medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (6. April) is the feast day of:
1) Marcellinus (d. 413). Flavius Marcellinus was a high-ranking imperial official sent in 411 to Africa, where his older brother Apringius was governor, to settle the Donatist controversy. M. became good friends with St. Augustine, who dedicated to him Books 1-3 of _The City of God_. Jim O'Donnell has an overview of the friendship and its documents here:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/augustine/151intro.html
M. and his brother treated the Donatists with considerable severity. Some of their victims got their revenge by persuading a Roman general sent to put down a rebellion that the brothers had been among the rebel's supporters. For that they were arrested, tried, and -- notwithstanding an appeal on their behalf from Augustine -- convicted and swiftly executed. M. is considered a martyr.
2) Celestine I, pope (d. 432). C. is said to have been a native of the Roman Campagna. A deacon of the Roman church, he is addressed with great respect in a letter from St. Augustine of 418. In 422 he succeeded pope St. Boniface I. At Rome C. suppressed the remaining Novatianists, taking away their churches and forcing them to meet in private homes. He restored the basilica that became Santa Maria in Trastevere (this had suffered damage in Alaric's sack in 410). During his pontificate the basilica that replaced the original _titulus Sabinae_ was built on the Aventine; we know it now as Santa Sabina. Here are some views:
http://tinyurl.com/23e6yq
http://tinyurl.com/2cusxc
http://tinyurl.com/38gm2y
http://tinyurl.com/3y6vay
http://tinyurl.com/3xtx7d
And here's an illustrated, English-language page on its much restored, originally fifth-century wooden door:
http://bstorage.com/Rome/Sabina/
A multi-page, illustrated, English-language introduction to Santa Sabina is here:
http://www.op.org/international/english/Curia/santa_sabina1.htm
Elsewhere, C. was unsuccessful in getting the church of Africa to recognize his primacy. In 429 he sent St. Germanus of Auxerre to Britain in a campaign to suppress Pelagianism; G. was accompanied by the deacon Palladius, the first recorded Christian missionary to Ireland. C. used an appeal from St. Cyril of Alexandria to condemn Nestorius in 430 and, through emissaries, successfully pursued this course in the following year at the First Council of Ephesus.
3) Notker Balbulus (Bl.; d. 912). N. was a monk of St. Gall where he is recorded as librarian (briefly) and as master of guests (over a period of several years). A prolific writer, he the author of -- inter alia -- a martyrology and three-book metrical Vita of St. Gall (BHL 3255t) and the probable author of the _Gesta Caroli Magni_. N.'s _Liber Hymnorum_ is an early collection of sequences; many of these are of his own composition. He has a Vita (BHL 6251; ca. 1214) arising out of an unsuccessful canonization campaign. The entertaining Ekkehard IV offers anecdotes of him in his _Casus s. Galli_. N. was beatified in 1512 with a cult authorized for his monastery. In the following year his cult was extended to the Diocese of Konstanz. Here's a portrait (ca. 1070; St. Gallen) of N. as author:
http://www.abcsvatych.com/images/n/notker.jpg
4) Peter Martyr (Peter of Verona; d. 1512). The Dominican P. was an effective preacher and a tireless inquisitor in northern Italy. He was ambushed and murdered by enemies who lodged a harvesting blade of some form in his skull. His cult was virtually immediate and he was canonized in 1253. P.'s tomb is in Milan's church of Sant'Eustorgio. Created in 1335-39 by Giovanni di Balduccio, it has moved around a bit but now is housed in the church's Cappella Portinari:
http://www.santeustorgio.it/images/arcaportinari.jpg
http://www.santeustorgio.it/museo/images/Arca%20di%20S.%20Pietro.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/bclkm
A Thais page with expandable views of details from this monument:
http://www.thais.it/scultura/giovbald.htm
Another view of Temperance (one of the tomb's caryatids):
http://tinyurl.com/9glgo
Here's P. as represented (ca. 1494) by Pedro Berruguete:
http://museoprado.mcu.es/imartir.html
And here's an expandable view of an almost exactly contemporary depiction of him (at left, obviously) in a panel from Carlo Crivelli's altarpiece for the church of San Domenico at Camerino (MC) now at the Brera in Milan:
http://tinyurl.com/m4ury
Verona's largest "gothic" church is the formerly Dominican pile popularly known as Sant'Anastasia after the dedication of a predecessor on this site. Begun in the late thirteenth century, it has been dedicated to P. since 1307. Completed (except for the facade) in the fifteenth century, it was restored in 1878-81. A detailed, Italian-language account of it (and of the adjacent San Giorgetto) is here:
http://tinyurl.com/7r63z
English-language account with expandable views (mostly details):
http://www.verona.com/index.cfm?Page=Guida§ion=luoghi&id=984
Some exterior views (incl. the fifteenth-century belltower):
http://tinyurl.com/b6fxt
http://www.froehlich.priv.at/galerie/verona04/original/stf316.html
http://www.shakespeareinitaly.it/IMGP0109.JPG
Front views, with San Giorgetto at left:
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immagine:Santanastasiaverona.jpg
http://www.shakespeareinitaly.it/IMGP0098.JPG
Main portal (showing polychrome marbles):
http://www.mestieriarte.it/images/images_1/marmo/opere/verona.jpg
Main portal, sculptural details and faded frescoing:
http://www.verona.com/Data/Photos/20010620/DSC00027.JPG
http://www.verona.com/Data/Photos/20010620/DSC00026.JPG
The portal was once adorned with fifteenth-century reliefs of scenes from P.'s life; two of these remain:
http://www.aboutromania.com/verona9.html
http://www.verona.com/Data/Photos/20010620/DSC00023.JPG
http://www.verona.com/Data/Photos/20010620/DSC00024.JPG
And here's a restored P. on the trumeau:
http://www.verona.com/index.cfm?page=immagini_dettaglio&id_immagine=248
Some expandable interior views:
http://tinyurl.com/m9q8b
http://tinyurl.com/nd8s4
http://tinyurl.com/rfa2m
http://tinyurl.com/mjr8x
Best,
John Dillon
(Peter Martyr lightly revised from a previous post)
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