medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Yesterday (5. June) was also the feast day of:
Eutichius of Como (d. 539). E.'s name is often normalized classically
as 'Eutychius'. But his marble tombstone, now preserved in the Civici
Musei di Como, shows the common late antique practice of using an 'i' in
names of Greek origin where the vowel in Greek had been upsilon. The
inscription on this stone, which was found in the 1870s in Como's church
of St. Abundius, tells us that E. was a bishop, that he was aged 57 at
his death, and that he was laid to rest on the nones of June in the year
539.
The liturgical tradition of Como is said to make E. a native of that
city and a man given to solitary prayer. It's not clear to me how old
this tradition is: Pietro Gini in his entry on E. in the _Bibliotheca
Sanctorum_ (V, cols. 321-22) calls it 'antichissima' but forgoes any
closer temporal indication. Detailed information on E.'s place of birth
is said by Gini to be in an ancient ('antico') liturgical hymn honoring
the saint. None of this documentation seems to have been known to the
Jesuit scholar Fedele Savio when he wrote the account of E. in a
posthumously published volume (_La Lombardia_, II, pt. 1, pp. 286-87;
appeared in 1929) of his still very useful _Gli antichi vescovi d'Italia
dalle origini al 1300 descritti per regioni_. An early modern account
of A. offering the same particulars is characterized by Savio as
obviously legendary ('apertamente leggendario'). I find not find either
in Ughelli's account of E. in the _Italia Sacra_ (V, col. 260) or in the
_Analecta Hymnica_ any hymn honoring our saint. Does anyone on this
list know where such a composition exists and, if so, whether it has
been published?
When E. was laid to rest among his predecessors in what became
Sant'Abbondio the church on the site was still the ancient basilica of
Sts. Peter and Paul. Sant'Abbondio itself is a more recent structure,
originally of the eleventh century. As we missed a look at it on
Abundius' feast day (2. April), here's an Italian-language
account with expandable views:
http://www.romanicomo.it/comoabbondio.htm
In the later Middle Ages (opinions vary as to whether this was in the
thirteenth century or the fifteenth) E. was translated to Como's church
of St. George in the neighborhood (medievally, a suburb) where he is
said to have been born. There was a lay confraternity in his honor and
in 1295 a pilgrim hospice named for him existed next to this church. E.
now reposes in San Giorgio in a marble sarcophagus of the late
thirteenth or fourteenth century whose three historiated panels are
illustrated in photographic reproduction atop Gini's aforementioned
article in the _Bibliotheca Sanctorum_. There's also a partial view
among the non-expandable thumbnails accompanying this six-page,
Italian-language account of the church:
http://www.sistemalagodicomo.it/chiese.php?n=C&s=Como&id=408&p=1
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
|