medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (27. January) is the feast day of:
1) Julian, venerated at Sora and Atina (d. 2d cent., supposedly). Today's less well known saint of the Regno has very late legendary Acta (in Italian) from Atina in southern Lazio's Frosinone Province that makes him a young Christian from Dalmatia arrested at Anagni and martyred at Atina. Another tradition (also late) has him martyred at Sora in the same province. In 1612 J.'s relics were found in a church dedicated to him near Sora and old enough to have been described then as ancient (which doesn't necessarily make it older than the fifteenth century). They now repose in an altar dedicated to him in Sora's cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta.
Although there's a very strong suspicion that this J. is merely J. of Le Mans (on whom see below) outfitted with a new legend when his original identity had been forgotten, cases such as that of the recently mentioned Projectus of Cavour leave open the possibility that this really is a local saint whose feast day was at some point moved to that of a more famous homonym. I don't know whether this J. is still venerated at Atina. In addition to Sora, he is now venerated at Giugliano (NA) in Campania, whose name has nothing to do with any saint Julian and whose present patron saint is J. of Le Mans.
2) Julian of Le Mans (d. 4th cent., supposedly). J. is the legendary protobishop of the city of the Cenoman(n)i, a Gallic people inhabiting what later came to be called Maine. Their city acquired a definite article and is now Le Mans (Sarthe). J.'s nicely written Vita by the late tenth-/early eleventh-century Letald of Micy (BHL 4544) numbers him among the famous apostles of Gaul and places their work in the years following the great persecutions. Founding a hermitage in what would become his diocese, J. overcame opposition by operating miracles, of which the most dramatic was his causing a spring to burst forth from solid rock. Many conversions followed and when J. had baptized the local chief (one Defensor) his work was assured. Later miracles of note included raising people from the dead and freeing others of demonic possession.
In Letald's telling, miracles attended both J.'s peaceful death at his hermitage and the transport of his remains to the city for burial. He had a magnificent funeral that drew a great crowd not only from the city proper but also from the surrounding countryside and villages and even from nearby _castella_. Many miracles were reported at his tomb.
Here are two early fifteenth-century illuminations depicting the miracle of the spring
Paris, Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève, ms. 1267, fol. 410:
http://liberfloridus.cines.fr/photos_niveau3/C030856.jpg
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, ms. M. 105, fol. 43r:
http://tinyurl.com/yvnams
The cathedral of Le Mans is dedicated to J. Two illustrated, French-language accounts of this splendid pile (expandable images):
http://architecture.relig.free.fr/mans.htm
http://tinyurl.com/2tqqgg
Further views:
Multiple:
http://tinyurl.com/yv9cn4
http://tinyurl.com/2azy8c
http://www.romanes.com/LeMans/index.html
http://karalus.free.fr/files/france_francia/le_mans3.php
http://www.art-roman.net/lemanscath/lemanscath.htm
and here (scroll down to Le Mans):
http://ica.princeton.edu/langland/index.php?p=1000&s=
Chevet:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cath_saint_julien.JPG
Interior:
http://www.thais.it/architettura/Gotica/HR/073.htm
http://www.thais.it/architettura/Gotica/HR/074.htm
http://tinyurl.com/2dgb7v
http://tinyurl.com/2kbxgv
http://www.deborahjudith.com/lemans.htm
http://www.thais.it/architettura/Gotica/HR/016.htm
http://www.thais.it/architettura/Gotica/HR/144.htm
http://www.thais.it/architettura/Gotica/HR/145.htm
http://tinyurl.com/ywyu79
Decor:
http://www.art-roman.net/lemanscath/lemanscath2.htm
http://www.art-roman.net/lemanscath/lemanscath3.htm
Flight into Egypt:
http://www.uvm.edu/~lbrought/lemansflight.gif
Presentation
http://tinyurl.com/2bm59v
Angels (chapel vaulting):
http://le.plume.free.fr/img/IMG_6726_st_julien.jpg
A menhir stands next to the building (presumably symbolizing the Church's victory over pagan idolatry):
http://www.impenderevero.com/lem1.html
http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/flemans.jpg
http://architecture.relig.free.fr/images/mans/menhir.jpg
Roger I and Roger II of Sicily owned relics of J. that ultimately found a home in the Cappella Palatina at Palermo. In 1077 Roger I renamed the fortress town of Gibel Hamid in northwestern Sicily after J. The town remained Monte San Giuliano until 1934, when it resumed its classical designation of Eryx in the Italian form Erice; the elevation on which it stands is still Monte San Giuliano. That is also the name of the hill underlying the central Sicilian town of Caltanissetta, a former Muslim strongpoint that became part of Roger I's demesne in 1087. Twelfth-century service books from Sicily show particular attention to J.'s feast. Here's J. in the twelfth-century mosaics of the nave in the Cappella Palatina:
http://tinyurl.com/25wxcx
A twelfth-century patron of the cathedral in Le Mans was Henry II of England, who had been baptized in that church and whose father was buried there. J.'s cult in England is said to have received a boost during his reign.
3) Vitalian, pope (d. 672). A native of Segni in Lazio, V. became pope in 657. He devoted much of his papacy to resisting the imperially promoted monothelite heresy. In this endeavor he was more tactful (or more fortunate) than pope St. Martin I but he did have to endure imperial removal of the diocese of Ravenna from his authority. It was also he who sent Sts. Theodore of Tarsus and Hadrian of Nisida to Canterbury. In the absence of good visuals of V., herewith some coins of the two emperors with whom he had to deal, Constans II the second (641-68; ruled as Constantine):
http://tinyurl.com/2rd38r
http://tinyurl.com/2pkogp
http://tinyurl.com/2oh8tw
and Constantine IV (668-85):
http://tinyurl.com/33xjbc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Constantine_IV.jpeg
Best,
John Dillon
(Julian of Le Mans and Vitalian revised from last year's post)
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