medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (20. May) is the feast day of:
1) Aurea of Ostia (d. ca. 269, supposedly). A. (sometimes Aura; in Greek, Chryse) is a martyr of Ostia recorded for today -- and, as a martyr of Portus, on 22. August -- in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology. She has at least three Latin Passiones (BHL 808-09, 811-12, 813) and a very similar one in Greek, all legendary. A Latin-language translation of the Greek version and an English-language translation of that Latin text are here:
http://www.ostia-antica.org/~atexts/demagis.htm
Prior to its revision of 2001, A. was commemorated in the RM on 24. August. A. was Ostia's patron saint until 21. February 2004, when by act of the Holy See she was replaced by St. Augustine of Hippo.
A.'s present church at Ostia Antica (RM) in Lazio is a late fifteenth-century replacement for a late antique church that had been renovated several times in the early Middle Ages. Here's a view:
http://www.ostia-antica.org/img/aurea_2.jpg
Found at different times near the church, and presumed to have once been in its predecessor, were fragmentarily preserved ancient funerary inscriptions for St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine of Hippo (M. spent the Middle Ages here, next to A.'s tomb), and for a person named Chryse. Whether the latter were A.'s original epitaph or else re-used from the grave of someone else is unknown. The original is in the castle at Ostia Antica; there's a copy in the church. Here's a view:
http://www.ostia-antica.org/img/aurea_3.jpg
Also found near the church was a small marble column with the inscription S. AVR ('sancta Aurea', presumably). It's now inside, near the altar.
Ostia is the oldest of Rome's suburbicarian dioceses; this church is its cathedral. By very long-standing tradition the see of Ostia is held by the dean of the College of Cardinals.
2) Baudel (d. prob. 3d or early 4th cent.). B. (also Baudile, Baudille, Badel, Bauzély, etc.; in Latin, Baudelius, Baudilius, etc.) is a martyr of today's Nîmes (Gard) in Languedoc and that city's patron saint. Entered for this day in the earliest surviving version of the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, he has two legendary Vitae, one from Nîmes (BHL 1043-44) and a somewhat later one from Orléans (BHL 1044d-f). Neither tells us anything credible about the historical B. The tradition at Nîmes was that B. had been buried at the site of his execution and that the monastery dedicated to him (destroyed in 1563) was built over his grave. The tradition in Orléans was that B. had been a cleric of that city before engaging in the missionary work that led to his martyrdom and that his remains had been translated back to Orléans in the fifth century.
B.'s cult was widely disseminated medievally in southern and in central France. He was venerated in northern Iberia as well, not only in Catalunya but also in what became Castilla y León. At Burgos the readings for his feast were derived from his Vita of Orléans. A major witness to his cult is the Ermita de San Baudelio de Berlanga in today's Caltojar (Soria), usually said to be of the early eleventh century with twelfth- and early thirteenth-century frescoes. An English-language account of this monument is here:
http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.tcl?site_id=9247
Click on the image at top left for three pages of expandable images or go here:
http://tinyurl.com/25mvvy
Other expandable images are at:
http://www.arrakis.es/~jalp/baudelio.htm
http://tinyurl.com/26qehr
The frescoes were sold to an art dealer in 1922, were dismounted in 1926, and in 1927 were shipped to a private collection in the United States, whence some of them wound up in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. These were exchanged with the Spanish government for the apse of the church of San Martín at Fuentidueña (Segovia) but two of the frescoes remain at the Metropolitan on permanent loan from the Prado. Descriptions and expandable views of those two are here:
http://tinyurl.com/34lvyw
http://tinyurl.com/32tj9u
Back in France, herewith some views of the originally twelfth-century église St-Baudel at Saint-Bouize (Cher):
http://sancerre.cg18.fr/saint-bouize/fiches/eglise/page.html
and one of its now mutilated fifteenth-century statue of B.:
http://tinyurl.com/22cecz
and three expandable ones of the originally fourteenth-century église St-Baudille at Parigny-la-Rose (Nièvre):
http://tinyurl.com/4xnyeu
3) Theodore of Pavia (d. 755?). Co-patron of his city, along with Sts. Augustine of Hippo and Syrus of Pavia, T. was an eighth-century bishop of uncertain date who by the eleventh century had become legendary as a protector of Pavia. According to the famously imaginative _Chronicle of Novalesa_, Charlemagne's siege of the Lombard capital in 773-74 could only succeed once T. had died. Though the dating of Pavia's eighth-century bishops is troublesome, it seems likely that our T. had gone to his eternal reward well before this. He was buried in Pavia's church of St. Agnes, later renamed in his honor. This, after a rebuilding in the twelfth century, is a monument of Lombard "romanesque". The Italia nell'Arte Medievale page on it is here:
http://tinyurl.com/ej7zc
Here's another view of the siren capital in the crypt:
http://www.ingiroperilmondo.it/images/steodoro_pv_1.jpg
Also inside is an early fifteenth-century polychrome marble statue of T., holding an image of his city. A thumbnail view of the head is here:
http://www.sism.org/pavia/assets/images/monuments/SanTeodo.jpg
Here's a bit more of him (also not a wonderful image):
http://tinyurl.com/6j2gp4
And here's T. in a late fifteenth-century panel painting by Vincenzo Foppa now in Milan's Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco:
http://tinyurl.com/4668rl
4) Bernardino of Siena (d. 1444). The Franciscan B. was an enormously popular preacher and a very effective organizer of his order's Observant branch, of which he was vicar general from 1438 to 1442. Like his student, St. James of the March, he is a central Italian who, having died in the mostly mainland kingdom of Sicily, immediately became a saint of the Regno. In B.'s case, his passing occurred at the Franciscan convent at L'Aquila (AQ) in Abruzzo. According to his friend, the Abruzzese St. John of Capestrano, his death put an end (however briefly) to strife between opposing factions in L'Aquila. Today is B.'s _dies natalis_.
B. was canonized in 1450. In 1454 work began on today's much rebuilt basilica di San Bernardino in L'Aquila, into which the saint's remains were formally translated in 1472. They now repose there in this early sixteenth-century (1517) mausoleum:
http://www.jemolo.com/alta/imgae0029.jpg
The Franciscans appear to have sent copies of B.'s death mask throughout at least their Italian provinces in order to achieve a uniform pictorial representation of him. The result is that B. is often recognizable in art as the friar with the deathly visage, as in this portrait by Benozzo Gozzoli:
http://wf-f.org/StBernardine.html
or in Pinturicchio's painting of B. in glory:
http://tinyurl.com/36dgg6
http://tinyurl.com/346z9k
or in these portraits by Vincenzo Foppa:
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?45888+0+0
http://www.lacabalesta.it/testi/santi/bernardino_siena.html
or in this one by Mantegna:
http://tinyurl.com/5f2wtl
or in this late fifteenth-century fresco from the church of San Michele Arcangelo at Eggi (PG) in Umbria:
http://www.amicidieggi.it/gfx/monumenti_03.jpg
Contemporary portraits from outside Italy, as in this Spanish example, can show a more lively B.:
http://tinyurl.com/24unr6
And this Piedmontese example (ca. 1486-91) by G. M. Spanzotti in the church of San Bernardino at Ivrea shows that in Italy too B. could be shown as more vivacious (or has the fresco merely been so restored?):
http://tinyurl.com/3y9heg
Some of these portraits prominently feature an IHS monogram. In his preaching B. fostered devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus and would hold up a placard visibly bearing this monogram. At the sermon's conclusion he would have it passed among the audience for veneration (usually in the form of osculation). B. also organized bonfires of the vanities (a form of renunciation now firmly associated with the name of Savonarola). Here's a view of the corresponding section of Agostino di Duccio's relief (ca. 1459) on Perugia's Oratorio di San Bernardino da Siena:
http://tinyurl.com/25qelo
A view of the Oratorio's facade:
http://tinyurl.com/4gryz6
More views (many of sculptural details):
http://tinyurl.com/546vvr
Should those views be too "Renaissance" for one's taste, here's an antidote in the form of the Oratorio's altar:
http://tinyurl.com/4w46py
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post lightly revised)
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|