medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (16. April) is the feast day of:
1) The Martyrs of Saragossa (d. ca. 304). We know about a group of eighteen named martyrs of Saragossa (also Optatus and companions), put to death under Diocletian, from Prudentius, who devotes _Peristephanon_ 4 to them and _Peristephanon_ 5 to one of their number, the deacon Vincent (celebrated separately on 22. January as St. Vincent of Saragossa). Because they had companions neither whose names nor whose number is known, this commemoration was once called that of The Innumerable Martyrs of Saragossa.
A text of _Peristephanon_ 4 is here:
http://meta.montclair.edu/latintexts/prudentius/crowns4.html
2) Fructuosus of Braga (d. ca. 665). F. was a monastic founder in Visigothic Spain. His two surviving rules, one for the "Complutum" at Astorga in today's León and the other for houses that accepted entire families, are strongly ascetic. In 656 he became bishop of Bracara, now Braga in Portugal. F. has an originally late seventh-century Vita (BHL 3194, 3194a). In 1102 his miracle-working relics were removed to Santiago de Compostela, whose bishops claimed primacy over Braga.
Two illustrated, Spanish-language pages on the originally seventh-century funerary church of São Fructuoso de Montelios at Braga are here:
http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/historia/obras/9064.htm
http://tinyurl.com/33ofdz
3) Cyriac of Buonvicino (d. 11th cent., supposedly). During the tenth- and eleventh-century expansion of Greek monasticism in northern Calabria a monastery dedicated to the Theotokos appears to have arisen on a mountain spur overlooking the valley of the Corvino . By 1327 the monastery was known as the abbey of St. C., its name presumably honoring that of its founder, and its town was called Bonovicino, today's Buonvicino (CS).
The abbey survived into the early modern period (when it was latinized is not clear), bringing with it a tradition that C., today's less well known saint of the Regno, was a native of the area who once lived as a hermit in a nearby grotto and who later entered an also nearby Greek monastery (both of which are described as being in the historic territory of Buonvicino), in time becoming its abbot. His fame caused him to be called to Constantinople, where he cured the emperor's daughter of demonic possession (a narrative element probably lifted from the legendary Acta of the Cyriac of 8. August, where however the emperor is Diocletian) and whence he returned laden with imperial grants of various lands and churches. C. is said to have been buried in abbey's church, which after the abbey's closing continued to be called Santa Maria del Padre (the Padre being of course C.; compare Santa Maria del Patir at Rossano).
Though C. is also commemorated on 19. September (his _dies natalis_), his chief liturgical celebration is today, celebrating the seventeenth-century discovery of his relics in Santa Maria del Padre and their placing in a new tomb in his church. These now reside in Santa Maria del Padre's successor, San Ciriaco Abate.
C. seems never to have had a place in the Roman Martyrology. The cultural association of the diocese of San Marco Argentano - Scalea is named for him and in 1998 he was included in a series of paintings of diocesan saints that now adorns San Marco Argentano's cathedral. A much earlier testimony to C.'s cult is his sanctuary at the grotto in the Corvino valley identified as the one in which he once lived. Whereas the present _chiesetta_ is a twentieth-century building, it incorporates columns and carvings from a sixteenth-century predecessor. A distance view of the approach to the grotto is here:
http://tinyurl.com/lfhmh
and another view of the place is here:
http://www.festasanciriaco.buonvicino.net/img/17/18.jpg
Note that that statue is of a young C. A huge statue of C. as a mitred abbot overlooks Buonvicino. Though this too is modern, and thus completely off-topic for this list, it would be unfair not to share a few views of it.
Two distance views:
http://tinyurl.com/g8d4j
http://tinyurl.com/mthox
Two closer ones:
http://www.fxguidry.com/italy2003/Calabria/40.jpg
http://utenti.lycos.it/farsa2000/img6.jpg
4) Magnus of Orkney (d. ca. 1116). Magnus Erlendsson was an apparently peaceable Northman and a pious Christian who ruled Orkney as earl jointly with his cousin Haakon for about ten years until H. had him murdered. A cult sprang up, miracles occurred at his grave, and in 1137 work began at Kirkwall on a stone church to house his remains. That building is now St. Magnus Cathedral. Two illustrated, English-language introductions to it are here:
http://tinyurl.com/2zvpck
http://tinyurl.com/3avyo7
and a gallery of expandable views is here:
http://tinyurl.com/2weo9r
Relics believed to be those of M. were discovered here in 1917.
Haki Antonsson has written repeatedly on M. His book, _St. Magnus of Orkney: A Scandinavian Martyr-cult in Context_ (Brill, 2007), has been announced as forthcoming this year.
Best,
John Dillon
(Cyriac of Buonvicino revised from earlier posts)
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