medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (9. December) is the feast day of:
Syrus of Pavia (d. later 4th cent.). By all accounts, none of which is either very early or particularly credible, S. was the first bishop of Pavia. The traditional third bishop, St. Inventius/Eventius, is attested from the end of the fourth century. If S. really was the third bishop, then his predecessor but one was presumably in office sometime earlier in the second half of that century.
The first we hear of S. is in a Vita (BHL 7976) variously dated to the eighth or the ninth century, whose purpose is pretty clearly to claim apostolic foundation for the diocese of Pavia and to establish that the latter was really the original bishopric for the large swath of northern Italy that historically was serviced by the archdiocese of Milan. This is done by making S. a disciple of St. Hermagoras of Aquileia (supposedly consecrated by the apostle Mark) and the apostle not only of Pavia but also of Verona, Brescia, Lodi, and Milan itself, the legendary foundation of whose church by the apostle Barnabas seems to be a response to such posturing. A later medieval Vita and a separate translation account provide other, sometimes contradictory details but reaffirm the antiquity of Pavia's diocese vis-a-vis that of Milan (of which Pavia was a suffragan from at least the early eighth century onward).
Milan, of course, adopted S. as a saint of the archdiocese and spread his cult throughout its territory. Further afield, the S. venerated at Padua as an early bishop seems in origin to have been today's S., the protobishop of Pavia. Opinions differ on whether that is also the case with the supposedly fourth-century St. Syrus of Genoa.
Here's S. at right in the eleventh-century frescoes in the crypt of Pavia's church of San Giovanni Domnarum:
http://tinyurl.com/wpwxv
Here he is in his church at today's Leggiuno (VA) on Lago Maggiore in Lombardy, rebuilt in the eleventh century and subsequently modified:
http://tinyurl.com/nzu9e
And here's Vincenzo Foppa's portrait of him (Pavia; ca. 1455), now in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts:
http://www.artsmia.org/viewer/larger-image.php?id=1610&v=12
Some dedications to S.:
The eleventh-/twelfth-century pieve di San Siro at Cemmo (BS) in Lombardy's Vallecamonica, largely rebuilt in 1912:
http://www.graffitipark.it/immagini/pieve.jpg
http://www.interlingua.altervista.org/imagines/camonica/Siro.jpg
http://www.chiesadimilano.it/or/ADMI/esy/objects/images/75845.jpeg
http://francorino.altervista.org/xss3.jpg
http://www.chiesadimilano.it/or/ADMI/esy/objects/images/75841.jpeg
http://www.thais.it/scultura/image/sch00462.htm
The originally eleventh-century church of Santi Siro e Libera at Verona:
http://tinyurl.com/ydfazv
http://www.verona.com/Data/Photos/20010619/DSC00017.JPG
Further views of S.'s church at Leggiuno (VA; fresco of S. shown above):
Exterior views:
http://tinyurl.com/ntsc2
http://tinyurl.com/rpgvr
A closer view of the entrance, with Italian-language discussion of spolia used externally and in the interior:
http://www.provincia.va.it/preziosita/itin/maggiore/leggiuno.htm
Interior:
http://tinyurl.com/rgd24
Chancel screen:
http://tinyurl.com/qstya
An illustrated, Italian-language page on the church and its history:
http://tinyurl.com/lzpjb
The originally twelfth(?)-century chiesetta di San Siro at Capriate San Gervasio (BG; entry repositioned in 1722) in Lombardy, a contender for the "saints of the day" Ugliest Church Award, small church division:
http://tinyurl.com/27tekd
http://tinyurl.com/yrdfn6
http://tinyurl.com/2hd3zw
http://tinyurl.com/ys9lj7
http://tinyurl.com/yvcplr
Two memories of now vanished churches dedicated to S.:
Today's church of Santa Maria and San Siro at Sale (AL) in Piedmont, dedicated medievally to the BVM:
http://it.geocities.com/aicsale/paese/chiese.html
The Stadio San Siro (since 1980, officially the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza) in the homonymous section of Milan:
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immagine:San_Siro3.JPG
The latter's homepage:
http://www.sansiro.net/
On S.'s early Vita, see Nicholas Everett, "The earliest recension of the Life of S. Sirus of Pavia (Vat. Lat. 5771)", _Studi Medievali__ 3a serie, 43 (2002), 857-958.
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post lightly revised)
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