medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (15. November) is the feast day of:
1) Felix of Nola (d. 484). According to his funerary inscription (_CIL_ X, 1344), today's less well known saint of the Regno became bishop of today's Nola (NA) in Campania in 473. Apart from that datum and the date of his death, furnished by the same inscription, we really know nothing about him. The St. Felix whom Paulinus of Nola (d. 431) celebrated annually in his verse and in whose honor the Basilica di San Felice at Cimitile (outside of Nola) is dedicated is a saint of the mid-third century who, in some accounts, declined to be named bishop. The two were repeatedly confused, leading to our F.'s being given a quite legendary Passio (BHL 2869) in which he is said to have been Nola's first bishop, put to death for his faith under the emperor Valerian (253-60). Versions of this tale entered the Carolingian martyrologies. In those of Florus and of Ado F. was entered under today's date, as he also has been in succeeding versions of the RM.
The other St. Felix associated with Nola, F. the priest, is celebrated on 14. January.
2) Albert the Great (d. 1280). The Swabian A. (a.k.a. Albertus Magnus) had been studying at Padua when in 1223 Bl. Jordan of Saxony accepted him into the Dominican Order. He completed his novitiate at Köln and then served as a lector in various houses in his order's German-speaking province. From 1243 to 1248 A. studied and then taught at Paris. He returned to Köln in 1248 as head of his order's university there. In 1254 A. was elected provincial of the aforementioned province and for the remainder of his life, though there were times when he was able to teach, he served primarily as an ecclesiastical administrator.
A. was a prolific author from his early days in his order until about ten years before his death. Like his student Thomas Aquinas, he wrote commentaries on the Bible in addition to a corpus of philosophical works that helped define the medieval Christian reception of Aristotle. He was beatified in 1622 and canonized in 1931.
Tommaso da Modena's portrait of A. (1351/52) in the Chapter Room of San Niccolò at Treviso is shown here:
http://santiebeati.it/immagini/Original/29950/29950G.JPG
Here's a page of expandable views of portraits of A. and of his sarcophagus in Köln's Dominican church of Sankt Andreas:
http://www.sankt-andreas.de/module/galleries/index.php/3/3/0
and a German-language guide to that church:
http://www.sankt-andreas.de/kirchenfuehrer/deutsch.php/1
A briefer, English-language version is here:
http://www.sankt-andreas.de/kirchenfuehrer/english.php/1
An exterior view:
http://tinyurl.com/y8shzw
Interior (nave, looking towards choir):
http://www.sankt-andreas.de/module/galleries/index.php/4/4/9/221
Interior, 360-degree view:
http://www.sankt-andreas.de/kirche/360grad_ansicht.php/1
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post revised and expanded)
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