medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (1. October) is the feast day of:
1) Piat (?). P. (Piatus, Piaton, Platon, etc.) is a local saint of Hainaut and Flanders whose relics St. Eligius, bishop of Noyon from 641 to 659/60, found at today's Seclin in the French département du Nord and whom he there enshrined. By the tenth century P. had a legendary Passio (BHL 6845; several later versions) that makes him a native of the duchy/principality of Benevento (which, if true, would also make him a saint of the Regno) who is ordained priest at Rome by St. Denis, who accompanies Denis and St. Quentin to Gaul, who evangelizes in the territory of Tournai, is arrested in the same persecution that leads to the martyrdoms of Sts. Denis, Quentin, Lucian, Crispin, and Crispinian, refuses to apostasize, is tortured, and finally is executed on this day by decapitation (later versions make him a cephalophore). Prior to his death, L. had converted thirty thousand, not counting women and little children.
Still according to the Passio, miracles at P.'s death and an odor of sanctity emanating from his nostrils as his body is prepared for burial confirm his sanctity. Further miracles are reported at his tomb, at which the ill, the blind, the lame, and the demonically possessed are healed and the prayers of the faithful are heard.
A French-language description and a couple of views of the originally twelfth-century église Saint-Piat at Tournai:
http://www.tournai.be/fr/officiel/index.php?page=88
http://tinyurl.com/45v2hu
http://tinyurl.com/4smo47
A couple of illustrated pages, one in English and one in French, with rather different content, on P. and the originally thirteenth-century église collégiale Saint-Piat at Seclin:
http://tinyurl.com/3rbnoy
http://www.amisdesgeants.org/pages/retour_st_piat.html
P.'s fourteenth-century chapel at Chartres:
http://tinyurl.com/48nsh9
Many views, including his window in the chapel and sculpted repesentations of him on the cathedral:
http://tinyurl.com/3ltc8g
2) Romanus the Melode (d. betw. 555 and 565). The great hymnographer R., a native of Emesa (today's Homs) in Syria, was a convert from Judaism. He was a deacon at Berytus (now Beirut) before moving on to Constantinople in the last years of the reign of Anastasius I (491-518). There he served at the church of the Theotokos at Blachernae and wrote a large body of distinguished work, including (by tradition, at least) the Akathist hymn to Mary.
3) Bavo (d. ca. 655). Little is known about the historic B. (Flemish: Baaf), a local saint of G(h)ent/Gand after whom one of its medieval monasteries was named and who is the the dedicatee of that city's late medieval cathedral. According to his first Vita (BHL 1049; thought to have been written ca. 825), he was a member of the Frankish great nobility who after the death of his wife attached himself to St. Amand, by whom he was instructed in the religious life. When A. had founded the monastery of St. Peter at G(h)ent/Gand B. (whose baptismal name was Allowin or Adlowin) made his profession there and stayed in that community. Later he became a recluse on the site, immured in a tiny cell. There he resisted diabolic temptation, experienced celestial visions, and died on this day in an unspecified year. Miracles accompanied his burial and a cult arose. Thus far this Vita.
Later Vitae, starting with a fairly lengthy metrical one (BHL 1050) in leonine hexameters, elaborate upon this account.
An illustrated, English-language site on St. Baafs Abdij / St. Bavo's Abbey, G(h)ent begins here (there's a menu of links to other pages at lower left):
http://www4.gent.be/gent/english/monument/stbaafs.htm
The lavatorium (ca. 1160):
http://tinyurl.com/46g3yr
A set of views of buildings in the abbey:
http://www.rd-fotografie.be/NL/Abdij_Stbaafs.html#
Another set of views starts here and runs to the end of the album:
http://tinyurl.com/4n5lpb
Herewith three illustrated pages outlining the history of the church at G(h)ent/Gand that in the early fifteenth century came to be called after B. and that in the 1560s became that city's cathedral:
http://www.trabel.com/gent/gent-saintbavo.htm
http://tinyurl.com/2zvhzb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Bavo_Cathedral
More views:
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/st_bavo.html
This cathedral is home to Jan van Eyck's celebrated Ghent Altarpiece, finished in 1432. An illustrated page on that is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghent_Altarpiece
and a better view of open front is here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/eyck/ghent/ghentopn.jpg
Another architecturally interesting dedication to B. is the originally fourteenth-century (with some remains from an eleventh-century predecessor) Sint Baafskerk at Aardenburg in Sluis (Zeeuws-Vlaanderen). An illustrated, Dutch-language page on this church, considered the most complete example of the local building style called Scheldegotiek, is here:
http://www.aardenburg-cultuurstad.nl/
(in the menu at left, click on 'Sint Baafskerk')
A different view of one of the painted sarcophagi noted towards the bottom of that page (some of these are from another church):
http://data.tumblr.com/4640159_500.jpg
Some single views (exterior):
http://tinyurl.com/ywpgj4
http://tinyurl.com/2gzt9n
An illustrated discussion of the originally late fifteenth- or very early sixteenth-century Sint Bavokerk at Zingem (Oost-Vlaanderen) is here:
http://www.zingem.be/html/index.php?selectie=urbanus
And here's one on the Sint Baafskerk at Zellik in Asse (Brabant):
http://www.pajotseparels.be/2007/02/09/sint-baafskerk/
Both these churches and the one at Aardenburg began as dependencies of B.'s abbey at G(h)ent/Gand.
Moving back to The Netherlands, some views of the fourteenth- to early sixteenth-century St. Bavokerk in Haarlem:
Exterior:
http://tinyurl.com/2ac63x
http://www.zylstra.org/foto/archives/001819.html
Interior:
http://www.bavo.nl/bladen/welkomkerk.htm
http://tinyurl.com/25x9kt
A seventeenth-century view by Pieter Saenredam:
http://tinyurl.com/2cdlop
Another, by Gerrit Adriaenszoon Berckheyde
http://tinyurl.com/23hyph
B. is often portrayed with a falcon on his wrist, as in these well known examples by Hieronymus Bosch (1490):
http://tinyurl.com/2klu6z
and by Geertgen tot Sint Jans (also late fifteenth-century):
http://www.chinaoilpainting.com/htmlimg/image-29203.htm
Best,
John Dillon
(Bavo lightly revised from last year's post)
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|