medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (14. July) is the feast day of:
Marcian of Frigento (d. 496, traditionally). Today's less well known saint of the Regno is the legendary protobishop of the former diocese of Frigento, a suffragan of Benevento based upon today's Frigento (AV) in eastern Campania near the latter's border with northernmost Puglia. According to the Diocese of Avellino, which absorbed that of Frigento in 1529, a church dedicated to a saint M. is recorded for Frigento in a charter of San Vincenzo al Volturno from the year 754. Frigento's late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century chiesa di San Marciano, located at the edge of the medieval town and on the road connecting the latter with the Via Appia, has been conjectured to be a replacement for a much earlier church of the same dedication.
M. probably acquired his episcopal dignity late in the eleventh century or early in the twelfth. The diocese of Frigento, attested from 1061, is thought to have replaced at some point between 1057 and 1060 the long dormant diocese of Aeclanum, whose last bishop whose name we know is recorded from the year 435.
M.'s medieval Vita (BHL 5264), preserved as lections in an Office for him at Frigento copied in 1638 from what was said to have been a very old manuscript, makes him the only child of wealthy parents in Greece who grew up in the faith and who, having crossed the sea to Italy, came to Frigento where the locals welcomed him as their spiritual counselor. A bishop of Canosa, esteeming M. greatly, brought him to Rome, where a holy pope Leo consecrated M. bishop of Frigento. Canosa, a major Apulian diocese in late antiquity, was from at least the later eleventh century onward considered the predecessor of the see of Bari. If one assumes the pope to have been St. Leo I, the Vita affirms the antiquity of the diocese of upland Frigento while also emphasizing its founder's worthiness in the eyes of a bishop from a very important see in the plains below.
M.'s Vita extends the range of his influence by having him cure the demonically posessed son of a woman from Lucania and restore to life the only son of the leading man (_princeps_) of Terracina, long the southern port of entry to the papal state. For further discussion of M.'s Vita in its historical context, see Amalia Galdi, _Santi, territori, poteri e uomini nella Campania medievale (secc. XI-XII)_ (Salerno: Laveglia, 2004), section II, part 4. I'd give page numbers, but I've just returned from a trip abroad and don't wish to dash over to my university's library just in order to consult her book (whose portrayal of the historical background is doubtless better than mine).
M.'s veneration spread, not altogether surprisingly, to other towns in the region. The principal church of today's Taurasi (AV) has been dedicated to him since at least November 1260 and was said medievally to have been so dedicated in 1150 by a bishop of Frigento. Montevergine has relics said to be his. He was celebrated medievally on 14. June, still the day of his civic celebration at Frigento.
Best,
John Dillon
PS: In lieu of visuals pertinent to M.'s _medieval_ veneration, herewith the _Acta Sanctorum_'s extract from his Vespers hymn in the aforementioned Office from Frigento (in Latin, _Frequentum_ vel sim.):
Ad Marciani praesulis concurrite Christicolae
Festum, devote pariter laudes Deo concinite,
Qui fretus almo flamine caelestibus spiritibus
Arcadiis a finibus transvectus est Ausoniam.
Frequenti solum eligit, Christi praecepta consequens,
Jejuniis & precibus Regem supernum obsecrans,
Contempsit opes infimas, caducas & terrigenas,
Luxus calcavit seculi, adeptus est caelestia.
Cujusdam matris filium obsessum a daemonio,
Quem obsecrando Dominum restituit incolumem
**********************************************************************
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
|