medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (2. August) is the feast day of:
1) Stephen I, pope (d. 257). S., a native of Rome, was a priest there when he succeeded pope St. Lucius in 254. He is known primarily for his latitudinarian view on the validity of baptisms performed by heretics or schismatics, in which he was opposed by St. Cyprian of Carthage and others. According to St. Augustine of Hippo, S. threatened to excommunicate those who disagreed with him on this matter (this included the entire church of Church, which had gone on record three times as stipulating that, to be admitted to the church, persons so baptized had to be re-baptized by someone in good standing) but refrained in the interest of church unity.
The Valerianic persecution began in the year of S.'s death. Whereas there is no evidence that S. died other than as a confessor (he's absent, for example, from the _Depositio Martyrum_ of the Chronographer of 354), a perhaps sixth-century Passio (BHL 7845-47) has him martyred after being arrested while celebrating Mass. One would think that it was his reputation as a martyr that placed him on so many medieval liturgical calendars. Still, the early ninth-century Marble Calendar of Naples enters him for today without employing either of its customary designations of a martyrial commemoration.
Here's S. with a martyr's palm in a Roman Missal of ca. 1370 (Avignon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 136, fol. 258v):
http://tinyurl.com/6ccpjg
Here's a late fifteenth-century depiction, in a Roman Breviary, of S.'s martyrdom (Clermont-Ferrand, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 69, fol. 493v):
http://tinyurl.com/57l7lt
2) Eusebius of Vercelli (d. 371). A Sardinian by birth, E. was a lector at Rome who in the early 340s became the first bishop of what is now Vercelli (VC) in today's Piedmont. Because he is known to have prescribed a form of community life for the clergy of his diocese the Augustinian Canons honor him as one of their founders. An upholder of Nicene orthodoxy against the Arian beliefs promoted by Constantius II, E. was exiled in 355 to Scythopolis in Palestine and was later in Cappadocia and then in Egypt, where he remained for some time after Julian had restored the exiled bishops in 362. Returning to Italy, he continued to oppose Arianism and died in his diocese on 1. August 371.
E.'s cult was widely diffused in northern Italy and in Gaul; Gregory of Tours owned a relic of him. Although the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology lists him under 1. August as a confessor, by the beginning of the eighth century he was believed to have been martyred in a renewed Arian persecution (so his _Vita antiqua_ [BHL 2748-49; legendary] and the historical martyrologies from Bede onward).
Roman-Byzantine Scythopolis, E.'s initial place of exile, is today's Beth Shean (Beit She'an) in Israel. It seems to have been quite a place. See:
http://tinyurl.com/6qbbqa
Vercelli's patron saint, E. is also the principal patron of the ecclesiastical region of Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta. His feast has moved around a bit since the Middle Ages. In 1573 Pius V approved for the Augustinians of Toul an Office for E. celebrated on 15. December (traditionally thought to have been the date of E.'s consecration as bishop). In 1602 Clement VIII extended this feast to the Roman church as a whole (hence E.'s absence from the _Acta Sanctorum_, which lacks the saints of December). Benedict XIII (1724-30) moved it to 16. December to avoid conflict with the Octave of the Conception of the BVM. With the recent revision (2001) of the RM, E.'s feast now falls today for the Roman church as a whole. But since 1961 it has by papal permission been celebrated in Piedmont on E.'s _dies natalis_, 1. August.
In 1581 relics said to be those of E. were discovered in Vercelli's then brand-new cathedral dedicated to him. Here's a view of his present reliquary:
http://www.vercelli.net/duomovc/urna.htm
Vercelli's cathedral also possesses this crucifix from about the year 1000:
http://www.vercelli.net/duomovc/bigcris.htm
An Italian-language account of this artifact is here:
http://www.vercelli.net/duomovc/croce.htm
Vercelli's Biblioteca Capitolare has many significant books, e.g.:
http://www.vercelli.net/duomovc/mostra.htm
A view of pages of the Vercelli Gospels, the oldest extant Latin gospel book:
http://www.vercelli.net/duomovc/bigcod.htm
A later fourth-century north Italian production traditionally believed to have been written by E. himself, this offers an Old Latin text with the gospels occurring in the following order (said to be that of frequency of use in the liturgy): Matthew, John, Luke, Mark. The volume was restored to its present state in 1910. Here's a view of its late
ninth-century covers (E. at left):
http://www.vercelli.net/duomovc/bigrileg.htm
Another view of the upper cover:
http://www.provincia.vercelli.it/musei/musei/m_tesoroduomo.htm
Of course, the Vercelli Gospels are not Vercelli's only gospel book of interest. Here's the Stoning of St. Eusebius from a fourteenth-century specimen:
http://www.vercelli.net/duomovc/bigminia.htm
Other treasures, including (last on this page) a page from the so-called Vercelli Book, a monument of religious literature in Old English:
http://www.archeovercelli.it/duomo.html
Expandable views of the same manuscript's pages containing _The Dream of the Rood_ are here (in the menu at left, click on Manuscript Images):
http://www.dreamofrood.co.uk/
We have a few letters by E., several others directed to him, and testimonies from such important figures as Hilary of Poitiers and Ambrose of Milan. E.'s translation into Latin of Eusebius of Caesarea's commentary on the Psalms, mentioned in Jerome's notice of E. in the _De viris illustribus_, is lost. A recent volume of studies, with a very rich bibliography on E., is Enrico dal Covolo, Renato Uglione, Giovanni M. Vian, eds., _Eusebio di Vercelli e il suo tempo_ (Roma: LAS, 1997).
3) Betharius of Chartres (d. early 7th cent.). According to his early ninth-century Vita (BHL 1318, 1319), the nobly born B. (also Boetharius; in French, Béthaire or Bohaire) was a native of Rome who served as chaplain to Chlothar II before being made bishop of Chartres a little after 595. During the war waged by the Burgundians Theudebert II and Theuderic II against Chlothar he led Chartrain resistance when the town was under siege from Theuderic's forces. Captured when the city was taken, he was brought to Theuderic as a prisoner, was released with other prisoners and with church goods that had been seized in the sack, and returned with many presents from the Burgundian king and his court. Among his miracles were his healing of a deaf man, of a girl who was possessed by an evil spirit, and of two blind men. B. died in old age and was taken up into heaven. Thus far the Vita.
The town of Saint-Bohaire (Loir-et-Cher) grew up around a church dedicated to B. The present one is said to be originally of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Here's an old-postcard view of it:
http://tinyurl.com/5fjxa9
The originally twelfth- and thirteenth-century church of Bazoches-les-Gallerandes (Loiret) is dedicated to the BVM and, it is sometimes said, to B., whose cranium was reportedly deposited in its predecessor. Herewith a brief history of the church and one view:
http://tinyurl.com/5bt99r
http://ecoledebazoches.free.fr/Bazoches/images/eglise1.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
(Eusebius of Vercelli revised from an older post)
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