medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Yesterday (28. September) was also the feast day of:
Grimoald of Pontecorvo (12th cent.). This less well known saint from
the Regno was archpriest of Pontecorvo, a town on the central Liri
in today's Frosinone province in southern Lazio. According to a
probably late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century account by an
unidentified bishop of Aquino (BHL 4310), at Christ's bidding John the
Baptist appeared to a peasant of Pontecorvo who was being tempted by
Satan at the river's edge and with a single word -- but with
enough noise of water that others heard this from a considerable
distance -- sent the Evil One to the bottom of the stream. John then
turned to the stupefied peasant and commanded him to betake himself to
Grimoald and to convey to him 1) the saint's promise of life among the
elect should he continue his customary fasting, praying, and giving of
alms and 2) the instruction that he should exhort his people to
construct a church in the saint's honor. Fearing to be taken for a
looney, the peasant did not immediately fulfil this command. So John
appeared to someone in another town and imposed upon him the same
mission to G. Both the peasant and the second person did finally carry
John's bidding to the archpriest, who in turn did as he was told. The
people of Pontecorvo built the church, whose cornerstone was laid in
1137 by Guarinus, the bishop of nearby Aquino.
G. will have been archpriest of Pontecorvo's church of St. Bartholomew
the Apostle, first documented from the middle of the eleventh century.
It was erected over the ruins of the local castle, one of whose towers
became the base of the cathedral's belfry. A cathedral since 1725 and
now a co-cathedral of the diocese of Sora - Aquino - Pontecorvo, it has
been rebuilt several times, most recently after its almost complete
destruction during the Allied bombardment of Pontecorvo on 1. November
1943. Three views of the cathedral shortly after this event are here:
http://tinyurl.com/mf2rd
http://tinyurl.com/noxwx
and two views of it today, with its reconstructed "romanesque" facade,
are here:
http://www.menteantica.it/pontecorvo/im560002.jpg
http://www.prolocopontecorvo.it/images/f3.jpg
BHL 4310 is a well written and in places mildly entertaining document
crafted by a person of some literary culture. It and its accompanying
hymn printed in the _Acta Sanctorum_ are derived from a now lost
lectionary in Beneventan script (so certainly medieval) from Pontecorvo.
G., whose own cult these texts do not altogether establish, was
accepted into the Roman Martyrology by cardinal Baronio on the basis of
cathedral documents from Aquino that have since disappeared. His
remains are said to have been in San Bartolomeo Apostolo since 1162;
they were accorded solemn recognition in 1760, in 1862, and in 1952. In
1892 Pontecorvo was granted a new Office of St. Grimoald and of the
Appearance of St. John. To judge from his entry (under 29. September)
in the _Santi, Beati_ website, G. no longer graces the pages of the MR.
At Pontecorvo he is now (2007) celebrated liturgically on 28. September.
The only medieval church in Pontecorvo to survive World War II largely
intact was that of San Giovannello. This has been deconsecrated and
awaits restoration. Here's a view:
http://www.prolocopontecorvo.it/S.GIOVANNELLO.htm
It's uncertain whether this church is the one whose initial construction is
documented by BHL 4310. Longstanding local tradition in Pontecorvo
identifies that church with one built in the riparian locality of Melfi to
commemorate the Appearance and thus called San Giovanni Appare. The
present church of this name is a recent replacement for a predecessor, said
to have been medieval in origin but since rebuilt and expanded, that was
badly damaged in World War II and whose remains were later washed
away by the Liri (whose violence when in flood renders unlikely the
survival of any building remnants at the site).
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post revised)
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