medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (22. January) is the feast day of:
1) Vincent of Zaragoza (d. 304?). A popular martyr of early Christian Iberia, V. was a deacon at Zaragoza (Saragossa) who did a lot of preaching for his bishop, Valerius. The latter (in some accounts) had a speech impediment. At the outbreak of the Diocletianic persecution they were both arrested and hauled off to Valencia, where they were imprisoned pending a hearing. When that hearing came, Vincent did most of the talking and spoke so ably that the presiding magistrate concluded that the really dangerous one was the deacon, not the bishop. Consequently, Valerius was exiled but Vincent remained in prison, where he underwent a series of tortures and finally was executed. Early witnesses to his cult include St. Paulinus of Nola, Prudentius, and St. Augustine (who eulogized V. annually on this day and from whom we have no fewer than six sermons celebrating him).
V.'s Passio in its standard form (BHL 8631) was in existence by the middle of the sixth century. A briefer text (BHL 8638) may be close in content to a Passio that circulated in the fifth century. On V.'s early medieval cult in general, with editions of major texts, see Victor Saxer, _Saint Vincent diacre et martyr: Culte et légendes avant l'An Mil_ (Bruxelles: Société des Bollandistes, 2002; Subsidia Hagiographica, vol. 83).
Here's an illustrated, Spanish-language page on the eleventh-century church of San Vicente in Cardona (Barcelona), with expandable images:
http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/artesp/monumentos/238.htm
A similar page on the twelfth-century basilica of San Vicente in Ávila de los Caballeros:
http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/artesp/monumentos/325.htm
More views of the basilica of San Vicente in Ávila:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Basilica_de_San_Vicente
For the ex-cathedral of San Vicente at Roda de Isábena, see 3) below.
The church of St-Germain-des-Prés at Paris is a successor to a Merovingian basilica dedicated to the Holy Cross and to V. It is said to have been founded in the sixth century by Childebert I, who gave it V.'s stole (and perhaps his dalmatic as well). Herewith some views of the thirteenth-century window of V. from St-Germain-des-Prés, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York:
http://tinyurl.com/3cb48a
Until the latest revision of the Roman Calendar, V. had a joint feast with:
2) Anastasius the Persian (d. 628). A., whose Persian name is said to have been Magundat, was a soldier in the army of Khusrow (Chosroes) II when the latter seized the Holy Cross and brought it back to Persia. Impressed with power of this relic and with the observed behavior of many Christians, A. left the army and converted to Christianity. After a period as a monk in Jerusalem he returned to Persia as a missionary and was soon arrested and beheaded. A.'s cult was widespread in both East and West. For his Greek dossier, see Bernard Flusin, _Saint Anastase le Perse et l'histoire de la Palestine au début du VIIe sičcle_ (Paris: CNRS, 1992; 2 vols.). For his Latin cult, see Carmella Vircillo Franklin, _The Latin Dossier of Anastasius the Persian: Hagiographic Translations and Transformations_ (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2004; its Studies and Texts, vol. 147).
Rome's originally twelfth-century church of Santi Vincenzo ed Anastasio alle Tre Fontane succeeded an early medieval dedication to A. alone, Sanctus Anastasius ad Aquam Salviam. A couple of views:
http://tinyurl.com/yr5nwo
http://www.romeartlover.it/Vasi43f2.jpg
Some views of the twelfth-century Cripta di Sant'Anastasio at Asti (AT) in Piedmont:
http://tinyurl.com/2xv4ya
http://tinyurl.com/yvgt3w
Some views of V. and A.'s church in Ascoli Piceno (AP) in the Marche, an early fourteenth-century rebuilding of a predecessor:
http://tinyurl.com/yv9jd7
http://tinyurl.com/yvuzfh
3) Valerius of Zaragoza (d. early 4th cent.). Vincent of Zaragoza's bishop, he survived to take part in a synod at Elvira. This V. (San Valero) has a cult in his own right, on which see Saxer (cit.) and Bruno W. Häuptli in the Bautz _Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon_ at:
http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/v/valerius_v_z.shtm
Zaragoza celebrates V. on 29. January. Relics said to be those of V. repose in the mostly eleventh- and twelfth-century ex-cathedral of San Vicente at Roda de Isábena (Huesca), consecrated in 1067 and modified in the eighteenth century. Views of this church are here:
http://www.romanicoaragones.com/2-Ribagorza/990361-RodaIsabena00.htm
And a brief, illustrated English-language history of the building and an account of its recent restoration are here:
http://international.icomos.org/monumentum/vol10/vol10_3.pdf
A view of the thirteenth-century Ermita de San Valero in Velilla de Cinca (Huesca):
http://www.arteguias.com/imagenes3/velilladecinca.jpg
Two views of V.'s head reliquary given by Benedict XIII (Pedro de Luna) in 1397 to the cathedral of Zaragoza:
http://www.geocities.com/heresuge/laseo/graf/seo006n.jpg
http://www.cortesaragon.es/fileadmin/imagenes/Histo51.jpeg
4) Dominic of Sora (d. 1032). Today's less well known saint of the Regno is one of Italy's fairly numerous crop of monastic reformers from the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. Said to have been born in Foligno in Umbria, he made his profession at that city's monastery of St. Sylvester. D. was active primarily in central Italy, founding monasteries in today's Lazio, Abruzzo, and Molise. His last foundation, the monastery of Santa Maria between today's Isola del Liri (FR) and Sora (FR) in southern Lazio, was renamed to include D. by Paschal II in 1104 and is generally referred to as that of San Domenico at Sora.
D. was buried in the abbey's church (today's parish church of San Domenico abate). And there he has remained, with the exception of a brief interlude from 1799 to 1810, when he was a guest of Santa Restituta in Sora. The church was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1915 and has undergone a radical interior restoration (less radical, though, in the crypt, which is where D.'s remains are). Some views of it are here:
Exterior:
http://www.nuovipanorami.it/italia/lazio/ciociaria/sora.jpg
http://www.diocesisora.it/A157.jpg
http://www.diocesisora.it/A19.jpg
http://www.sandomenicoabate.it/Absidi.jpg
Exterior views with a little contemporary context absent from, or barely apparent in, the foregoing close-ups. In the first of these, the abbey (Cistercian since 1222) is at the lower right:
http://www.diocesisora.it/A114.jpg
http://www.diocesisora.it/A115.jpg
D.'s tomb in the crypt:
http://tinyurl.com/2nbehg
D.'s stone relic-chest in the tomb:
http://tinyurl.com/37dv4p
http://tinyurl.com/2ws3g2
For a brief video on the restoration of this church, see the YouTube box in the center column here:
http://www.sandomenicoabate.it/
More views are here (not to miss those lower down from the international congress “Baronio e le sue fonti” held at Sora on 10.-13. October 2007):
http://www.sandomenicoabate.it/Immagini.html
Among those images are these of the adjacent abbey's abbatial cross and ring traditionally said to be those of D.:
http://www.sandomenicoabate.it/CroceAbbaziale.jpg
http://www.sandomenicoabate.it/66.gif
Here's a view of a thirteenth-century portrait of D. in the frescoes of the Santuario della Santissima Trinitŕ at Vallepietra (RM) in Lazio:
http://tinyurl.com/2w8vjn
Revered as a protector against snakebite, D. is famously celebrated in the Abruzzese town of Cocullo (AQ) at a popular festival that takes place in early May, the Festa dei Serpari. Whereas that is not attested medievally, the church at Cocullo (Santa Maria delle Grazie) from which D.'s statue is brought out for the celebrations is said to be originally of the twelfth or thirteenth century. Herewith a few exterior views:
http://tinyurl.com/2jlpxd
http://tinyurl.com/2rkbum
http://tinyurl.com/2ljja9
On D. (and on his complicated hagiographic dossier), see especially John Howe, _Church Reform and Social Change in Eleventh-century Italy: Dominic of Sora and his Patrons_ (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997).
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's posts revised)
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