medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (27. August) is the feast day of:
1) Rufus of Capua (?). Today's less well known saint of the Regno is
entered for this date in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology as
follows: _in Capua natale Rufi_ (some witnesses have _in Campania_
instead). Other early liturgical sources from the Gelasian Sacramentary
onward list him for today; as is their wont, he appears in these and in
many calendars without geographic specification, as he also did in the
now lost mosaics of the late 5th-/early 6th-century church of St. Priscus
at today's San Prisco (CE) in Campania, an extramural survivor from
Old Capua. The historical martyrologies from Bede onward identify him
with increasing amounts of detail as the patrician Rufus whose daughter
is said by Agnellus of Ravenna to have been cured by St. Apollinaris of
that city. In this tradition, which dates him to the Neronian persecution,
R. is regularly said to have suffered martyrdom at Capua.
An alternative tradition, present in all but the first of the Capuan
calendars published by Michele Monaco in his _Sanctuarium Capuanum_ of
1630 and reflected as well in the thirteenth-century legendary of Bovino,
makes R. a bishop of Capua who suffered under Diocletian and/or
Maximian and gives him a companion in martyrdom, Carponius (sometimes
referred to as Carpophorus). One version of their acta (BHL 7378) may
be read in the _Acta Sanctorum_. Prior to its revision of 2001 the RM
distinguished this pair from the earlier R. in two separate listings for
27. August.
Capua's church of Santi Rufo e Carponio (as it is now called) is said to
be documented as already existing in 1053. Later in the eleventh
century it passed to the Benedictines of Montecassino, who made
modifications and who added the present belltower. In 1641 reliquary
niches were carved into the interior of its main apse; worked over some
more in the eighteenth century, the building has recently been restored
in a way that permits more of its medieval fabric to be seen. The
columns of its nave are spolia. A brief Italian-language description
with a few thumbnail views is here:
http://www.capuaonline.it/storiadicapua/srufoecarponio/
I have been unable to find on the Web any views of either this church's
12th-century pavement in _opus sectile_ or its surviving frescoes dated
to the same century.
Two views of the originally late eleventh- or early twelfth-century
church of San Rufo at Piedimonte di Casolla (CE) in Campania, first
documented from 1113:
http://www.terra-nostra-caserta.it/territ43.jpg
http://www.terra-nostra-caserta.it/territ42.jpg
R. is the patron saint of the town of San Rufo (SA) in southern
Campania's Vallo di Diano, thought to be a thirteenth-century foundation.
2) Monica (d. 387; formerly celebrated on 4. May). The mother of
tomorrow's St. Augustine of Hippo needs no introduction to this list.
Herewith views of her death scene at Ostia as imagined by Benozzo
Gozzoli in his fresco cycle on A. (1464/65) in the church of
Sant'Agostino at San Gimignano (SI) in Tuscany:
http://www.abcgallery.com/G/gozzoli/gozzoli99.html
http://www.abcgallery.com/G/gozzoli/gozzoli101.html
Other depictions of M. in these frescoes will be found in the reproductions here:
http://www.abcgallery.com/G/gozzoli/gozzoli-3.html
http://www.abcgallery.com/G/gozzoli/gozzoli-4.html
http://www.abcgallery.com/G/gozzoli/gozzoli-5.html
M. spent most of the Middle Ages at Ostia, residing in the church of Santa
Aurea. See:
http://www.ostia-antica.org/dict/south/saurea.htm
Best,
John Dillon
(Last year's post lightly revised)
**********************************************************************
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
|