medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (7. April) is the feast day of:
1) Hegesippus (d. later 2d cent.). H. was a convert from Judaism who preached orthodoxy against the Gnostics and whose impulse to collect authentic Christian traditions took him from the East, where he had been based, to Corinth and to Rome during the papacy of St. Anicetus (ca. 155 - ca. 166). Eusebius preserves fragments of his _Hypomnemata_ ('Memorabilia') including a lengthy passage on the death of James the Just.
2) Calliopius (d. ca. 305). Calliopius was a Christian of Perge in Pamphylia who during the Great Persecution presented himself voluntarily at Pompeiopolis in Cilicia. After being severely beaten he was crucified upside down.
3) George of Mytilene (d. 787?). G., who from his seat at Mytilene was metropolitan of Lesbos, was memorably kind to fellow iconophiles exiled to his island during Iconoclast persecutions. In the hagiology of the island he is also revered for his generosity to the poor.
4) Hermann Joseph (d. 1241). H. is said to have been a native of Köln who at an early age developed an exceptionally strong devotion to the BVM and who spent a lot of time at his city's church of St. Maria im Kapitol. According to his later thirteenth-century Vita (BHL 3485), on one occasion the the young H., who had been praying before an icon of the Virgin, offered her an apple he was carrying. Whereupon the Virgin, not wishing to disappoint, reached her hand out from the portrait and took the present gratefully. Herewith some views of St. Maria im Kapitol (consecrated, 1065; very badly damaged in World War II):
http://tinyurl.com/2s53ex
http://tinyurl.com/2r8uhw
http://tinyurl.com/373msl
At the age of twelve H. tried to enter the Premonstratensian abbey at Steinfeld (in today's Kreis Euskirchen in Nordrhein-Westfalen) as a monk. That offer was declined because of H.'s youth but the young saint was kept on and after the passage of time and the experience of a remarkable vision was allowed to make his profession. With the exception of a brief and early stint in Frisia he spent the remainder of his life first at Steinfeld and later, as spiritual advisor to a convent of Cistercian nuns, at nearby Zülpich, experiencing all the while yet more visions and making himself beloved through his mildness of spirit and his acts of charity. H. is also said to have been exceptionally chaste and for that reason to have been called Joseph by some of his fellows. H. didn't care for this at first but accepted the name once it had been confirmed to him by the BVM in an apparition.
H. was canonized in 1958. His relics are kept in a tomb in the middle of the abbey church:
http://tinyurl.com/ywcm7a
http://www.kloster-steinfeld.de/bilder/steinfeld.jpg
http://www.aachen.city-map.de/city/db/041602011602.html
http://tinyurl.com/2ymbmq
An illustrated (black-and-white), German-language history of the abbey (Salvatorian since 1923) and of its church is here:
http://www.wisoveg.de/wisoveg/zeitveith/steinfeld.html
Best,
John Dillon
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|