effected a translation of the saint in his sarcophagus to
Padua's then cathedral; within a week, he compensated Santa Giustina by
commissioning and donating to the monastery an oratory dedicated to D.
Probably not very long thereafter an account of this invention and
translation was written (BHL 2090); surviving in shorter (late eleventh-
century) and longer (after 1117) versions, this linked D. to Padua's
legendary protobishop saint Prosdocimus and placed his martyrdom in the
second century; modern scholars think it more likely that D. was a
victim of the Great Persecution. A twelfth-century sequence belonging
to D.'s cult is said to be Padua's oldest surviving example of
religious poetry.
Padua's basilica of Santa Giustina:
http://tinyurl.com/dc4jj
was severely damaged in an earthquake in 1117 and has since been
rebuilt several times. Its late antique Oratorio di San Prosdocimo
contains a reconstructed pergola shown here:
http://www.abbaziasantagiustina.org/abbazia/orario.htm
and in several of the views here:
http://tinyurl.com/aslw8
The site of the oratory to D. granted in 1076 is now occupied by
Padua's church of San Daniele:
http://tinyurl.com/ajz2z
In 1592 D. was translated to Padua's present cathedral. He is one of
Padua's patron saints. Probably his most famous monument is his statue
by Donatello executed between 1445 and 1450 as part of the decor of the
high altar of Padua's basilica of Sant'Antonio. A view of the entire
ensemble, with D. at upper right:
http://www.wga.hu/art/d/donatell/2_mature/padova/2altar01.jpg
There's a full-length front view of this statue in the _Bibliotheca
Sanctorum_, vol. 4, at col. 475; partial views are here:
http://santiebeati.it/immagini/Original/90275/90275.JPG
http://tinyurl.com/cbu2c
For further reading:
Attilio Simioni, _Storia di Padova_ (Padova: Giuseppe e Pietro Randi,
1968), esp. pp. 111, 188-91, 208.
Ireneo Daniele, "Daniele di Padova, santo, martire,", in _Bibliotheca
Sanctorum_, vol. 4 (1964), cols. 474-76.
idem, "Le due leggende sull'invenzione e traslazione del corpo di san
Daniele levita martire padovano," _Atti e memorie dell'Accademia
patavina di scienze lettere ed arti_, n.s., 98 (1984-1985), 81-114.
idem, "Analisi critica delle due leggende sull'invenzione e la
traslazione del corpo di san Daniele, martire di Padova," ibid., n.s.,
100 (1987-1988), 25-44.
Andrea Tilatti, _Istituzioni e culto dei santi a Padova fra VI e XII
secolo_ (Roma: Herder, 1997), esp. pp. 167-203, 292-301.
Best,
John Dillon
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