medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (13. August) is the feast day of:
1) Pontianus of Rome and Hippolytus of Rome (d. ca. 236). Little is
known about P. other than that when he became pope there was an ongoing
schism in the church at Rome. The leader of the opposing faction was
the well-known theologian H. The emperor Maximinus Thrax exiled both of
them to Sardinia, where, according to the _Liber Pontificalis_, P. at
least was put to work in the mines and where, apparently, they both soon
died. The _Depositio Martyrum_ of 354 tells us that Pope St. Fabian
gave them honorable burial at Rome on 13. August of some year in his
pontificate (236-50). The author of the _Passio sancti Polycronii_
(first version, late fifth-century?) used this date for the _dies
natalis_ of the martyr H. drawn to death by wild horses in the legends
of St. Lawrence (d. 258). From at least this point onward, confusion
between that H. (already memorably celebrated by Prudentius in
_Peristephanon_, 11) and the H. now celebrated today was rampant.
Further complicating the picture were traditions of other Roman martyrs
named Hippolytus, particularly one who had a memorial basilica at Portus
Romanus (later Porto, near today's Fiumicino airport). Until the
calendar reform of 1969, the Roman Martyrology used 13. August for the
legendary H. of Prudentius and of the _Passio s. Polycronii_ and 22.
August for our H., characterized as a bishop of Porto. Pontianus used
to be celebrated separately on 19. November.
Sorting out the various martyrs named H. is not a task for the
faint-hearted. There is a good, recent overview of the problem in Part
I, "Hippolytus in Christian Tradition" of J. A. Cerrato's _Hippolytus
between East and West. The Commentaries and the Provenance of the
Corpus_ (Oxford Univ. Pr., 2002). A .pdf of that discussion is
available at:
http://www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-924696-3.pdf
Cerrato's chief aim, though, is to distinguish among the authors of the
various third-century theological writings attributed to an Hippolytus,
all or almost all of which at one time or another have been attributed
to our H. For an overview, see this summary by Eugene V. Afonasin in
the _Bryn Mawr Classical Review_:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2003/2003-10-02.html
Some of the "western" H.'s writings are listed, and his paschal formula
is inscribed, on an ancient statue of a seated figure discovered in 1551
near San Lorenzo fuori le Mura (and thus near our H.'s recorded burial
location on the Via Tiburtina). When found, this sculpture had lost its
head and the upper part of its torso. These were then restored to
produce the figure shown here, long identified as St. Hippolytus bishop
of Portus:
http://www.answers.com/topic/hippolytus-jpg
The statue has recently been shown to have been originally a female
figure. Its discoverer was Pirro Ligorio, famous for his forgeries of
inscriptions said to have been found at Porto.
An illustrated account, in several languages, of H.'s basilica at Portus
and of its transformation into a medieval church by Callistus II
(1119-24) is here:
http://www.fiumicino-online.it/aabasilicasantippolito.htm
Futher views:
http://www.wap-rome2000.com/aabasilicasantippolito.htm
http://www.romeartlover.it/Porto5.jpg
2) Cassian of Imola (?). Our first testimony to this martyr's existence
is Prudentius' _Peristephanon_, 9, in which the poet recounts his visit
to C.'s shrine at Forum Cornelii (today's Imola in the Romagna) and
describes the picture there of his martyrdom. According to this
account, C. was a teacher who endured a slow and painful martyrdom of
his non-Christian students who stabbed him repeatedly with their
styluses. Later legend made C. the apostle of Sabiona in the Tirol,
subsequently exiled to his place of martyrdom. C.'s cult spread widely
in north central Italy. St. Peter Chrysologus, Ravenna's first bishop
(d. 450), had a special devotion to this regional martyr. Imola's first
cathedral is said to have been built over C.'s tomb; it and its
successors have always been dedicated to him. Perhaps the best known of
the many other medieval dedications to C. is the originally
eleventh-century church of San Cassiano in Pennino at Predappio (FC) in
the Romagna:
http://www.appenninoromagnolo.it/foto/predappio/foto/sancassiano.jpg
http://weecheng.com/europe/bologna/pred9.jpg
, whose fame, such as it is, derives from Benito Mussolini's being
interred in his family tomb here. The gate leading to this precinct is
medievalizing:
http://weecheng.com/europe/bologna/pred5.jpg
By the sixteenth century the Roman church was celebrating on this day a
joint feast of Hippolytus of Rome and Cassian of Imola.
Best,
John Dillon
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