medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
As some will have noticed (but were too kind to remark on), the previously sent saints of the day missive for today dealt instead with the saints of tomorrow (22. December). Preparing these postings in advance works only if one is sufficiently clear headed to then copy the right day's message into the appropriate post.
Today (21. December) was in the RM until the great reshuffle of 1969 the feast of that well known saint of the Regno, Thomas the Apostle. Today was also T.'s principal feast day in many medieval Uses. Of his three feast days in the early ninth-century Marble Calendar of Naples, today is the one _not_ explicitly commemorating his Passio. It is still his feast day in some churches. But T. is now to be found in the RM on 3. July. Since we discussed all this then, with visuals of the cathedral of Ortona (CH) in Abruzzo (where someone believed to be T. has been reposing since, it is said, 1258), it may suffice now to repeat an image of the relief of Doubting Thomas from the cloister of the monastery at Silos of yesterday's St. Dominic of Silos:
http://tinyurl.com/y6f4zo
Today is also the feast day of Bl. Domenico Spadafora (d. 1521). D. was born around 1450 at today's Randazzo (CT) in northeastern Sicily and entered the Dominican order at the convent of Santa Zita in Palermo, founded in 1428. After earning his doctorate at Padua he returned to Sicily but was soon called to Rome. In 1491 he was sent to found a house at today's Monte Cerignone (PU) in the Marche. Selecting a site at the locality of Fontebuona, D. erected there a small convent and church and settled in on the premises. Lifetime and postmortem miracles caused him to be honored as a saint. When in 1545 was translated to the convent's church his body was found to be incorrupt. He was formally beatified in 1921.
D.'s convent at Fontebuona was suppressed by Innocent X (1644-55). Since 1677 he has lain at the nearby church of Santa Maria in Recluso. In the diocesan calendar of San Marino - Montefeltro D. is commemorated on 11. September; at Santa Maria in Recluso he has a feast instead of a memorial. Here's a view of his resting place:
http://www.incastro.marche.it/incastro/montecerignone/foto08.gif
Randazzo's initially thirteenth-century basilica di Santa Maria has been greatly rebuilt but retains its original apses:
http://www.casaverde.biz/Randazzo/randazzo4.JPG
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/1141/1141-09-14-29-5287.jpg
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/243/243-08-24-27-9842.jpg
as well as these late medieval windows:
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/965/965-01-20-50-7617.jpg
The fourteenth-century baptismal font in Randazzo's also much rebuilt chiesa di San Nicoḷ:
http://www.beatodomenico.ofm.pl/beato/fotobig/randazzo13.jpg
http://www.beatodomenico.ofm.pl/beato/fotobig/randazzo14.jpg
A view of Randazzo's via degli Archi:
http://tinyurl.com/vxmrk
The arch in via Umberto I, a survivor from Randazzo's originally twelfth-century Palazzo Reale:
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/1141/1141-08-59-09-1590.jpg
Another medieval street (via Fisauli) in the same town:
http://tinyurl.com/sjeu9
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/ct/randazzo/g12.jpg
Detail of one of those doorways:
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/ct/randazzo/g15.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post very lightly revised)
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