medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (2. May) is the feast day of:
1) Hesperus, Zoe, Cyriac, and Theodulus (d. early 2d cent., supposedly). Byzantine synaxaries, followed by the RM, commemorate this group of martyrs today. According to their Greek-language Passio, they were Christian slaves of Italian origin in the household of a wealthy pagan living at Attalia in Pamphylia (today's Antalya in Turkey). At the birthday of the master's son, C. and T. refused gifts of food that they feared had previously been offered in sacrifice to the goddess Fortuna, much venerated in that household. Their enraged master, who had previously spared them when they had told him that they were Christian, had C. and T. savagely tortured before their parents H. and Z. The latter were then tortured too and all four ended their lives in a fiery furnace. When their bodies were removed they were said to show no physical sign of their torment. Justinian erected in Constantinople a basilica dedicated to Z.
2) Athanasius of Alexandria (d. 373). The theologian A. (also A. the Great), a Doctor of the Church, had been secretary to the previous archbishop of Alexandria and had been part of his entourage at the Council of Nicaea before he himself ascended to that see in 328. Arian influence in the imperial court caused him to be deposed and exiled five times during his lengthy episcopate. His Bios of St. Anthony Abbot is a hagiographic classic. A page with expandable views of various icons of A. and with links to texts of his writings (some in Greek, some in English translation) is here:
http://tinyurl.com/3y7ub8
Several views of A.'s portrait in the apse paintings at Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi (near Nabk in Syria) are here:
http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/MarMusaapsePaintings.html
A. is second from left in this parade of hierarchs in the fourteenth-century frescoes at Visoki Decani monastery at Metohija in Serbia's Kosovo province:
http://www.kosovo.net/arhijereji.jpg
3) Walbert (d. ca. 668). According to his somewhat legendary tenth-century Vita (BHL 8775) by abbot Adso of Montier-en-Der, who had been oblated at Luxeuil and knew its traditions, the nobly born W. (also Waldebert, Gaubert) was born in the vicinity of today's Meaux (Seine-et-Marne) and had been a successful military man before entering the abbey of Luxeuil, to which latter he dedicated his armor (still preserved in Adso's time) and all of his possessions, in the time of abbot St. Eustasius (St. Columban's immediate successor). After a while W. withdrew to a cave a few kilometers away, where he lived as a hermit and whence he was recalled by the brethren to succeed Eustasius.
W.'s ca. forty-year rule was marked by the introduction of the Benedictine Rule, by pope John IV's declaration of Luxeuil to be an exempt abbey, by a considerable increase in the abbey's landed wealth, and by the continued development of its famous seventh-century scriptorium. Adso ascribes to him several lifetime miracles. Today is W.'s _dies natalis_. Miracles occurred at his grave in the abbey church; in the ninth century he was viewed as Luxeuil's protector and his remains, then preserved in a chasse, were carried in procession.
Here's an expandable view of a page from a late seventh-century lectionary from Luxueil (Paris lat. 9427, fol. 144), written within a few decades after W.'s death and showing the abbey's distinctive script. The text (after TEMPORE ILLO) is Acts 5:17ff.
http://tinyurl.com/3wze2b
4) Wiborada (d. 926). W. was a Swabian of noble birth who became a recluse at St. Gall. She has a late tenth- or eleventh-century Vita by the monk Hartmann (BHL 8866) and an eleventh-century Vita et Miracula by the monk Herimann (BHL 8867, 8868). W. was killed by Hungarian raiders. Pope Clement II canonized her in 1047 in the presence of the emperor Henry III. W. is the first woman saint to have been formally canonized for the Church as a whole.
In art, W. is shown with a book, representing the precious books of St. Gall that were transported to safety at Reichenau at her insistence, and a halbard, representing the manner of her death. Here's an example:
http://tinyurl.com/2ogrtq
5) Antoninus of Florence (d. 1459). A. (also Antonino Pierozzi) was born in Florence and christened Antonius; the diminutive name-form by which he is known reflects his small physical stature. His father was a notary. At the age of fifteen A. entered the Order of Friars Preacher at Florence's Santa Maria Novella, where he is said to have impressed Bl. Giovanni Dominici with his precocious legal knowledge (supposedly, he had memorized Gratian's _Decretum_). He was sent to Cortona to complete his novitiate and was ordained priest there in about 1413. W. rapidly became subprior and then prior at Cortona and thereafter served in a number of important administrative roles within his Order. In 1446 A. became bishop of Florence, where he had already founded a charitable society attending to needs of the poor.
A. distinguished himself by his preaching and by a corpus of legally oriented pastoral and theological writing; his major work is a _Summa moralis_. He was canonized in 1523.
Herewith a couple of illustrated, English-language pages on Santa Maria Novella:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_Novella
http://tinyurl.com/6ou7sh
Best,
John Dillon
(Hesperus, Zoe, Cyriac, and Theodulus, Athanasius of Alexandria, and Wiborada lightly revised from last year's post)
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