medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (22. March 2008) is Holy Saturday. Ordinarily, it would be the feast day of:
1) Paul of Narbonne (d. later 3d cent.). According to Gregory of Tours (_Historia Francorum_ 1. 30), P. was consecrated at Rome in about 250 and sent as a missionary to Gaul, where he founded the church of Narbonne. As P. is already mentioned by Prudentius (_Peristephanon_ 4. 9), Gregory's dating in this instance is probably correct. Later accounts identified him with the Roman governor of Cyprus Sergius Paulus (Acts 13:7-12) and made him a martyr. The identification is maintained in the dedication of Narbonne's basilique St-Paul-Serge, whose earliest predecessor is said to have been built over his grave. P.'s putative relics were burned during the French Revolution.
The Basilique St-Paul-Serge is a late twelfth-century structure with a thirteenth-century chevet. A few views:
http://tinyurl.com/36nqax
http://tinyurl.com/6j4zo
http://www.angelfire.com/space/france/images/2003/narbo/basilic3.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/22u8ec
http://www.angelfire.com/space/france/images/2003/narbo/basilic1.jpg
Some views of the numerous ancient sarcophagi, etc. in the crypt:
http://www.angelfire.com/space/france/images/2003/narbo/crypt2.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/space/france/images/2003/narbo/crypt3.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/space/france/images/2003/narbo/crypt1.jpg
2) Lea (d. 384). We know about L. from St. Jerome, who shortly after her death praises her in a letter to her friend Marcella (_Ep_. 23). L. is described as an aristocratic Roman widow who had once been the head of a great household but who after her conversion lived a life a great simplicity and daily labor while heading a monastic community of Christian women in Rome. In this letter, in which L. is contrasted with her recently deceased fellow aristocrat Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (now in Tartarus, according to Jerome), she is called _sanctissima_ and said to be in heaven.
L. entered the martyrologies in a sixteenth-century addition to Usuard. Her modern cult is widespread in Lazio, especially at Ostia (where Jerome tells us she was buried).
We don't spend much time with non-Christians on this list. But Praetextatus, familiar to many medievalists from his portrayal in Macrobius' _Saturnalia_, and his wife Fabia Aconia Paulina, prominent pagans in an increasingly officially Christian late antique Rome, have left a couple of visuals worth noting. Here's a dedication to him listing his priesthoods (_CIL_ VI. 31929), with an English-language translation and discussion following:
http://tinyurl.com/2qdt95
and here's their funeral monument:
http://tinyurl.com/25jxsp
This bears an inscription (_CIL_ VI. 1779), most of which is in verse spoken by Paulina (herself a priestess of several mystery cults). Here's a translation:
http://tinyurl.com/2h8nuv
Maijastina Kahlos, the author of a recent book on Praetextatus (__Vettius Agorius Praetextatus: A Senatorial Life in Between_, Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae, no. 26 [Roma, 2002]), argues that Jerome's _Ep_. 23 is a response to this text. See her discussions here:
http://tinyurl.com/382ngr
and here:
http://tinyurl.com/3377m5
Here's an English-language translation of Jerome's letter:
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001023.htm
3) Deogratias of Carthage (d. 457). D., a Catholic priest of Carthage, was in 454 named its bishop by the Arian king Genseric, who at the time was currying favor in Rome. In the following year, after the assassination of Valentinian III, Genseric's forces sacked the Eternal City and carried many of its inhabitants back to Carthage as slaves. Victor of Vita, whose _Historia persecutionis Africae provinciae_ is our sole narrative source for D., tells us that he distinguished himself by selling off his church's gold and silver to redeem some of these captives and by converting two of his churches into hospitals tending to the spiritual as well as physical needs of the sick.
In the early sixth-century calendar of Carthage, D.'s laying to rest is celebrated on 5. January along with that of bishop Eugenius (481-505).
Expandable views of a number of fifth-century bronze coins from Vandal Africa, including some from the time of Valentinian III, are here:
http://www.beastcoins.com/Vandals/Vandals.htm
4) Isnard of Chiampo (Bl.; d. 1244). I. is thought to have come from today's Chiampo (VI) in the Veneto. He studied under St. Dominic at Bologna. A spirited and pleasing preacher, he was sent first to Milan, where he led many to enlist in in the new Order of Friars Preacher. In 1230 I. moved on to Pavia, where bishop Reginald II encouraged him to establish a Dominican convent. I. did so and for the remainder of his life he was this house's prior. He preached widely in northern Italy and was credited with the return of many heretics to the fold. Originally laid to rest in Pavia's Dominican church, he now reposes in that city's chiesa di Santi Gervasio e Protasio, whose originally mid-eleventh-century belltower is shown here:
http://www.miapavia.it/articolo.cfm?id=1337
I.'s cult was confirmed in 1919.
Best,
John Dillon
(Paul of Narbonne, Deogratias, and Isnard lightly revised from last year's post)
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