medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Yesterday (11. April) was also the feast day of:
1) Barsanuphius of Gaza (d. ca. 540). This less well known saint of the Regno is generally referred to simply as Barsanuphius, there usually being little pragmatic need to distinguish him from his homonym (and fellow Egyptian), B. the companion in martyrdom of St. Dabamon. He spent many years as a solitary near a monastery at Gaza, speaking only with a monk named Seridos who became his disciple, functioned as his secretary and messenger, and under B.'s direction supervised the life of the monastery. As B.'s reputation for sanctity grew, others sought his guidance. This he dispensed in the form of written responsa. To dispel doubt in his physical existence he on one occasion came out of seclusion and washed the feet of monks. A collection of over eight hundred letters of advice from B. and from his fellow solitary St. John of Gaza survives.
As far as we know, B. did not receive a cult at his grave. A late twelfth- or very early thirteenth-century Translation account (BHL 1000) from today's Oria (BR) in southern Apulia has B.'s remains brought from Palestine to Oria (long a largely Greek-speaking place) in perhaps the mid-ninth century, lost sight of after a Muslim conquest of the town (there were several of these from the later ninth century into the eleventh), rediscovered there in 1170, and then deposited in Oria's principal church (in whose eighteenth-century successor, now a cathedral, they reside today). B., known locally as San Barsanofio, is Oria's patron saint. His principal feast there falls on 30. August and commemorates his two translations. In Orthodox calendars B. is commemorated on 6. February.
In the absence of views of B.'s putative relics at Oria (an arm is particularly venerated), herewith an illustrated page by Giuseppe Dalfino on the originally ninth(?)-century church Santa Maria di Gallana at Oria:
http://www.mondimedievali.net/pre-testi/gallana.htm
Dr. Dalfino will be presenting a paper on this church at this summer's International Medieval Congress at Leeds.
2) Landuin (Bl.; d. 1116?). Another less well known holy person of the Regno, L. (also Lanuin; in Italian, Lanuino) was one of St. Bruno the Carthusian's early companions at what became the Grande Chartreuse and was that community's prior designate when he accompanied B. to Rome in 1090 at the behest of Urban II. When in 1091 Bruno established a new hermitage deep in the woods of southern Calabria at a place called La Torre that had been given him by Roger I, count of Sicily, L. was back at the first Carthusian settlement. In 1099 L. was at La Torre to consult with Bruno and in 1101, after Bruno's death, he became master of the entire Carthusian community. L. stayed at La Torre; if the highly suspect early Carthusian documents are to be credited, he performed important missions as Paschal II's representative in Roger I's Calabrian and insular Sicilian domains.
The late twelfth-century martyrology of the Carthusian house of Santo Stefano del Bosco outside of today's Serra San Bruno (VV) in Calabria records L.'s death on this day in 1116 (modern historians tend to place it some five years later) and styles him _beatus_. L.'s cult was confirmed in 1893.
Best,
John Dillon
(thus increasing to six the number of 11. April's "saints of the day" entries and including, for those who had missed this, some representation from the saints and blesseds of the Regno)
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