medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (30. September) is the feast day of:
Amatus of Nusco (d. 1093). Less is known about today's less well known
saint from the Regno than was true when the Bollandists first published
Augusti tomus VI. of the _Acta Sanctorum_ and proclaimed 31. August 1193
as the _dies natalis_ of this first bishop of the Campanian town of Nusco (AV),
the "balcony of Irpinia" (so called because of its elevated position on the
watershed between the valleys of the Ofanto and the Calore). This is because
the Bollandists' guide in this matter, Felice Renda's sixteenth-century Vita of A.,
has since been shown to be a piece of fiction falsely claiming him for
Montevergine (of which Renda was at the time prior) and making him a
disciple of the latter's founder, St. William of Vercelli. A.'s will of September 1093,
which has survived in the cathedral archives of Nusco and which was also long a
subject of controversy, was proven authentic in 1881 by the distinguished
Neapolitan archivist Bartolomeo Capasso. Here's a view of it:
http://www.mionusco.it/it/pagina556%20.jpg
Archdiocesan records at Salerno show that Nusco was one of the latter's
suffragan dioceses created during the time of archbishop Alfanus I. The
ordinary assumption is that A. was consecrated by this famous Campanian
churchman.
Both Renda's Vita and its fifteenth-century predecessor by Francesco de
Ponte (BHL 359) are now considered largely legendary, though how
legendary remains a matter of dispute. Errico Cuozzo's relatively
recent attempt to identify A. with the historian Amatus of Montecassino
has not generally been accepted but his article remains valuable as a
useful summary of the pertinent documentation and hagiographic
traditions: "Amato di Montecassino e Amato di Nusco: una stessa
persona?", _Benedictina_ 26 (1979), 323-48. Three Sapphic hymns from
A.'s Office at Nusco have survived and are certainly medieval but have
been little studied. Nusco's cathedral of Santo Stefano, now a
co-cathedral of the diocese of Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi - Conza - Nusco
- Bisaccia, has been largely rebuilt in early modern times. A.'s
remains are preserved in the crypt (perhaps thirteenth-century but
redecorated much later):
http://www.mionusco.it/it/pagina29.htm
Here's a view of A.'s effigy reliquary from an older engraving:
http://www.mionusco.it/it/Immagine%20S.Amato%209.jpg
Also in the crypt are these recently uncovered fourteenth- or
fifteenth-century Nativity scenes in fresco:
http://www.mionusco.it/it/Affreschi%20Cattedrale.htm
Some exterior views of the cathedral:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/it/5/56/Nusco_centro_storico.jpg
http://www.mionusco.it/it/pagina6.htm
Another view is here; the statue represents A. and was erected in 1893
during the octocentenary of his death:
http://www.personalfoto.it/Fotocattedralenusco.htm
Here's a better shot of him during a commemoration of the Allied
bombing of Nusco in 1943:
http://www.mionusco.it/it/pict00030.jpg
And here he is more recently and without onlookers:
http://www.mionusco.it/it/1005.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post lightly revised)
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