medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (4. October) is the feast day of:
Thomas of Celano (Bl.; d. ca. 1260). Today's fairly well known
not-yet-saint from the Regno was born around 1190 in the Marsican town
for which he is named. A relatively early follower of Francis of
Assisi, he was commissioned by Gregory IX in 1228 to write a life of the
saint, which he did; in the 1240s he then wrote a second using anecdotes
and other material either previously omitted or not yet supplied at the
time of the first writing. Known for convenience as the _Vita prima_
and the _Vita secunda_ of Francis, these were supplanted within his
order by Bonaventure's _Legenda maior_ (1263) but survived a subsequent
Franciscan directive that they be destroyed. T.'s other uncontested
writings include a treatise on the miracles of St. Francis and the
sequence _Sanctitatis nova signa_. Controversially attributed to T. is
the prose _Legenda sanctae Clarae virginis_ (1255-56) written for the
canonization of St. Clare; possibly her contemporary _Legenda
versificata_ is by him as well. It was once customary to assign to T.
the famous sequence _Dies irae_, but the latter's textual history and
relatively early style of versification are against this.
In his last years T. was chaplain to the convent of Poor Clares at
today's Valdevarri, a locality of Sante Marie (AQ) in Abruzzo. He was
buried there but in the sixteenth century his remains were removed to
the Franciscan church of S. Francesco in Tagliacozzo (AQ), where they
are today. Here's an illustrated, Italian-language account of this originally
thirteenth-century structure (rebuilt in the fifteenth century and later
modified):
http://tinyurl.com/24tpjz
The rose window:
http://tinyurl.com/22nofv
Main portal (originally fifteenth-century):
http://tinyurl.com/2avx8e
http://tinyurl.com/293rae
http://tinyurl.com/24muu9
T.'s relics on display:
http://tinyurl.com/267hu3
His ashes:
http://tinyurl.com/yq65ed
A cloth said to have been used to wrap T.'s body:
http://tinyurl.com/2ypodw
4. October is T.'s day of remembrance among the Franciscans; at Celano
he is celebrated on the second Sunday of this month.
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post lightly revised)
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