medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (19. March) was once the feast day of the following less well known saints of the Regno:
Quintus of Sorrento and companions (?). Quintus, Marcus, Quartilla, Quintilla, and nine others are a mixed lot of martyrs of Sorrento recorded for this day in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology and in later historical historical martryologies including the RM prior to its revision of 2001. A related group of supposedly Campanian martyrs occurring in mss. of the (ps.-)HM under yesterday's date includes Quintus and Quartilla. Some in both groups are thought to have really been African martyrs or martyrs of Corinth added to these latercula through scribal error. Q., M., Q., and Q. along with others (generally unnamed) had a flourishing cult in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Sorrento (NA) whose earlier history, if any, is unknown. The textually troubled state of these saints' listing in the early martyrologies plus the lack of a verifiable early cult of the Martyrs of Sorrento has led to the latter's omission from today's RM.
Sorrento's originally fifteenth-century cathedral of Santi Filippo e Giacomo (much rebuilt; became the cathedral church only in 1602) honors these saints with an early modern group portrait in the nave. I have been unable to determine whether they are still commemorated liturgically at Sorrento.
Today (19. March) is the feast day of:
1) John of Parma (Bl.; d. 1289). J., whose family name is thought to have been Buralli, was educated in his native Parma and at some unknown time in the early thirteenth century entered the Order of Friars Minor. Ordained priest, he taught at Bologna and at Naples before lecturing on Peter Lombard's _Sentences_ at Paris. J. was elected minister general of his order in 1247. In 1257 he resigned his office, apparently under pressure because of his association with the Spirituals. His successor was St. Bonaventure.
J. retired to his order's hermitage at Greccio (famous for St. Francis' Nativity crèche) and later underwent a heresy trial for his alleged Joachite beliefs. Exonerated, he returned to Greccio, where he kept in touch with Spirituals (Ubertino da Casale visited him there in 1285). During his generalate J. had travelled to Nicaea to promote a union between the Greek Orthodox and Roman churches and in his great old age he undertook a similar mission when the union agreed to in 1274 was no longer acceptable in Constantinople. But he only got as far as Camerino in the Marche, where he died on this day at the local Franciscan convent. J. was beatified in 1777.
2) Mark of Montegallo (Bl.; d. 1496). M. was born at Mons Sanctae Mariae in Gallo, today's Montegallo (AP) in the Marche. He studied at Perugia and at Bologna, where he obtained degrees in law and medicine. In about 1448 he began a medical practice at Ascoli Piceno and in 1451 he married. A year later the pair separated, with the wife (whose name is said to have been Chiara) becoming a Poor Clare and M. becoming an Observant Franciscan. He became a well known preacher and promoter of _Monti di Pietà_ (low-interest pawn banks) first at various places in the Marche and later in Vicenza, where he died. A cult sprang up at his grave site, hymns were composed for his commemoration, and a canonization process was initiated. M.'s cult was confirmed in 1839.
A relatively recent conference volume on M. (also containing a collection of his writings) is advertised here:
http://www.centrostudiantoniani.it/libro_csa30.html
Today (19. March) ordinarily would also be the feast day of the following saint whose feast this year was re-scheduled to 15. March so as not to fall during Holy Week:
Joseph, spouse of the BVM (d. 1st cent.). J.'s cult is said to have been established in Eastern Christianity in late antiquity. It certainly existed in the West in the eighth century, when it begins to appear in local martyrologies, e.g. that of Tallaght (ca. 790), a page of which is shown here:
http://tinyurl.com/36oqaj
The first Western record of a church dedicated to J. comes from Bologna in 1129. J.'s earliest known Office comes from Liège in the thirteenth century. His feast on this day was adopted by some orders in the fourteenth century; it entered the Roman Calendar in the later fifteenth century under Sixtus IV. In 1726 J.'s name was added to the Litany of Saints and in 1870 Pius IX declared him patron of the universal church (it's not clear how various Christian communities not in communion with Pio Nono took this).
Some medieval representations, mostly in various scenes from the infancy of Christ (J. not always nimbed):
Adoration of the Magi (late sixth- or early seventh-century), on one of two leaves from another manuscript bound into the rear of the Etchmiadzin Gospels (989), Yerevan, Matenadaran MS 2374:
http://armlet1600.sci.am/images/echmiadzin2-big.jpg
Adoration of the Magi, Altar (737-744) of duke Ratchis, Cividale, Museo Cristiano del Duomo:
http://tinyurl.com/2ccovz
Joseph's Second Dream (eleventh-century), Ateni Sioni Church, Georgia:
http://tinyurl.com/2devtm
Nativity and Joseph's Second Dream, wooden doors (ca. 1060), Köln, Santa Maria im Kapitol (J.'s Dream at second URL; next to top, at left; expandable image):
http://www.osjoseph.org/stjoseph/art/detail.php?id=620
http://tinyurl.com/2xw8cd
The Flight into Egypt, capital (betw. 1125 and 1130), Saulieu (Côte d'Or), basilique Saint-Andoche:
http://art-roman.net/saulieu/saulieu21x.jpg
The Flight into Egypt, St Albans Psalter (betw. 1120 and 1145), Hildesheim, Dombibliothek, MS St. Godehard 1:
http://tinyurl.com/2643hf
The Flight into Egypt, capital (betw. 1125 and 1145), Autun, cathedral of St-Lazare:
http://art-roman.net/autun/autun46x.jpg
Adoration of the Magi, Transfiguration tympanum (ca. 1130-1135), La Charité-sur-Loire (Nièvre), church of Notre-Dame-et-Sainte-Croix:
http://www.art-roman.net/charite/charite17x.jpg
Nativity mosaic (J. at left; ca. 1143), Palermo, church of Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio ("La Martorana"):
http://www.osjoseph.org/stjoseph/art/detail.php?id=416
Infancy of Christ window (1145-55), Chartres, cathedral of Notre-Dame (J.'s Second Dream; Flight into Egypt):
http://tinyurl.com/2vztdz
http://tinyurl.com/2vxlk5
Adoration of the Magi (late twelfth-/early thirteenth-century), Fidenza, cathedral of San Donnino:
http://tinyurl.com/2kw6tm
Adoration of the Magi (early thirteenth-century), detail, Forlì, cathedral of San Mercuriale:
http://tinyurl.com/2mtfcv
Nativity (at right), Jüngeres Bibelfenster (1280), Köln, cathedral of St. Petrus und Maria:
http://217.160.164.18/typo3-dom/uploads/pics/v088002.jpg
Nativity fresco (1282), Aegina, Omorphi Ekklesia:
http://www.doaks.org/images/do_byz_2005_rep_bolma_el_01.jpg
Wedding of Joseph and Mary; Nativity; Flight into Egypt (Giotto; 1303-05), Padua, Cappella dei Scrovegni ("Arena Chapel"):
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/giotto/SSM-matrimonio.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/2h5m55
http://tinyurl.com/27kmm6
Flight into Egypt (Giotto; 1310s), Assisi, Basilica Inferiore:
http://tinyurl.com/2y9t24
Flight into Egypt (Duccio di Buoninsegna; betw. 1308 and 1311), Siena, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Maestà altarpiece, predella panel:
http://www.abcgallery.com/D/duccio/duccio39.html
Census of Quirinius, mosaic (betw. 1315 and 1321), Istanbul, Chora Church (Kariye Camii):
http://tinyurl.com/38vsx9
Adoration of the Magi, Hvroje's Missal (written in Glagolitic script in the very early 1400s for a church in Croatia), Istanbul, Topkapi Sarai Museum:
http://home.pages.at/tamb/photo/gross/hrvojev_misal.jpg
Nativity (icon, early fifteenth-century), Athens, Rena Andreadis collection (on display in the Metropolitan Museum's special exhibition, _Byzantium: Faith nd Power, 1251-1557_; keep expanding image for detail views of J.):
http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Byzantium/g6_pop_4.R.asp
Adoration of the Magi (Gentile da Fabriano; 1423), Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi:
http://tinyurl.com/24h8hj
Adoration of the Magi (Beato Angelico; 1430-1433), Madrid, Museo del Prado, altarpiece (by A.) of the Annunciation, predella panel:
http://tinyurl.com/29evvc
Holy Family (Flight into Egypt, detail; Jean Colombe, betw. 1485 and 1489), Chantilly, Musée Condé, Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (note link at right to large image):
http://www.christusrex.org/www2/berry/f57r.html
Many, many more here:
http://www.osjoseph.org/stjoseph/art/browse.php?category=Year
Best,
John Dillon
(John of Parma, Mark of Montegallo, and Joseph lightly revised from older posts)
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