medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (15. April) is the feast day of:
1a) Paternus of Vannes (Paterne; 5th cent.)
1b) Paternus of Wales (Padarn; 6th cent.)
Our knowledge of these two saints, both commemorated today, derives from a single Vita (BHL 6480) seemingly written around 1120 at Llanbadarn Fawr near Aberystwyth, the site of the Welsh saint's major cult center. This is an account of the Welsh saint calqued upon one of his Breton homonym into which had flowed details relating to a third saint of this name, Paternus of Avranches (now celebrated on 16. April). Being both late and composite, it doesn't tell us much that's reliable about either P. The Breton one is the traditional first bishop of Vannes (Morbihan) and one of Brittany's seven founding saints.
An English-language version of the Vita s. Padarni is here:
http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/padarn.html
An introduction to, and views of, the church of St Padarn, Llanbadarn Fawr, Aberystwyth:
http://www.stpadarns-llanbadarn.org.uk/
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/stpadarns-english/exterior.html
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/stpadarns-english/interior.html
Leaving shadowy father-figures, we may turn to a saint (or two, husband and wife) whose surviving accounts raise interesting questions of gender in the representation of sanctity:
2) Huna of Hunawihr (d. 7th cent.). H. (Hunna, Hune) is the very legendary saint of today's Hunawihr (Haut-Rhin) in Upper Alsace. We first hear of her in the probably eleventh-century Vita (BHL 2131, 2132) of St. Deodatus, bp. of Nevers, the founder of the monastery (later, canonry) of Saint-Dié at today's Saint-Dié-des-Vosges (Vosges). Here we are told that Huno, a member of the higher nobility of the kingdom of Burgundy, founded Hunawihr (Hunaweier) and resided there with his wife Huna, erecting a church which he gave to his friend Deodatus. According to BHL 2131, at the time of its writing Huno along with his holy wife (_cum conjuge sancta_) were shown buried in the church and miracles proved that both were in heaven. Apart from the Vita, Hunawihr is variously said to be first recorded either from 1114, when it is listed as a possession of the canons of Saint-Dié, or from 1279.
Later medieval legend, dispensing with Huno, tells that the noble Huna, neglected as a child, associated with the servants in her castle and even did the washing with them. She is further said to have been married to a brutal husband when she came of age, to have entered a convent to preserve her virginity, and to have spent her life humbly assisting the sisters in their work. In 1520 the duke of Württemberg (to whom Hunawihr then belonged), the bishop of Basel, and the canons of Saint-Dié got the latter's former provost, now Leo X, to permit a formal elevation of H.'s relics at Hunawihr (again, no mention of Huno), thus effectively canonizing her.
An illustrated, French-language introduction to Hunawihr's fortified, late medieval église Ste-Hune is here:
http://www.alsace-visite-guidee.info/hunawihr.htm
And an English-language one, focusing on its mural paintings, is here:
http://tinyurl.com/2hj5dk
Other views of the church:
http://www.airshoot.com/agran/gdref12.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/2vut3d
Also now rather shadowy is:
3) Nidgar (Nidker) of Augsburg (d. after 829). N. is documented as bishop of Augsburg in 822 and in 829. His _dies natalis_ is either today (so a funerary inscription) or else 27. September (the Necrology of Augsburg's monastery of St. Ulrich). His relics in Sts. Ulrich and Afra in Augsburg are said to have been the subject of a formal elevation in 1064 and to have been venerated in the All Saints' Chapel there until well into the seventeenth century. The Roman Catholic site Kirchensite.de cautiously calls him "Seliger (Heiliger)", i.e. "Blessed (Saint)".
N. is credited with laying the first stone of the then monastic church of St. Magnus (St. Mang) in Füssen in today's Landkreis Ostallgäu in southwestern Bavaria. Most of the present (parish) church dates from the early modern period:
http://www.thomaswikman.org/images/basilica.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/3bstkh
But the crypt (an expansion of two pre-existing structures) goes back in part to N.'s time. Views of some of the medieval aspects of this church will be found in this illustrated, German-language introduction to it:
http://tinyurl.com/33l5qz
Augsburg's present Basilika St. Ulrich und Afra is a late fifteenth-century building with baroque overlay. Some distance views (those at the second location are expandable):
http://www.st-ulrich-und-afra.de/
http://tinyurl.com/3d3um5
and an illustrated, German-language page with expandable interior and exterior views is here:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilika_St._Ulrich_und_Afra
Best,
John Dillon
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