medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (30. May) is the feast day of:
1) Gavinus of Porto Torres (d. 303??). One of the genuine ancient martyrs
of Sardinia, Gavinus (Gabinus; Italian: Gavino; Sardinian: Ainu [three
syllables]) occurs twice in the (pseudo- )Hieronymian Martyrology, once
under today and again on 25. October; thanks to the relatively late
documentary tradition of medieval Sardinia, it is this latter that has
become there G.'s accepted _dies natalis_ and major feast day. Today is
G.'s day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
G.'s place of martyrdom is recorded as Turres in Sardinia, i.e. the
ancient Turris Libyssonis, medieval Torres, and modern Porto Torres
(SS). His Passio (BHL 3291j) is late (early 12th-cent.) and unreliable;
so too an Inventio (BHL 3291k; 13th- or 14th-cent.) that links him to
two local saints of 27. October, Protus and Januarius. These texts,
which make G. out to have been a Roman soldier martyred during the
Diocletianic persecution, refer to, and are surely to be associated
with, G.'s ex-cathedral at Torres (once the capital of the Sardinian
judicate of that name), initially built in the eleventh century and
expanded to its present length in the twelfth, when it assumed its
present profile with an apse on either end. A series of predecessor
churches on the same site is said to go back as far as the fifth
century; the locale itself was a Roman-period cemetery whose
pre-Christian and Christian inscriptions are now housed in the
antiquarium at Porto Torres.
S. Gavino is Sardinia's largest "romanesque" church. Its ornamental
main portal is fifteenth-century "gothic". Brief accounts of this
building are here, in Italian:
http://www.ilportalesardo.it/monumenti/ssportotorres.htm
http://www.giroscopio.com/itinerari/sardegna3.html#1
http://www.shardanas.net/dettagli_da_visitare.asp?id_record=7
and in English:
http://www.stintino.net/Churches.htm
Exterior and interior views of various features and details are
here (click on "Porto Torres (Ss), S.Gavino do Torres"):
http://web.tiscali.it/romanico/flumenar.htm
And a sequence of photographs of important features is here (the last
two show the early modern polychromed catafalque of the three martyrs):
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/010
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/011
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/012
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/013
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/014
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/015
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/016
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/web/000/foto.asp?url=109/017
G. has been and is venerated in several parts of the island. St. Gregory
the Great in a letter of 599 refers to an abbess Gavinia at a monastery
of saints Gabinus and Luxorius in the diocese of Cagliari. The present
parish church of S. Gavino at San Gavino Monreale (VS) dates to the
fourteenth century and is noted for its sculptural representations of
later medieval judges of Arborea (though, just as in the case of the
Swabian royals at Bitonto, which individuals are represented is somewhat
controversial). See:
http://web.tiscali.it/sangavinos2k/chiese/sgavino.htm
http://www.international.rai.it/cristianita/santi/gavino/chiesa.shtml
http://www.ilprovinciale.it/ilprov/sgavino/present.htm
Eleanor of Arborea may even be buried in this church. See:
http://www.bibliotecadisangavino.net/arrogus.asp?m=4&a=2002
(In case anyone has forgotten, Sardinia was divided in the central and
later Middle Ages into four tiny monarchies whose rulers were called
judges. This Eleanor -- there were others -- ruled the judicate of
Arborea from 1383 to 1404 and is famous for her resistance to Aragonese
attempts at conquest.)
The oldest literary text we now have in Sardinian is Antonio Cano's
mid-fifteenth-century _Sa Vitta et sa Morte, et Passione de sanctu
Gavinu, Prothu et Januariu_. This has recently been edited by Dino
Manca (Cagliari: Centro di Studi Filologici Sardi; CUEC, 2002) with
good bibliography on other hagiographic writings on Gavinus. P. G.
Spanu's _Martyria Sardiniae: I santuari dei martiri sardi_ (Oristano:
S'Alvure, 2000) has a Latin text of G.'s Passio (last critically edited
by Giancarlo Zichi [Sassari: Chiarella, 1989]).
2) Dympna (d. 7th cent., supposedly). D. (also Dymphna) has a
legendary thirteenth-century Vita (BHL 2352) by Peter, a canon of
Cambrai, that follows local tradition in making her the daughter of a
Celtic king who fell in lust with her because of her resemblance to her
mother. Spurning all opportunities for incest, D. and her confessor
St. Gerebernus fled to Gheel in today's Belgium and were there
martyred by D.'s father, who had pursued them. In the thirteenth
century D.'s relics at Gheel were credited with miraculous cures, also
recorded by canon Peter. She is the patron saint of the mentally ill.
3) Joan of Arc (d. 1431). The adjudged heretic J. was burned at the
stake in Rouen in 1431. In 1456 pope Calixtus III overturned her
conviction. J. was canonized in 1920.
Best,
John Dillon
(Gavinus lightly edited from an older post)
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