medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (14. June) is the feast day of:
1) Fortunatus of Naples (d. ca. 345?). Today's less well known saint of
the Regno was, according to the _Chronicon episcoporum s. Neapolitanae
ecclesiae_, Naples' ninth bishop, the immediate successor of St.
Ephebus/Euphebius (23. May) and the immediate predecessor of St. Maximus
(11. June). Readers of the _Chronicon_ will remember that some of its
stylish little elogia are tricked out with an initial anaphoric keyword:
Paul's (the fifth bishop) is 'mirabilis', Ephebus' is 'pulcher', and
F.'s is 'sanctissimus'. We are told nothing about him other than that
he lived a very holy holy life and engaged unceasingly night and day in
very holy prayers that he might attain the kingdom of heaven.
F. was buried in a basilica dedicated to him near the catacombs of St.
Gaudiosus. This church was ruinous in the early seventeenth century
when the ecclesiastical historian Bartolomeo Chioccarelli saw in it
frescoes, painted in what he called a Greek manner, depicting F. and
his successor Maximus in their episcopal vestments. The Marble
Calendar of Naples gives today as the date of his deposition. In the
first half of the ninth century F. was translated to the Stefania, an
episcopal basilica replaced at the end of the thirteenth century by the
present cathedral. The Neapolitan _Ordo ad unguendum infirmum_
used in the tenth and eleventh centuries includes F. in its litany of the
city's sainted bishops.
In 1589 the Capuchins of Naples found under their church of Sant'Efremo
(now Sant'Efremo Vecchio) what they announced as F.'s remains, along
with those of Sts. Ephebus/Euphebius and Maximus; in this they were
guided by a now lost inscription (our sources differ as to whether this
were on a marble tablet or a lead plaque) proclaiming two of these sets
of relics as those of F. and of M. deposited by a bishop Paul who has
not been securely identified. A formal recognition was followed by a
reburial under this church's main altar. When F.'s cult was confirmed
in 1872, celebrations took place both in the cathedral and in
Sant'Efremo Vecchio.
2) Methodius I, patriarch of Constantinople (d. 847). M. is Sicily's only
ecumenical patriarch. He moved early to New Rome, became a monk,
and entered the service of patriarch Nicephorus I, going into exile with
him in 815 because of their opposition to iconoclasm. For the next six
years M. was in the West, mostly at Rome. Specimens of his scribal
activity survive from this period. See Paul Canart, "Le patriarche
Methode de Constantinople copiste a Rome," in _Palaeographica,
diplomatica et archivistica. Studi in onore di Giulio Battelli_ (Roma: Ediz.
di storia e letteratura, 1979), vol. 1, pp. 343-53.
Also during this period M. journeyed to Reichenau, where his name was
inscribed in the monastery's _Liber confraternitatum_. Here it is, in
column A, two lines below NOMINA:
http://tinyurl.com/34eh75
That's from the digital MGH (http://www.dmgh.de/) presentation of
Johanne Autenrieth, Dieter Geuenich und Karl Schmid, hrsg., _Das
Verbruederungsbuch der Abtei Reichenau_ (Hannover: Hahnsche
Buchhandlung, 1979; MGH Libri mem. N. S., 1), facsimile p. 4 (the
facsimiles are at the end of section V: Nachweis der nicht von den
anlegenden Händen geschriebenen Texte.
M. returned to Constantinople only to run into serious difficulties with
the emperor Michael II, who had him exiled to an island (where he was
badly treated) for seven years. He was recalled by the emperor
Theophilus (829-42). In 843 T.'s _de facto_ successor, the regent
Theodora, deposed the last iconoclast patriarch, John VII, and elevated
M. to the patriarchate in his stead.
There's a brief notice of M. with bibliography in the Dumbarton Oaks
Hagiography Database at:
http://tinyurl.com/gwkfe
That account does not mention M.'s religious verse. As he's celebrated
on the same day as his fellow Sicilian-by-birth, the enormously prolific
Joseph the Hymnographer, it's perhaps easy to forget that Methodius too
was a liturgical poet. See Enrica Follieri, _Initia hymnorum Ecclesiae
graecae_ (Citta' del Vaticano: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1960-66;
Studi e testi, 211-215 bis), vol. 5, pt. 2 (index), p. 293.
Nor does it mention Elpidio Mioni, ed., "L'encomio di S. Agata di
Metodio patriarca di Costantinopoli", _Analecta Bollandiana_ 68 (1950),
58-93 [text on pp. 76-93]. There is a Latin version of this encomium in
Migne, _Patrologia Graeca_, vol. 100, cols. 1271-92.
Best,
John Dillon
(Fortunatus and Methodius revised from last year's posts)
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