medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (1. October) is the feast day of, among others: Mirian III (d.
361) and his queen, Nana (4th century), the first Christian rulers of
Georgia; Remigius of Reims (Rheims; d. ca. 533), who baptized Clovis,
king of the Franks; Romanus the Melode (d. ca. 560), famous for his
kontakia and other hymns; Bavo of Gent (Ghent; d. 659), the city whose
cathedral, dedicated to him, houses a celebrated altarpiece by Jan van
Eyck; and the blessed Angelo of Sansepolcro (d. 1306), Augustinian
Hermit and thaumaturge.
Until the revision of the Roman Martyrology in 1969 today was also its
day of remembrance for Severus of Orvieto, priest and confessor (d. 303
or shortly thereafter, supposedly). S. entered the RM in the late
sixteenth century when cardinal Baronio listed him for the Kalends of
October on the basis of unspecified ancient monuments of the church of
Orvieto (in today's Terni province of Umbria). Not finding more
persuasive documentation, subsequent scholars of repute (e.g., Lanzoni,
Delehaye, Agostino Amore) have supposed that Baronio was here referring
to one or more of the texts in the complex BHL 7683-7685, sometimes
referred to as the Passion of this Severus. These purvey a story (dated
by Lanzoni to somewhere from the sixth to the eleventh century) that
draws so much on those of Sts. Severus of Antrodoco and Severus of
Ravenna and has so little to offer that is unique (other than this S.'s
Orvietan place of sepulture) that it defies credence. The usual guess
is that the account so transmitted was created to document the S. to
whom the Orvietan abbey of Sts. Severus and Martirius was dedicated, but
who these were originally thought to have been is unknown.
It is not even clear that S. was celebrated medievally on 1. October;
Baronio may have picked this date as a counterpoint to that of Severus
of Antrodoco on 1. February.
The aforementioned Orvietan abbey, on the other hand, is rather better
documented. Whereas its foundation is sometimes said to go back to the
eighth century, in the form in which it exists today it really begins in
the late eleventh century, when it was a project of the famous Matilda
of Tuscany (1046-1115). A wealthy institution in the twelfth,
thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, it was Benedictine until 1221,
Premonstratensian from 1226 to 1423, and Olivetan for a while after
that, though it never really rebounded from the military destruction it
suffered in the early fifteenth century. Its present owners have
restored parts of it and now run it as an hotel. Two distance views of
the abbey are here:
http://www.maserati-alfieri.co.uk/enthusiast39/bci-orvieto-055a.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/a9tn7
A somewhat closer view:
http://www.labadiahotel.it/IMG/cov01.jpg
Some black-and-white detail views follow (from the Courtauld, using
"thirteenth century" as the master date for all views of structures in
this complex). The abbey's eleventh-century church was reoriented in
the fourteenth century; the first of these views shows its absidiole
above a pronaos on the building's west side:
http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/cb14e699.html
Exterior view, porch and monastic building:
http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/210372f1.html
Porch:
http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/7cd4dd14.html
Ruin:
http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/8cd00f72.html
Tower (said to have been begun in the eleventh century and to have been
completed in 1103):
http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/4b0803ba.html
And a few in color:
http://www.labadiahotel.it/IMG/F_storia02.jpg
http://www.labadiahotel.it/IMG/F_storia03.jpg
http://www.labadiahotel.it/IMG/F_storia3_04.jpg
http://www.labadiahotel.it/ENG/T_home.htm
In 1282 St. Thomas Cantilupe, bp. of Hereford, died near Orvieto. His
body was taken to this abbey, where most of his flesh was interred
while his heart and bones were preserved for transport back to England:
http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/adversaries/bios/tcantilupe.html
Among the fourteenth-century frescoes is the earliest known depiction
of St. Norbert, the founder of the Premonstratensians:
http://www.snc.edu/knightlife/archive/spring2000/fresco.html
Returning for a moment to the architecture, the abbey's belltower may
seem familiar to those who have been in the medieval upper city of
Orvieto. There's a very similar one of the same vintage next to S.
Andrea (thanks to a restoration in 1926, this looks much healthier than
the one at the abbey in the countryside down below):
http://tinyurl.com/cu5vw
http://www.italianstay.com/pictures_of_Italy/images/sandrea.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post, revised)
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