medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (31. January) is also the feast day of:
1) Cyrus and John (?). C. and J. are saints first venerated either at Alexandria or at nearby Menouthis. The circumstances surrounding the origin of their cult at the latter site have long been controversial. They were viewed there as healers, as the locally venerated Isis had also been, and their shrine, which operated largely by incubation, was in the sixth and seventh centuries a major pilgrimage destination. In the earlier seventh century St. Sophronius of Jerusalem wrote both an Encomium of C. and J. (BHG 476) and an account of their Miracles (BHG 479). The Encomium makes C. a monk who practiced healing and J. a former military officer who became his companion; both were martyred, Sophronius says, at Canopus under Domitian. C. was always thought of as having been from Alexandria; one tradition made J. a Syrian from Edessa.
In the 870s the papal secretary Anastasius Bibliothecarius translated Sophronius' Encomium of C. and J. into Latin (BHL 2077; called a Passio) and together with Bonifatius Consiliarius produced a Latin translation of their Miracula (BHL 2080). By this time relics said to be those of C. and J. had been translated to Rome, where they were deposited in a little church on the Via Portuensis that came to be known as that of Abba Cyrus and that is now Santa Passera. There being no Saint Passera, the present name is thought to be that of Abba Cyrus transmogrified. Here's a view of a seventh-century fresco of C. in Rome's Santa Maria Antiqua:
http://tinyurl.com/2wntg5
And here are C., Christ, and J. in a thirteenth-century fresco in the apse of the upper church of Santa Passera:
http://tinyurl.com/2rbmzr
Illustrated, Italian-language accounts of Santa Passera are here:
http://tinyurl.com/2kfvkj
and here (much better views):
http://tinyurl.com/2lt4or
In the later seventeenth century C. became a saint of the Regno when St. Francesco de Girolamo brought important relics of him to Naples. From there, at various times, relics of C. went to Portici (NA) in Campania, where he is the patron saint, to Marineo (PA) in northwestern Sicily, where he is also the patron saint and whose principal church houses a skull said to be his:
http://santiebeati.it/immagini/Original/90327/90327B.JPG
, to Grottaglie (TA) in southern Puglia, and to Foggia (FG) in northern Puglia, which has what is said to be C.'s lower jaw.
2) Julius, venerated in the diocese of Novara (?). J.'s cult, which is centered on the island named for him in the Lago d'Orta in Piedmont, is not attested before the eighth century, the earliest possible date for his oldest Vita (BHL 4557). Making him a priest and giving him a brother named Julian who was a deacon, this account presents the two as Greeks from Aegina who in the reign of an emperor Theodosius (whether the first or the second is not clear) left their homeland and traveled to Italy for the purpose of spreading Christianity. After spending some time time in Rome they moved on today's Piedmont, where they established many churches and finally settled down on the aforementioned island. Though the eighth-century Paul the Deacon calls that latter that "of St. Julian", their medieval cult centers on Julius to such an extent that his perhaps fictitious brother has never graced the pages of the RM.
J.'s relics are preserved in the much rebuilt basilica di San Giulio on the Isola di San Giulio, Orta San Giulio (NO), in Piedmont. An Italian-language account is here:
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_di_san_Giulio
and a touristy, English-language one is here:
http://www.piemontefeel.org/EN/Tool/Museum/Single?id_museum=65
Older views here:
http://www.orta.net/eng1/isolasgiulioe.htm
Distance view (recent):
http://tinyurl.com/ys2s3d
Belltower:
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2989828830076906760zPqzav
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2199229190052275691xuvOHN
Expandable views of the ambo:
http://www.thais.it/scultura/sgidor.htm
J.'s effigy reliquary:
http://tinyurl.com/29ee3y
Here's an illustrated, Italian-language page on the originally eleventh-century oratorio di San Giulio at Cressa (NO) in the same province:
http://tinyurl.com/2pkbpx
And a view of the twelfth-century apses of the chiesa di San Giulio at the Badia di Dulzago in Bellinzago Novarese (NO) is here:
http://tinyurl.com/2u4q85
Best,
John Dillon
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