medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (23. December) is the feast day of:
Servulus of Rome (d. ca. 591). Our sole source for S. is Gregory the Great (_Hom._ 1. 15; _Dial._ 4. 15). S. was a poor paralytic who begged for alms in the portico of the church of St. Clement and who, being tended by his brother and his mother, regularly gave away to other poor what he himself had received. An illiterate, he knew the Bible practically by heart, thanks to his practice of buying manuscripts (Gregory's word is _codices_) of the Bible and of having people read these to him. Despite his sufferings, S. spent his days and nights singing the Psalms and praising God. Singing for the last time as he was dying, he could hear the sound of the celestial choir.
Gregory adds that S. when being buried omitted a pleasing odor of sanctity. Ado read some somewhere, or perhaps merely inferred, that S. had been buried in the church before which he begged. In the later middle ages there was on the grounds of Rome's basilica di San Clemente a separate oratory dedicated to S. This structure was demolished under Sixtus V (1585-90). For what's known about it, see Joan E. Barclay Lloyd, "The Building History of the Medieval Church of S. Clemente in Rome", _The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians_ 45 (1986), 197-223 , esp. pp. 218-20 and (marked as 'D') fig. 8 on p. 208. S.'s presumed relics are now said to repose in San Clemente proper.
The late antique basilica dedicated to St. Clement did not outlast the eleventh century. Parts of it were excavated during rebuilding work on its successor in the mid-nineteenth century. One part of the Tour at this site:
http://www.basilicasanclemente.com/
has a plan of the fourth-century basilica underneath the twelfth-century church, as well as pop-up views of structures (incl. nineteenth-century piers and vaults) and frescoes here. Three better views of early medieval frescoes on this level are Frescoes no. 10-12 on this page:
http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/cr-03/cr-01/index.html
An English-language discussion, with other fresco views, is here:
http://www.op.org/curia/sanclem/50ct05.html
http://www.op.org/curia/sanclem/50ct06.html
http://www.op.org/curia/sanclem/50ct07.html
http://www.op.org/curia/sanclem/50ct08.html
For those not afraid of Danish, there's a detailed discussion (and a plan showing the locations of all the frescoes) here:
http://tinyurl.com/ykrvps
Best,
John Dillon
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