medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (24. November) is the feast day of:
Chrysogonus (d. ca. 304, supposedly). Thought to have been an early martyr, C. follows St. Lawrence in the 'Communicantes' of the canon of the Roman mass. He appears under 24. November in the early sixth century Calendar of Carthage and in the later sixth-century prayers of the Leonine Sacramentary. His cult was established at Rome by the end of the sixth century, where it was localized at the _titulus Chrysogoni_ (so designated since 499 but whose name may originally have had nothing to do with the saint). C.'s legendary Passio (BHL 1795, etc.), part of the Passio of the St. Anastasia of 25. December, makes him a soldier, links him in Rome with Anastasia, and, as do also most of his entries in different versions of the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, has him martyred at Aquileia.
About twelve miles from Aquileia is today's San Canzian d'Isonzo (GO) in Friuli - Venezia Giulia. Anciently the place was called Aquae Gradatae and its local saints were the martyrs Cantius, Cantianus, and Cantianilla. In their Acta (BHL 1543, etc.) C., who is associated with them, is said to have been martyred at Aquae Gradatae. He was venerated there in late antiquity along with St. Protus of Aquileia (14. June). San Canzian d'Isonzo's fifteenth-century chiesa/cappella di San Proto, which replaced a much earlier structure, holds an empty sarcophagus inscribed with the name of the blessed martyr C. Here's an Italian-language page on this church:
http://www.isonzo.com/sancanzian/PAGE7.HTM
C. appears in sixth-century mosaics at Ravenna, both in the chapel of Sant'Andrea and, shown here, in Sant'Apollinare Nuovo:
http://tinyurl.com/y894g2
C.'s church at Rome, San Crisogono, is now an early seventeenth-century building with a twelfth-century belltower:
http://tinyurl.com/2z5jl4
http://www.romecity.it/Trastevere010.htm
Inside, it utilizes ancient columns and preserves a cosmatesque pavement from its early twelfth-century predecessor:
http://tinyurl.com/2amg8b
http://tinyurl.com/25rxdm
http://tinyurl.com/2x52vt
http://www.arte-argomenti.org/schede/marmorari/pavimento.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/y6sk6b
Ornamental details in the pavement (eagle; dragon):
http://www.romaspqr.it/roma/Foto/s_crisogono2.htm
The twelfth-century church replaced a rebuilt late antique predecessor. Substantial remains of the latter, some twenty feet below the floor level of the present church and largely to its left, were discovered early in the last century.
A journalistic account is here:
http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals/Inside/01-97/chiesa.html
Plan of the late antique and twelfth-century churches:
http://www.sanrufopostino.it/pagine/SanRufo/img/basilica.gif
Various views (keep clicking on "Next Picture" at bottom):
http://www.romecity.it/Sancrisogonopaleocristiana01.htm
One of its frescoes in the crypt (dated to the late seventh or early eighth century) is of the legendarily associated St. Anastasia:
http://s.anastasia.wedge.ru/Pix/Photo/image_large_114.jpg
C. is the principal patron saint of Zadar (in Italian, Zara) in Croatia, whose cathedral (Sv. Stošija) is dedicated to Anastasia. Herewith a few views of his twelfth-century church there (Sv. Krševan; consecrated, 1175):
http://www.csatolna.hu/hu/erdekes/Elbi/horvat/zadar.JPG
http://www.colonialvoyage.com/viaggi/DalmaziaA_0138.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/2uwa5m
http://tinyurl.com/2keb2k
http://tinyurl.com/37z4jz
http://tinyurl.com/27gjvq
This church replaced an early medieval one of the same dedication built to house C.'s putative remains, translated from Aquileia in 649. In 1202 C. was unable to prevent Zara's capture and sack by soldiers of the Fourth Crusade; this is variously said to have occurred on either 23. or 24. November. Herewith two views of C.'s reliquary at Zara (1326), now housed in the cathedral:
ttp://tinyurl.com/3yf2oo
http://tinyurl.com/3xbk4v
Here's a view of C.'s originally twelfth-century church in the Croatian city of Šibenik:
http://tinyurl.com/23hpyl
The bell in the photograph is said to date to 1266 and to be the oldest in Croatia.
And here's a view of Michele Giambono's painting of C. (ca. 1450) housed in the chiesa di San Trovaso in Venice:
http://www.wga.hu/art/g/giambono/stchryso.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post revised)
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