medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (19. November) is the feast day of the following two less well known saints of the Regno:
1) Simon of Calabria (d. 10th or early 11th cent.). As far as one can tell, S.'s memory survived the Middle Ages solely in an entry (BHG 2400) in the Synaxary of Constantinople. According to this clearly legendary account, he was a monk of Greek-speaing Calabria sent to Africa by his hegumen in order to effect the ransom of fellow monks who had been enslaved during a raid. While he was negotiating, it became apparent that the Muslims wished him to abjure Christ. S. protested that he would rather die. One of his interlocutors then raised an arm to strike him only to find that member immediately paralyzed. After the same fate had befallen another, S. was arrested and charged with sorcery.
The magistrate before whom S. appeared promised to free both S. and the other Christians if he through his prayers would restore the health of the two paralyzed Muslims. S.'s prayers were heard, the Muslims were cured, S. and the earlier captives were freed and returned to Calabria. At his monastery S. resumed a severely ascetic lifestyle and distinguished himself through further miracles.
2) Atto of Tordino (d. 11th cent.). According to his now lost Vita (said to have been medieval in origin), A. was a monk of Montecassino sent from there to Abruzzo in or shortly after 1004 to establish as its first abbot a monastery at the newly endowed church of San Nicoḷ in the Tordino valley near Teramo. The monastery, which prospered rapidly, was formally that of San Nicoḷ di Tordino but came in time to be known also as that of A., who was remembered for his efforts in improving the spiritual and material well-being of the local populace and whose tomb became a pilgrimage destination. By the end of the twelfth century the monastery, now enormously wealthy, was a major landholder in the region. A modern scholarly survey refers to its "vasto patrocinio". The parish church of Sant'Attone in the locality of the same name in today's very industrial San Nicoḷ di Tordino (TE) occupies part of the original site.
When in 1477 the monastery was closed the cathedral chapter of Teramo adopted A. as its own patron, a distinction that he retains today (the diocesan patron is of course St. Berard of Teramo). An Italian-language account of Teramo's originally twelfth-century cattedrale di San Berardo is here:
http://www.diocesiteramoatri.it/arte/cattedrale.asp
A view of the cathedral's main portal (originally of 1332) in the form it assumed in the fifteenth century:
http://tinyurl.com/ca4t6
None of the figures in the niches is of A.
Best,
John Dillon
(Atto of Tordino lightly revised from last year's post)
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