medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (31. March) is the feast day of:
1) Balbina (d. early 2d cent., supposedly). A church on the Aventine is dedicated to B. This is first documented either from the end of the fifth century or else from the later sixth century (the former dating depends upon the church's identification with a _titulus Tigridae_). Its original honoree may have been either the B. of the cemetery of Balbina in the Catacombs of St. Calixtus or the B. whose burial in the cemetery of Praetextatus is recorded in the legendary and synthesizing Passio of pope St. Alexander I. The latter makes her the virgin daughter of St. Quirinus, tribune of Rome, martyred under Hadrian, and in some form was the source for Usuard's entry for B. in his Martyrology.
Rome's titular church of Santa Balbina has been restored to an approximation of its late antique self (less later decor, including an early thirteenth-century floor by Giovanni Cosmati). An English-language page on it is here (expandable views):
http://www.pnac.org/station_churches/church_days/wk2d3.htm
Individual views (exterior):
http://tinyurl.com/3cw22h
http://tinyurl.com/3ynybt
Individual views (interior):
http://tinyurl.com/2kwpnu
Cosmatesque chair:
http://tinyurl.com/2mukxq
2) Agilolf of Köln (d. 752?). A. (Agilulf, Agilolph) became bishop of Köln in 745 or 746. He is documented in a letter from pope St. Zachary as a participant in St. Boniface's synod of 747. In 1062 archbishop Anno II (St. Anno of Köln) translated from Malmédy the relics of a sainted abbot of Stavelot (Stablo)-Malmédy said to have been assassinated for having opposed the succession of Charles Martel (who had been born out of wedlock). The _Passio s. Agilolfi_ (BHL 145) and other eleventh-century writings (_Translatio s. Quirini_; _Triumphus s. Remacli_) equate these two saints. Henceforth Köln had a martyr-bishop. From the twelfth-century onward Köln has celebrated A. on the date of this translation, 9. July. Different dates have been given as his _dies natalis_. Today, the date used in late medieval expanded versions of Usuard, is A.'s day of commemoration in the RM.
In Köln A.'s relics were housed in the church of Sankt Maria ad Gradus; it was from a lectionary of this church that A.'s Passio was printed in the _Acta Sanctorum_. The same church's Agilolph altar, created at Antwerp ca. 1520 and since disassembled, passed much later into the possession of the cathedral chapter of Köln. The cathedral's English-language description of it is here:
http://www.koelner-dom.de/index.php?id=16703&L=1
and here, courtesy of Chris Laning's Paternosters blog
(http://paternosters.blogspot.com/2006/01/ring-around-collar.html/),
is a view of a predella panel showing depicting sufferers seeking relief at A.'s late medieval shrine:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/claning/90424753/
An expandable view of another panel from this altar is here:
http://tinyurl.com/yto7lz
Best,
John Dillon
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