medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (5. August) is the feast day of:
Paris of Teano (4th cent., supposedly). Today's less well known saint
from the Regno is the legendary first bishop of Teano (CE) in nothern
Campania, once the ancient Teanum Sidicinum and an important crossroads
town on the Via Latina. P.'s Vita (BHL 6466) is a classically informed
melange of familiar topoi featuring an evangelist of foreign origin
(Athenian), a giant serpent fed rich meals in a pagan sacred well, a
bear and a lion who become tame when each in turn is set upon our
intrepid saint, and pope St. Sylvester I hiding from Constantinian
persecution on Mount Soracte.
P.'s cult seems to be at least early medieval in origin. His church,
the recently restored San Paride ad Fontem, is an 11th- or early
12th-century structure replacing a paleochristian church. Situated
outside the medieval city and built over an ancient cistern (the sacred
well of the legend, no doubt), this is believed to have been Teano's
first cathedral. It retains an early episcopal throne. Whereas P. was
said to have been buried here, his relics are in Teano's cathedral of
San Clemente, a 17th-century replacement for an earlier cathedral
built about the same time as the present San Paride in Fontem.
Always essentially a local saint, P. seems to have been venerated from
at least the early modern period onward in other locales in northern
Campania. At present he is co-patron of the diocese of Teano-Calvi,
sharing that distinction with the equally shadowy Castus of Calvi (one
of Campania's several episcopal saints of that name).
Here's a view of San Paride in Fontem dating from before the
restoration of 1988-2004:
http://tinyurl.com/2fz2v2
A couple of more recent exterior views of the same church:
http://www.prolocoteano.it/Monumenti/San_Paride.htm
Other exterior views (images copyright Campania Tour):
http://www.campaniatour.it/immagini/ml/images/QimF_g.jpg
http://www.campaniatour.it/immagini/ml/images/dSYS_g.jpg
http://www.campaniatour.it/immagini/ml/images/UPLK_g.jpg
http://www.campaniatour.it/immagini/ml/images/NfbS_g.jpg
While we're in Teano, some views of the cathedral's cosmatesque ambo:
http://www.prolocoteano.it/Monumenti/Duomo.htm
http://www.prolocoteano.it/Monumenti/Ambone.htm
The ambo's present parapet (a replacement for the orginal, which had
been badly damaged by fire in 1608) is composed of panels taken from
a fourteenth-century funerary monument decorated with images of P. and
of other bishops of Teano.
Teano's civic Museo Archeologico has a website here:
http://www.archeona.arti.beniculturali.it/sanc_en/mavic/mate/home.html
The museum is housed in an originally late medieval building complex
that seems always to have been used for secular functions. There's an
illustrated, Italian-language account of it here:
http://tinyurl.com/2ed86r
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
|