medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Friday, March 31, 2006 at 9:06 pm, Phyllis wrote:
> Today (1. April) is the feast day of:
> Mary of Egypt (5th cent.?)
Eastern churches celebrated Mary on various days in early April; so too
the early medieval West (the Marble Calendar of Naples, for example, has
her on 9. April). Usuard's Martyrology lists her for 2. April; in time
that became her customary feast day in the Latin West. Her present
listing in Roman Calendar follows that of various Byzantine synaxaries
and also the Typikon of Mar Saba (whose first manuscripts are said to be
of the twelfth century). The oblong temple in Rome on north side of the
Piazza della Bocca della Verità and now variously identified as that of
Fortuna Virilis or of Portunus was dedicated to her as a Christian
church in 872. Deconsecrated in the 1920s, it was then restored as an
ancient monument. Some views follow, first one of the building's state
prior to restoration:
http://www.robertfrew.com/images/F26261.jpg
and then more recently:
http://tinyurl.com/fjhan
http://www.romeartlover.it/Vasi94f2.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/fn5mj
The last illustration on this page is a view of a fifteenth-century
fresco of M. (attired, as is traditional, in nothing but her long red
hair) in one of the free-standing chapels on the grounds of the abbey at
Novalesa:
http://www.abbazianovalesa.org/S_Maria.htm
Today is also the feast day of Venantius of Delminium (d. ca. 251?;
today's Duvno in Croatia) and other martyrs of the early church in
Dalmatia and Istria. Pope John IV (640-642), a Dalmatian whose
father's name was Venantius, had V.'s relics brought to Rome and laid to
rest at the Lateran baptistery in an oratory dedicated to him but
honoring a number of saints of this region. That oratory is now the
Cappella San Venanzio. A distance view of its mosaic decor, completed
in the papacy of John's immediate successor, Theodore I, is here:
http://tinyurl.com/kdagp
In this view of the apse mosaic, V. is the second figure on the left
(the first being pope Theodore):
http://www.santamelania.it/arte_fede/giovbatt/imgs/img02.jpg
And here's a closer view of his face:
http://tinyurl.com/gnp4g
Best,
John Dillon
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|