medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (11. August) is the feast day of:
1) Tiburtius of Rome (?). T. is a fairly shadowy martyr of the cemetery _ad duas lauros_ on the Via Labicana, where a martyr's church in his honor is recorded in the seventh-century guidebooks for pilgrims to Rome. Assuming that these are actually two distinct people, either he or his homonym of the group Tiburtius, Valerian, and Maximus (14. April; brought together in the Passio of St. Cecilia) may be the subject of pope St. Damasus I's uninformative epitaph preserved textually in the _Epigrammata Damasiana_ (ed. Ferrua, no. 31).
T.'s feast today is recorded in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology and in the so-called Calendar of St. Willibrord, where it is treated, probably erroneously, as that of Tiburtius, Valerian, and Maximus ([ps.-]HM) or of T., V., and Cecilia (Calendar of Willibrord), in Ado's martyrology, where the feast is that of T. and of his companions (Chromatius et al.) from the legendary Passio of St. Sebastian of Rome (BHL 7543), and in the Gelasian and Gregorian sacramentaries and the martyrology of Usuard, in all of which latter the feast is for T. alone. According to the aforementioned Passio, T., said to have been the son of the prefect Chromatius, whom he converted and baptized, was martyred in the pontificate of pope St. Gaius (d. 296). A connection with Gaius occurs in the legend of St. Susanna of Rome, also celebrated today (see next).
Herewith a page of views of the the originally twelfth- or thirteenth-century chiesa dei santi Tiburzio et Susanna at Gargonza di Monte San Savino (AR), recorded from 1304 as dedicated to T. alone (dual dedications to T. and S. appear to begin only in the Early Modern period) and restored in 1928:
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/geo8/421550
2) Susanna of Rome (?). S. is the saint of Rome's church of Santa Susanna, first recorded in 595 as the _titulus sanctae Susannae_ but already existing in 499 as the _titulus Gaii_. She has a legendary Passio (BHL 7937) explaining the transition in nomenclature by making her the niece of pope St. Gaius and a cousin of the emperor Diocletian under whom she and her father St. Gabinus are said to have been martyred. Here's a view of her present resting place in the crypt:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelsax/147964549/
3) Rufinus of Assisi (?). A congeries of related texts makes R. a bishop of Amasia in Pontus who together with his son Caesidius migrated to central Italy, where they consecrated a church in what later became the diocese of the Marsi (today's diocese of Avezzano). Leaving Caesidius in charge there (where he met his own martyrdom, celebrated on 31. August), R. proceeded northward to Umbria, where he evangelized Assisi, suffered martyrdom, and lives on as the city's legendary proto-bishop. For a detailed study of the hagiographic traditions, see Francesco Scorza Barcellona, "Rufino e Cesidio, santi della Marsica," in Gennaro Luongo, ed., _La Terra dei Marsi: cristianesimo, cultura, istituzioni. Atti del Convegno di Avezzano 24-26 settembre 1998_ (Roma: Viella, 2002), pp. 265-85.
R.'s two chief architectural monuments are his cathedral at Assisi and the church at Trasacco (AQ) whose dedication he shares with Caesidius. The latter was covered in some detail in last year's account of Caesidius; most of the links there still work:
http://tinyurl.com/6fbzg4
Herewith the Italia nell'Arte Medievale page on it and another set (three pages) of detail views:
http://tinyurl.com/ypk3tx
http://tinyurl.com/k8843
Herewith some views, etc. of the cattedrale di San Rufino at Assisi (begun, 1135-40; interior drastically renovated, 1571):
Overview (some thumbnail views):
http://www.terrainvisibile.it/assisi/doc/ita/cruf.htm
Exterior:
Facade and belltower:
http://home.scarlet.be/~tor-4401/toscane/t26%20assise%20san%20rufino.htm
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/7aslg
http://www.eleves.ens.fr/aumonerie/Assise04/san_rufino1.jpg
http://www.umbria.org/assisi/assisi/SRufino.htm
Facade (details and Italian-language interpretation):
http://itis.volta.alessandria.it/episteme/ep6/ep6-papi.htm
West portal:
http://www.terrainvisibile.it/assisi/foto/portaruf.jpg
http://www.eleves.ens.fr/aumonerie/Assise04/san_rufino2.jpg
The customary interpretation of the figures in the lunette is that these represent the Madonna and Child, Christ Enthroned, and R. On this page, though,
http://www.umilta.net/pilgrim.html
, one can read a rather different interpretation (The Woman Clothed With the Sun, God Enthroned, St. John writing his Apocalypse).
Interior:
Overview and thumbnails:
http://www.umbria.org/assisi/assisi/SRufinointr.htm
Plan:
http://tinyurl.com/67kfqs
4) Digna of Todi (?). D. is a local saint of Todi in Umbria whose putative remains were translated in 1301 along with those of St. Romana (23. February) to that city's newly constructed church of St. Fortunatus, begun in 1292. Her connection with Romana (dubiously said to have been a virgin hermit if the early fourth century) has led to the supposition that she too was a virgin hermit of late antiquity. Todi's statutes of 1335 made D.'s feast day a public holiday. D.'s cult was once widespread in Umbria. One visible remainder of that is the thirteenth-century apse of a church dedicated to her (Santa Degna) at today's Montignano di Massa Martana (PG). Still venerated in Todi, D. was dropped from the RM in its revision of 2001.
Herewith some views of Todi's Tempio di San Fortunato:
http://www.todi.net/fortunato.htm
http://www.moveaboutitaly.com/umbria/todi_san_Fortunato_it.html
http://tinyurl.com/kl6uj
Interior:
http://tinyurl.com/onxkt
http://www.thais.it/architettura/Gotica/HR/345.htm
http://www.thais.it/architettura/Gotica/HR/346.htm
Details (architectural and pictorial):
http://www.abiyoyo.com/italia/umbria/Todi2/Todi.htm
5) Cassian of Benevento (d. 4th cent., supposedly). This less well known saint of the Regno is the traditional fourth bishop of Benevento. He is said to have been buried in that city's eighth-century monastic church of Santa Sofia. In the twelfth century one of Santa Sofia's dependencies was a now vanished parish church dedicated to C. Elsewhere in Campania C. is the probable eponym of an also now vanished monastery at today's San Cassiano di San Potito Sannitico (CE). Though today is C.'s day of commemoration in the RM, his traditional _dies natalis_ and feast day is tomorrow, 12. August. The proximity of that date to the feast of the better known St. Cassian of Imola (13. August) has led some to suppose that today's C. is really the latter re-imagined locally as an early bishop.
Some views of Santa Sofia (completed, 762):
http://tinyurl.com/yrtne8
http://colloca1.interfree.it/vistalaterale.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/22j6er
http://tinyurl.com/625eud
6) Equitius of Valeria (d. by 571). All we know about this less well known saint of the Regno comes from St. Gregory the Great's _Dialogues_ (1. 4). A contemporary of St. Benedict of Nursia and of Montecassino, he was active as a founder and supervisor of monasteries in the Roman province of Valeria (parts of today's Lazio and Abruzzo) and was himself abbot at a place that seems to have been near ancient Amiternum. One may read about his exorcisms and miracles here:
http://tinyurl.com/2sgutt
According to Gregory, E. was buried at an oratory of St. Lawrence. A monastery dedicated to L. at today's Marruci di Pizzoli (AQ), not far from the remains of Amiternum, was in existence by the ninth century; E.'s putative remains were venerated in in the crypt of its church, now Pizzoli's much rebuilt chiesa di San Lorenzo. Some views of the church and of its Cripta Equiziana:
http://tinyurl.com/27w7h5
http://www.marruci.it/7.htm15.jpg
http://www.marruci.it/3.htm5.jpg
http://www.marruci.it/3.htm7.jpg
http://www.marruci.it/3.htm6.jpg
http://www.marruci.it/3.htm8.jpg
Quarters of the nearby city of L'Aquila were settled from outlying towns in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century and had churches dedicated to those towns' patron saints, including Marruci's St. Lawrence. Over time these churches reclaimed from the towns of origin what were now also these quarters' patron saints. E.'s turn came in 1461, when his relics were "discovered" at San Lorenzo in Marruci and translated to the homonymous church in L'Aquila. In the eighteenth century these were removed to their present location, L'Aquila's Chiesa di Santa Margherita della Forcella. Herewith a view of E.'s present resting place in that church's chapel dedicated to him:
http://santiebeati.it/immagini/Original/91219/91219.JPG
At L'Aquila, where he is one of the city's patron saints, and at Marruci di Pizzoli E. has been celebrated on 12. August since at least the fifteenth century. Today is his day of commemoration in the new RM (2001, rev. 2004).
7) Clare of Assisi (d. 1253). This early disciple of St. Francis of Assisi and founder of the order that after her death became known as the (Poor) Clares needs no introduction to this list. Herewith the Italia nell'Arte Medievale page on the chiesa di Santa Chiara at Assisi (built between 1257 and 1265; C. was canonized in 1255):
http://tinyurl.com/2r6hcf
and a view of her portrait (ca. 1312-1320) by Simone Marini in the lower basilica of St. Francis at assisi:
http://tinyurl.com/59qjhq
Best,
John Dillon
(Rufinus of Assisi, Digna of Todi, Cassian of Benevento, and Equitius of Valeria revised from older posts)
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