medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (30. March) is also the feast day of:
Secundus of Asti (d. 119, supposedly). S. has long been the principal
patron saint of Asti (in today's Piedmont). According to his legendary
Passio (BHL 7562, -63, -64), he was a Roman officer of high station who
at Asti learned the rudiments of faith from the also legendary Calocerus
(Calogero), a north Italian saint particularly venerated at Brescia, and
who received baptism at Tortona from its saint Marcianus, who according
to the same legend was matryred under Hadrian. S., who while hastening
to be at M.'s side had with angelic assistance miraculously crossed the
Po in his horse-drawn conveyance, dared to bury M. For this crime he
was arrested and taken to Asti, where he was tortured, decapitated, and
buried by angels before an admiring crowd of pagans.
S.'s cult at Asti is recorded from the 9th century onward. His
principal dedication there is the originally 9th-/10th-century church of
San Secondo next to the Municipio. Rebuilt from the 13th century to the
15th, it is an essentially "gothic" structure but the upper part of the
facade is Renaissance and the main portal is of the early 18th century.
An English-language account of it is here:
http://www.piemonteonline.it/PCin_Asisansecon.htm
and two illustrated, Italian-language accounts (with expandable .jpgs)
are here:
http://www.medioevo.org/artemedievale/Pages/Piemonte/SanSecondoadAsti.html
http://www.comune.asti.it/cultura/san-pietro-consavia/spc/secondo.htm
The church is undergoing restoration. The firm handling this has a
lengthy prospectus whose table of contents is here:
http://members.tripod.com/~arcante/__a00000.htm
and whose illustrated history of the building is here:
http://members.tripod.com/~arcante/__a1110a.htm
Asti's Torre Rossa, now thought to have been a flanking tower of one of
the city's Roman-period municipal gates, served as the belltower of another
church dedicated to S. (first recorded from the 11th century). In the
structure as it now is, the base is ancient (S. is supposed to have been
imprisoned and tortured here), the middle section is an 11th-century
rebuilding, and the bellhouse is said to be of the mid-12th century.
Its adjacent church, once that of a Benedictine abbey, was replaced in
the 18th century by the present Santa Caterina, which latter may be seen
in some of these views of the tower:
http://www.lacabalesta.it/testi/comuni/asti.html
http://www.comune.asti.it/cultura/san-pietro-consavia/spc/mostre6.htm
http://www.medioevo.org/artemedievale/Images/Piemonte/Asti/DSCN3399.JPG
http://www.medioevo.org/artemedievale/Images/Piemonte/Asti/DSCN3400.JPG
The Santi Beati site offers this view of a relief of S. holding what
appears to be a medieval gate with the Torre Rossa (not yet capped by
the bellhouse) rising up behind it:
http://santiebeati.it/immagini/Original/47650/47650C.JPG
Another noteworthy dedication to S. in the general area is his
11th-/12th-century church outside of Cortazzone (AT). An illustrated,
Italian-language accounts of it is here:
http://www.mondimedievali.net/Edifici/Piemonte/SanSecondo02.htm#sch
a set of views is here:
http://www.mondimedievali.net/Edifici/Piemonte/SanSecondo.htm
and further details may be seen here:
http://www.dismec.unige.it/san_secondo/esterno.htm
http://www.dismec.unige.it/san_secondo/arte.htm
The figure on the right in this church's apse fresco (variously said to
be of the 13th or of the 14th century) is a depiction of S.:
http://www.mondimedievali.net/Edifici/Piemonte/sansecond19.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
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