medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (9. October) is the feast day of:
1) Domninus of Fidenza (d. ca. 304, supposedly). D. is the martyr and patron saint of Fidenza (PR) in Emilia, anciently Fidentia and for most of the Middle Ages (and indeed until 1927) Borgo San Donnino. His legendary Passio (several versions; BHL 2264, etc.), certainly older than the ninth century, makes him a chamberlain (_cubicularius_) of Maximian who crowns him daily, converts to Christianity, flees Milan, is pursued by the emperor's servants, is arrested and executed by decapitation on a bank of the river Stirone, picks up his severed head, crosses the river, and lies down at his burial site a stone's throw away from the bank on the other side. Miracles follow and a cult arises. Later versions speak of a period of neglect followed by an inventio and translatio.
D. now reposes in the crypt of the twelfth- and thirteenth-century archipretal church of Borgo San Donnino (a cathedral since 1601). An English-language account of this building, which has some very fine sculptural decoration by Benedetto Antelami and others, is here:
http://tinyurl.com/2w924g
Some exterior views:
http://tinyurl.com/382xos
http://www.museidelcibo.it/allegato.asp?ID=50411
http://web.tiscali.it/italfilatel/cattre.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/2jkeuc
http://tinyurl.com/2regcq
http://www.cattedrale.parma.it/allegato.asp?ID=209118
http://www.pedrosite.it/images/003/File0128.JPG
Some interior views:
http://www.clonline.org/image/20anniFrat/fidenza/fidenza1.jpg
http://www.clonline.org/image/20anniFrat/fidenza/fidenza2.jpg
Two pages of (mostly) expandable views of the exterior sculpture are here:
http://tinyurl.com/2snehd
http://tinyurl.com/2q96k2
Here's a view of the relief showing D. as cephalophore (at right, crossing the river):
http://tinyurl.com/2wea52
On those two pages the sculptures are described in Italian. An English-language summary of the scenes of D.'s Passio (shown in two places on the second of the foregoing pages) will be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/37flb8
2) Deusdedit of Montecassino (d. 834). Today's less well known saint of the Regno became abbot of Montecassino in 828. Reputed for learning and for piety, he was ejected a mere six years later by the then prince of Benevento, Sicard, who coveted the abbey's lands and revenues. Sicard also had him imprisoned. D. did not last long, dying on this date from what is said to have been a combination of abuse and starvation. He was buried at the abbey, where his tomb soon became a site of miraculous cures (reported by the late ninth-century Cassinese monk Erchempert in his history of the southern Lombards).
Best,
John Dillon
(Deusdedit of Montecassino lightly revised from last year's post)
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