medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
In Greek monasticism the practice of receiving a new name seems rather earlier than this. In the ninth century the former emperor Michael I Rhangabe took the name Athanasius upon entering religion. According to his tenth-century Bios the ninth-century Elias of Enna had been baptized Joseph and took the name Elias upon entering religion in Jerusalem. The Sicilian Leo of Corleone who became Luke upon entering a monastic community in Calabria and is now generally known as St. Leo Luke seems also to have lived in the ninth century. One tenth-century example is Lazarus the Stylite, who baptismal name is said to have been Leo.
The earliest Western instance I can think of, centuries before the practice became standard, is Biscop Baducing who took the name Benedict in the 660s and who is known to history as Benedict Biscop. Though the circumstances under which this change of name occurred are not altogether clear, the choice of Benedict certainly indicates a monastic context (compare B.'s contemporary Cĉdwalla who in 689 took the name Peter when baptized by the pope in Rome).
Best,
John Dillon
On Tuesday, May 6, 2008, at 1:15 am, Paul Chandler wrote:
> According to V. Macca, "Nome di religione", Dizionario degli Istituti
> di
> Perfezione, 6 (1980): 321-325, this is a fairly recent custom, which becomes
> widespread with the religious reform movements around the time of the
> Council of Trent.
>
> J.P. Müller on the Benedictines (ibid. 323) says the custom appeared with
> the reform of Bursfeld (1430s) and became widespread only in the Baroque
> era.
>
> B. Rano on the Augustinians (ibid. 323-324) says the custom from the
> 13th c.
> was to use the name and a toponym (Nicola da Tolentino), until 1581
> when the
> Constitutions prescribe that the prior can give a new name to a novice
> "si
> videtur expedire", after which practice varied from province to province.
>
> Mariano d'Alatri on the Capuchins (ibid. 324-325) says at the
> beginning not
> all changed their names but substituted a toponym for their surname, which
> he traces back to early Franciscan usage (Bonaventura da Bagnoregio, etc.)
>
> The use of devotional names (John of the Cross, Mary of the Angels, etc.),
> as far as I know, begins in the 16th c. and was generally a marker of
> a
> Reformed or Recollect group. -- Paul Chandler
>
> 2008/5/6 John Wickstrom <[log in to unmask]>:
>
> > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> >
> > Do any of the esteemed list members know at what point monks and nuns
> > began taking new names on joining the monastic community? It strikes
> me that
> > the Rule of Benedict says nothing of this custom but I recall that Hrabanus
> > Maurus took the name of Benedict's young associate (in Gregory's Dialogues),
> > so perhaps sometime between 600 and 800?
> >
> > thanks
> >
> > jbw
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