medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (23. October) is the feast day of:
1) Severinus Boethius (d. ca. 525). Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius is too well known to require an account in this context. For a brief overview (unfortunately scanting B.'s medievally very influential arithmetical and musical writings), see John Marenbon's entry on him in the _Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy_:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/boethius/
B.'s cult at Pavia is at least as old as the thirteenth century; it was confirmed by Leo XIII in 1883. The choice of the day -- B.'s supposed _dies natalis_ -- is thought to have arisen from its being the feast day of St. Severinus of Köln (no. 2, below; easily replaceable at Pavia).
A view of B.'s tomb in Pavia's church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro:
http://tinyurl.com/ssgz6
Some other Boethian visuals:
Dedication portrait of B. offering the _De institutione arithmetica_ to his father-in-law, Symmachus (Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, Ms. Msc. Class. 5 [olim HJ IV 12]; ca. 845):
http://www.historisches-franken.de/stadtplanung/bilder/bamberg264.jpg
Portrait of B. the authority on music (Cambridge University Library, Ms. Ii.3.12, fol. 61v; ca. 1130):
http://tinyurl.com/yhxydx
Same, showing colors of the original and location on page:
http://tinyurl.com/ylkwwm
Chartres Cathedral, west facade, right portal. The top two figures at right in the central archivolt (ca. 1145-55) represent Arithmetica and, below her and bearded, her outstanding ancient authority, B.:
http://tinyurl.com/jwqy5
http://tinyurl.com/yqxecs
This page has several expandable views of illuminations depicting B. from fourteenth- and fifteenth-century manuscripts of the _Consolatio Philosophiae (in Middle French) and of a Latin-language commentary on the _Consolatio_:
http://tinyurl.com/2p7vjt
Miniatures of B. teaching students and in prison (Glasgow University Library, Ms. Hunter 374 [olim V.1.11]; ca. 1385):
http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/images/chaucer/H374_0004r.jpg
Same, first miniature only:
http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/treasures/boethius.html
The opening miniature of a fifteenth-century manuscript of Laurent de Premierfait's French-language translation of Boccaccio's _De casibus virorum illustrium_ (Glasgow University Library, Ms. Hunter 371-372 [olim V.1.8-9]; 1467), with Fortune showing her wheel and B. at lower left:
http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/images/chaucer/H371_0001r.jpg
2) Severinus of Köln (d. later 4th cent.). S. is traditionally the third bishop of Köln. St. Gregory of Tours reports, probably from oral tradition, both that he was a _vir honestae vitae et per cuncta laudabilis_ and that at the moment of St. Martin's death he heard singing from a heavenly choir (_De virtutibus Martini_, 1. 4). S. has a ninth- or tenth-century Vita (BHL 7647, 7648) that (conflating him with St. Severinus of Bordeaux) makes him a native of Aquitaine and a foe of heresy, reports that he died on a visit to Bordeaux and that for a long time his cult was not observed in Köln, and that, after a request for his return and a dispute between the people of the two cities over their saint, half of his body was returned to Köln, where it was laid to rest in a church he had founded in honor of Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian. From the tenth century onward, S. had an active cult in the regions of the Rhine and the Meuse.
Herewith some illustrated, German-language accounts, etc. of Köln's eleventh- to early sixteenth-century Pfarrkirche St. Severin, built over what had been a Roman and then a Frankish cemetery:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Severin_(K%C3%B6ln)
http://www.willkommeninkoeln.de/11sight/sight76e.htm
http://tinyurl.com/56odp4
http://tinyurl.com/5pl3ad
Views of the early thirteenth- to fifteenth-century century Kirche St. Severinus at Erpel (Landkr. Neuwied) in Rheinland-Pfalz (the tower is from a predecessor):
http://www.tc-erpel.de/images/bilder/Kirche.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/69fkl6
http://tinyurl.com/6cqyez
An illustrated page on the Sts. Severinus and Anno window (ca. 1330) in Köln's cathedral:
http://www.koelner-dom.de/index.php?id=17433&L=1
3) Romanus of Rouen (d. earlier 7th cent.). Rouen's principal patron saint, R. occupies the thirteenth position in the list of its bishops. A translation of his relics is reported as having taken place in 841. R. has a series of legendary Vitae (BHL 7310, etc.) from the eleventh century onward that make him a thaumaturge. He is also said to have overcome a dragon (la Gargouille).
The originally twelfth-century north tower of Rouen's cathedral (greatly restored after damage in World War II) is named for R. Some views:
http://tinyurl.com/5lngpj
http://tinyurl.com/5zd2w7
R.'s thirteenth-century châsse in the cathedral treasury:
http://tinyurl.com/5dqoy8
Rouen's cathedral has two originally sixteenth-century windows devoted to R., the first from ca. 1521:
http://tinyurl.com/62wf8e
http://www.rouen-histoire.com/Vitraux/Transept_S/ST_Romain2.htm
4) Allucio (d. 1134). A. is a popular lay saint of Valdinievo in Tuscany, where he is the patron saint of Pescia (PT). Most of what we know about him was collected by a bishop of Lucca, who accorded A.'s remains a formal recognition on 1344 and who put together a series of documents pertaining to him, one of which is a Vita created for this dossier (BHL 303). A. is said to have been a herdsman who restored and expanded the hospice of Valdinievole at today's Sant'Allucio (formerly Campugliano), a _frazione_ of Uzzano (PT). He is also said to have gathered a community of lay brothers who built other hospices in the region and, near one of these, a bridge over the Arno. A. was buried at Campugliano. In 1182 his remains were unearthed and translated to the hospice's church, which is where they were in 1344. Since 1793 they have been in the cathedral of Pescia. A.'s cult was papally confirmed for that diocese in 1764 and again in 1851.
5) John of Capestrano (d. 1456). The youngest son of the lord of Capestrano (AQ) in Abruzzo, today's less well known saint of the Regno was educated at home and then at the university of Perugia, where he took a degree in law. In 1413 he was appointed to the governing board of Perugia. Two years later, though, he was forcibly deposed and imprisoned by a returning exile faction that had retaken the city with the aid of the famous condottiere Braccio da Montone. While recovering from a broken leg sustained in a failed escape attempt J. received a vision in which St. Francis of Assisi invited him to join his order. Ransoming himself for a heavy sum, he took the Franciscan habit in 1416 at the age of thirty. His theological training proceeded rapidly. In 1418 J. became a secular priest and was made papal inquisitor against the Fraticelli.
The remainder of J.'s career was spent as a preacher and as a defender of orthodox Catholic belief. He became a prolific author, writing treatises on dogmatics, moral theology, and law as well numerous sermons and a Vita of St. Bernardino of Siena to be used for the latter's canonization. He never lost his interest in his Abruzzese homeland and at different times founded a hospital at L'Aquila and, in the same city, had a church erected in Bernardino's honor. In 1452 he was made papal inquisitor in territories of the Holy Roman Empire, where he spent much of his time in the east, working against Hussites. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 made J. a soldier. He had a prominent role in the Hungarian crusade led by János Hunyadi against the Turks and died shortly after the successful defense of Belgrade in 1456.
J.'s cult was confirmed in 1514 for the diocese of Sulmona and was extended to the entire Roman church in 1622. He was canonized in 1690 with a Francisan feast day falling on 23. October. In 1885 (the estimated 500th anniversary of his birth) J. was placed on the general Roman Calendar with a feast day of 28 March (since changed to today).
Capestrano is a strategically placed, walled hilltown overlooking the valley of the Tirino:
Views:
http://tinyurl.com/bywnu
http://tinyurl.com/a9f6p
http://tinyurl.com/8zukl
Dominated at one end by its castle (which assumed its present form -- apart from the modern windows -- in the later fifteenth century under the Piccolomini of Amalfi):
http://tinyurl.com/97476
http://tinyurl.com/7gjl2
, it has an old quarter that includes a house now shown as that of J.
Interior views of this are here:
http://tinyurl.com/aa9nd
and here:
http://tinyurl.com/88tkw
Outside of the town proper is the formerly monastic church of San Pietro ad Oratorium, once a property of San Vincenzo al Volturno. In its present form it is a very late eleventh- and early twelfth-century structure notable for, among other things, the carvings of its portal, its ciborium, and its partly preserved frescoes. A few views (expandable) are here:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/eccip/images/san%20pietro/index.htm
An English-language discussion (click on the Italian version for help when things become unclear) with expandable thumbnails is here:
http://www.abruzzoheritage.com/magazine/2002_03/0203_a.htm
And an Italian-language discussion with expandable views (especially good for the carvings) is here:
http://tinyurl.com/dmw4r
(That's the Italia nell'Arte Medievale page, whose site is still offline as of this writing)
Also in the vicinity is the monastery of San Giovanni da Capestrano, founded by the saint in 1447 and containing in its museum a variety of objects once in J.'s personal possession:
http://web.tiscali.it/capestrano/convento.htm
Much rebuilt in the early modern period, it retains elements of the original construction in its cloister:
http://tinyurl.com/78vkv
http://tinyurl.com/8ce7o
Best,
John Dillon
(Severinus Boethius and John of Capestrano lightly revised from last year's post)
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