medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (7. May) is the feast day of:
1) Domitian of Maastricht (d. ca. 560). The Gallo-Roman D. (also D. of Huy) was the successor of St. Eucharius in the see of Tongeren (Tongres). That town being in decline, D. moved the seat of his diocese to Maastricht. He evangelized in the Maas (Meuse) valley. D. is credited with the foundation of several churches, including one dedicated St. Servaas (Servatius) in Maastricht itself. Another may have been the predecessor of the collégiale Notre-Dame at Huy in today's Belgium, which has his relics. The latter have been radiocarbon-dated to between 535 and 640.
An illustrated, French-language page on D.'s reliquary shrine at Huy is here:
http://tinyurl.com/2s64mu
D.'s bust on this object:
http://tinyurl.com/yw2wur
http://tinyurl.com/2ukck8
An illustrated, French-language page (views expand slightly) on the fourteenth-/fifteenth-century Collégiale Notre-Dame de Huy is here:
http://socart.ibelgique.com/collegiale-huy.htm
A page of expandable views:
http://www.belgiumview.com/belgiumview/tl2/view0000364.php4
Single views:
http://tinyurl.com/2j27wu
http://tinyurl.com/36ulvy
2) John of Beverley (d. 721). According to Bede, John was educated at St Hilda's monastery of Streanaeshalch (later, Whitby). In St. Theodore of Canterbury's division of Northumbria into four dioceses (687), J. received Hexham, a see he held until 706 (during which time he ordained Bede first as deacon and later as priest). In 706 he became bishop of York. He resigned because of ill health either in 718 (traditional) or ca. 714 (modern scholars) and spent his remaining years at his monastery of Inderawuda (later, Beverley). Bede related various miracle stories of J.; Alcuin promoted his cult. Today, his _dies natalis_, has been his principal feast day since at least the ninth century. In 1037 J. was canonized by the then archbishop of York, who translated his remains to a new shrine at the rebuilt Beverley Minster.
J. was known as a healing saint. Post-Conquest miracle collections indicate widespread renown. J. also gained a military reputation. At the Battle of the Standard near Northallerton in 1138, where the English forces were led by the archbishop of York, his banner was flown along with those of St. Peter, St. Wilfrid, and St. Cuthbert. It seems to have been thought particularly efficacious, for in the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries it was J.'s banner that accompanied Yorkshire levies taking the field for England. Agincourt occurred on the feast of John's translation (25. October), whereupon J. was made a patron of the royal house and both his feasts were made obligatory for all England. J.'s shrine was destroyed ca. 1541.
Later tradition made J. a native of Harpham in today's Yorkshire. Here are some views of its medieval church dedicated to him:
http://tinyurl.com/39c5q5
http://tinyurl.com/2ussbp
http://tinyurl.com/2ofafq
J. has a nearby holy well (view expandable):
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=8243
And here are some views of his originally twelfth-century church at Salton, North Yorkshire:
http://tinyurl.com/22avd2
http://tinyurl.com/yo97d6
The present Beverley Minster (at Beverley, Humberside) was begun in 1220 and completed in 1425. It is now dedicated to St. John the Evangelist and to St. Martin of Tours. Some single views:
http://tinyurl.com/2fsog7
http://tinyurl.com/3c58t3
http://tinyurl.com/2882lj
http://www.northeastengland.talktalk.net/BevMinster.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/2d76s4
http://tinyurl.com/27u4zv
http://www.answers.com/topic/beverley-minster-jpg
A page of expandable views:
http://tinyurl.com/23vsp
3) Heilika of Niedernburg (Bl.; d. 1020). H. (also Helga) was a member of the upper nobility of Bavaria. In 1010, when she was about fifty-five years old, she became abbess of a women's monastery near Passau at a place that quickly became known as Niedernburg ('Lower Town') and that now is a section of Passau proper. Although she is often said to have entered the community then as a recent widow, what she was doing before 1010 is unknown. It is quite possible that she was already in religion, for in addition to enriching her house with important gifts from Henry II (who removed the monastery from episcopal jurisdiction) and to rebuilding structures said to have been badly damaged by the Hungarians she is said to have introduced into it the Benedictine Rule.
The abbey's church contains the grave of the Bl. Gisela of Hungary (d. ca. 1060), widow of king Stephen and that country's first queen. She is somewhat dubiously said to have been H.'s niece. After her husband's death she became abbess at Niedernburg. G.'s grave site with its eleventh-century tombstone was further monumentalized in the early fifteenth century in response to an increase in pilgrims from Hungary. Herewith some views:
http://www.shbapa.bayern.de/images/Giselakapelle.JPG
http://hvanilla.sakura.ne.jp/passau/image/passau33.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/2lmgq5
http://tinyurl.com/2l7ubl
Best,
John Dillon
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