medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (12. August) is the feast day of:
Euplus (d. 304). E. (in Latin also Euplius, in Greek also Eupolos, in
Siculo-Calabrian dialects Opolo, and in modern italian Euplio) was a
martyr of Catania during the Great Persecution. He became a saint
of the Regno at some time prior to 1284, when he was already
formally the patron of the town that since perhaps the eleventh century
has possessed his supposed relics, today's Trevico (AV) in Campania.
We have both Greek and Latin acta for E. (BHG 629-30e; BHL2728-30d),
all forms of which seem ultimately to derive from a common source in
which excerpts of the transcripts of two official hearings dealing with E.
have been fitted into a brief narrative frame, presumably for liturgical
reading. The basic data are that E., who was in a crowd of suspected
Christians awaiting processing by a magistrate, shouted aloud that he
was a Christian and that he wanted to die. He was also holding in one
hand a book containing the Gospels (proscribed by one of Diocletian's
edicts). Brought before the magistrate and quizzed about this, he read
from the Gospels and added that what he was holding was a copy of the
law of his god. E. was bound over for trial and sent to jail for the interim.
Appearing again before the magistrate on the following 12. August and
asked if he still possessed the Gospels, E. responded affirmatively,
suggesting that the manner of his present possession was through his
having memorized them. Sentenced to beating until he should sacrifice
to the gods of the state, E. underwent considerable torment before
dying of his injuries. Developed versions of the story make E. a deacon
and expatiate on his torture.
E. is listed for today in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, in the
Marble Calendar of Naples, and in the historical martyrologies. His cult,
attested in Sicily in the sixth century and at Rome beginning in the
seventh, was widespread in southern Europe in the early and central
Middle Ages. In the twelfth century, when Catania had been returned to
Christian rule, E. was declared one of his city's major patrons along with
St. Agatha and St. Leo of Catania. I've been unable to find on the free
Web a view of E.'s late eleventh- or early twelfth-century portrait in the
mosaics of the Dafni monastery near Athens, but here's a view of his
portrait in the monastery of Sv. Leontie (St. Leontius) at Vodoca in
today's Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (3d row down, far right;
left click to expand):
http://www.mpc.org.mk/English/sGal.asp?nk=vodo*a&Page=2
The site this comes from is certainly worth a visit:
http://www.mpc.org.mk/English/mpc/Strumica/vodoca.asp
Catania, as is well known, has several churches built over the presumed
locations of sites mentioned in the acta of its more famous martyr, St.
Agatha. From the thirteenth century onward it also had one over the
presumed site of E.'s imprisonment and martyrdom, though initially this
church was dedicated to St. Anthony Abbot (a confraternity naming both
saints was instituted in 1510 but the church was not formally dedicated to
both until a rebuilding in the seventeenth century). Views of its crypt,
constructed in an ancient Christian necropolis, are here (the church above
was reduced to rubble by Allied bombing in 1943):
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/192/192-01-02-17-2201.jpg
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/192/192-12-58-47-1868.jpg
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/192/192-01-01-12-2943.jpg
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/192/192-12-59-58-1911.jpg
The remains of the church and the hypogeum are indicated as no. 1 on this
interactive map of downtown Catania's archaeological area:
http://tinyurl.com/9ttlq
And a brief, Italian-language description of the site is here:
http://tinyurl.com/af4f6
E.'s longtime home is Trevico's ex-cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta.
The present structure dates from the early fifteenth century and has been
much rebuilt. The frescoes in its crypt include a portrait of St. William of
Vercelli, the principal patron of Irpinia; significantly, they seem not to
include one of E. A brief, Italian-language account of the recently
restored church, now an Italian national monument, is here:
http://www.studieupliani.it/home.html
Further views:
http://tinyurl.com/e5ypm
http://tinyurl.com/l8ctt
http://www.trevico.net/altari_en.html
http://www.trevico.net/cripta_en.html
http://www.trevico.net/dett_abside_en.html
Here's E. on display in the church:
http://tinyurl.com/2l2dn9
When E.'s putative remains were formally examined in 2005 they
turned out to be those of three people: a young man, a woman,
and a boy:
http://tinyurl.com/yvbemn
A very recent study, containing _inter alia_ an extremely valuable
bibliography and an admittedly free translation into modern Italian of
what is thought to be the oldest of the several versions of E.'s acta
(BHG 629) but not always documented as well as one would like, is
Maria Stelladoro, _Euplo/Euplio martire. Dalla tradizione greca
manoscritta_ (Cinisello Balsamo: Ediz. San Paolo, 2006).
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post revised)
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