medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (17. May) is the feast day of:
1) Adrio (?). A. is recorded for today in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology as a martyr of Alexandria. Nothing is known about him.
2) Victor of Rome (?). V. is recorded for today in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology as a martyr of the Via Salaria, where according to the the seventh-century _Itinerarium Salisburgense_ pilgrims to Rome would find his tomb. Prior to 2001 he and Adrio of Alexandria (no. 1, above) shared the same entry in the RM, as they also do in the (ps.-)HM. Joining them in that entry was a St. Basilla, now thought to be a garble in the (ps.-)HM for the name of the cemetery where V. was laid to rest.
3) Heraclius and Paul (?). H. and P. are recorded for today in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology as martyrs of a place called Nividunum or Nivedunum, thought by some to have been in Moesia near the mouths of the Danube. The early RM, following some sixteenth-century edition of Usuard, "corrected" the toponym to Noviodunum, probably in the belief that either Nevers or Nyon in today's France was meant. That in turn was changed in the RM's revision of 2001 to Noviodunum in Moesia, though as far as I'm aware no place of that name is known to have existed in said province. The fourth-century Syriac Martyrology enters them for 18. May and makes them martyrs of Bithynia. Various Greek synaxaries record them under 15. May along with a Benedimos and make all three martryrs of Athens.
4a) Restituta of Teniza or of Carthage (d. 304). One of the martyrs of Abitene in today's Tunisia, R. became a saint of the Regno in the early Middle Ages with an important cult in the area of the Bay of Naples. Her remains are said to have arrived at Ischia in the fifth century and to have been translated in the ninth to Naples, where an early fourth-century basilica was renamed in her honor. In the early fourteenth century this basilica was incorporated into the city's then newly built cathedral as a large chapel. In the seventeenth century it was rebuilt and redecorated. In this plan of the cathedral, it is the structure shown at front left:
http://tinyurl.com/5l7al8
Here are a couple of views of it:
http://www.interviu.it/cards/maggio1/na36.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/6xsusc
An Italian-language account is here:
http://www.lastoriadinapoli.it/luoghi_chiese_restituta.asp
An English-language guide is here (click on "Holy Restituta" in the menu bar at top):
http://www.duomodinapoli.it/en/main.htm
Clicking through the arrows under the plan at right will take one on a Flash Player tour.
The Basilica / Cappella di Santa Restituta's side aisles have been converted into individual smaller chapels. One of these side chapels, that of Santa Maria del Principio, is distinguished by a mosaic (signed by Lello of Orvieto and dated 1322) whose central figure of the Virgin enthroned is flanked by St. Januarius (San Gennaro) on the left and by R. on the right:
http://tinyurl.com/hs3pt
http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/b5eba864.html
Better views in color are included in the Flash Player tour noted above.
R.'s Passio (BHL 7190) is attributed to the tenth-century Neapolitan hagiographer Peter the Subdeacon. This records how she miraculously escaped execution at sea by her African persecutors and died peacefully while still at sea; the vessel containing her corpse was then guided angelically to Ischia, where R. was buried and her cult instituted. Recently re-edited by Edoardo D'Angelo, it will be found at pp. 183-99 of his Pietro Suddiacono napoletano, _L'opera agiografica_ (Tavarnuzze [FI]: SISMEL; Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2002).
R. is the patron saint of Lacco Ameno (NA) on Ischia, where a succession of oratories and small churches dedicated to her has existed since 1036. Her cult spread to inland portions of the Beneventan cultural area. One instance is the late eleventh-century chapel dedicated to R. at the abbey of San Vincenzo al Volturno, remains of which may be seen here:
http://www.sanvincenzoalvolturno.it/pg/sez3_b_ii.htm
4b) Whether the Restituta honored at Cagliari (until recently also celebrated today in Cagliari and elsewhere in Sardinia) is in origin the same saint is unclear. That city's Cripta di Santa Restituta contains Christian funerary inscriptions from late antiquity and seems -- though the original inscription is lost -- to have housed relics of a saint R. since perhaps the sixth century. Its marble cult statue dedicated to her is also late antique. This R. may have been a local saint not identified with R. of Teniza, etc. until the eleventh- century arrival of in Sardinia Benedictines from Montecassino (though if she is the Restituta who in his _Vita antiqua_ [BHL 2748-49; variously dated from the late fourth to the seventh century] is the mother of of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, then she too is said to have been of African origin). Three illustrated, Italian-language accounts of the site are here (the second at the bottom of its webpage):
http://web.tiscali.it/gcc/Restituta.htm
http://www.ilportalesardo.it/archeo/cacitta_4.htm
http://tinyurl.com/544jgo
The cult statue is variously said to be Coptic in style or of Coptic manufacture. Some views:
http://www.fotodisardegna.it/cagliari/cripta/cripta.htm
5) Aemilianus I of Vercelli (d. 506). A. was, by later reckoning, the eleventh bishop of the diocese of Vercelli in today's Piedmont and the first of its three sainted bishops to bear his name. He was canonized by his seventh-century successor St. Aemilianus II. In the later twelfth century either bishop Lambert or bishop St. Albert translated his remains to a place near the high altar of Vercelli's cathedral of Sant'Eusebio and, setting the date of this translation (17. May) as his feast day, renewed his cult, which had fallen into oblivion.
The largely thirteenth-century ex-church (now in private hands) in the _frazione_ Case Battia at Scandeluzza (AT) in Piedmont is dedicated to A. Herewith an illustrated, Italian-language account of it:
http://www.valleversa.it/roma/scan.emi.htm
and an Italian-language fact sheet on it is here:
http://tinyurl.com/ynwn2b
Tradition makes the parish church of Sant'Emiliano at Villanova Monferrato (AL) in Piedmont a foundation of Aemilianus II in honor of today's A. Behind the modern facade of the present church
http://tinyurl.com/24k7ed
is a fifteenth-century core. A. is the town's patron saint. He is also the patron of Cigliano (VC) in the same region.
6) Walter of Mondsee (Bl.; d. 1158). In 1145 W. succeeded the murdered St. Conrad as abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Mondsee in Upper Austria. He is said to have been exemplary in his virtues. W. was buried in the chapel of St. Peter in the abbey church. The abbey flourished in the twelfth and fifteenth centuries and again in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It was dissolved in 1791. Its baroque church dedicated to St. Michael is now a parish church of considerable splendor (the wedding scene in the movie _The Sound of Music_ was filmed there). W. reposes in its reliquary shrine along with some bejewelled catacomb saints brought to Mondsee in the early modern period:
http://www.bda.at/text/136/908/8168/
(W. not shown).
Best,
John Dillon
(Restituta of Teniza, Restituta of Cagliari, Aemilianus I of Vercelli, and Walter of Mondsee lightly revised from last year's post)
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