medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (30. November) is the feast day of:
1) Andrew the Protoclete, apostle (d. 1st cent.). Like his brother Simon Peter today's well known saint of the Regno was a disciple of St. John the Forerunner before becoming an adherent of Jesus of Nazareth. According to Eusebius, he preached in Scythia, by which latter quite possibly is meant the Roman province of this name erected by Diocletian in today's southeastern Romania and northeastern Bulgaria (Ukrainians and Russians think otherwise, of course). Theodoret has A. preaching in Greece. From at least the fourth century onward it has been believed that he suffered martyrdom at Patras.
In 357 relics venerated as A.'s were brought from Patras to Constantinople's church of the Holy Apostles. Scots believe that in the eighth century their St. Regulus (Rule) brought A.'s relics from Constantinople to today's St Andrews in Fife.
Two illustrated pages on the St Rule Tower and the ruins of St Andrews cathedral at St Andrews are here:
http://tinyurl.com/5rdxce
http://tinyurl.com/yrfguc
But all in Campania know that in 1208 A.'s remains were brought from Constantinople to Amalfi, where they are now housed in the cathedral dedicated to him. Matthew of Amalfi's account of this translation, as published by the Comte de Riant in its later thirteenth-century revised version (in vol. 1 of succeeding versions of Riant's _Exuviae sacrae Constantinopolitanae_ ([1876; 1877-78]), repays reading in several respects.
Of course, neither Matthew nor his reviser had any idea that in the 1460s the Despot of Morea, Thomas Palaeologus, would bring with him into exile in Italy a head said to be that of St. Andrew, that Pius II would acquire it for the Roman church and use it as a propaganda device for his projected crusade against the Turks, that in this context Cardinal Bessarion would give a welcoming speech to A. in his partial presence in 1462 (a heady moment, no doubt), and that in 1964 Paul VI would "return" this relic plus a finger bone from A.'s relics in Amalfi to the Greek Orthodox church in Patras. A.'s right foot is said to be in the monastery of Agios Andreas on Kefalonia. Other relics believed to be his are in the skiti Ag. Andreas on Mt. Athos, a Russian foundation honoring one of that country's patron saints.
From at least 1250 until 1979, when it was transferred to A.'s church at Patras, a cross believed to be that of A. was preserved in the church of St. Victor at Marseille.
Herewith a few views of Amalfi's cattedrale di Sant'Andrea, begun in the tenth century and much reworked since then:
Facade:
http://www.terragalleria.com/europe/italy/amalfi-coast/picture.ital7489.html
http://www.antoniomucherino.it/photo/AmalfiDuomo.jpg
Atrium (thirteenth-century; rebuilt after the collapse of 1861):
http://greenlightwrite.com/Napamal15.JPG
http://www.artemisworks.plus.com/italy/amalfi/pages/duomo3.htm
Entrance, with the eleventh-century "bronze" doors whose plates were cast in Constantinople:
http://tinyurl.com/ygd9na
Door, detail:
http://www.euratlas.net/eon/amalfi.htm
Italian-language account giving the metallic composition of those plates:
http://www.amalfiscoast.com/italiano/scoprire/stor/bronzo_amalfi.htm
Thirteenth-century cloister:
http://www.ilmegliodisalerno.it/images/amalfi_duomo_chiostro.JPG
http://tinyurl.com/22nmpr
Cloister decor:
http://www.amalficoastweb.com/amalfi/italiano/chiostro.html
http://medivia.sele.it/MediviaFotoGrande.asp?Lingua=FRA&ID=83
Belltower, begun in the twelfth century and finished in 1276:
http://greenlightwrite.com/napamal14.JPG
http://tinyurl.com/68q9pt
http://tinyurl.com/66a7mk
The interior is largely early modern. A. is in the crypt (constructed in 1253 and redone in 1719), in the area shown here:
http://tinyurl.com/6947sh
specifically, under this altar:
http://www.globopix.net/dettaglio.asp?idi=12&i=5&pagina=11
Some medieval frescoes survive in the church. The one shown here portrays the first Grand Master of the Hospitallers of St. John, Bl. Gerardo Sasso of Scala, a local boy who made good:
http://ecostieramalfitana.it/diocesiamalfi/ordinema.htm
Or perhaps not so local. There's also a view that he came from Martigues (Bouches-du-Rhône) in Provence.
Wells Cathedral (twelfth- to fifteenth-century) is also dedicated to A. Some views, starting with the West Front:
http://tinyurl.com/2a4s9x
Various:
http://people.bath.ac.uk/absdfda/wells/pic/
Some views of Bordeaux' twelfth- to sixteenth-century cathédrale Saint-André:
http://tinyurl.com/25zvch
http://tinyurl.com/yrr8ca
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/157/400073846_1c6774fcf3_b.jpg
http://images.blog-24.com/680000/675000/675491.jpg
http://www.virtourist.com/europe/bordeaux/imatges/08.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/29hb86
http://tinyurl.com/32t739
http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/photos.cfm?ID=s0011463
Moving away from cathedral churches, an illustrated, Italian-language page on the originally twelfth-century chiesa di Sant'Andrea in Pistoia, with its famous pulpit (1297-1301) by Giovanni Pisano:
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiesa_di_Sant%27Andrea_(Pistoia)
The Italia nell'Arte Medievale page on this church (but the site is down again):
http://tinyurl.com/63nfny
More views of the pulpit:
http://tinyurl.com/64524z
http://www.thais.it/scultura/pistan.htm
An illustrated, German-language page on the originally thirteenth-century St. Andreaskirche in Braunschweig (badly damaged in 1944 and since restored):
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Andreas_(Braunschweig)
A more detailed German-language history of the church:
http://www.standreas.de/geschichte.htm
Another view of the towers:
http://tinyurl.com/5alojo
Two illustrated, English-language pages on the late fifteenth-/early sixteenth-century St Andrew's in Norwich:
http://tinyurl.com/6yrl79
http://tinyurl.com/5tw5ck
2) Mirocles (d. early 4th cent.). As bishop of Milan M. participated in the synods of Rome in 313 and of Arles in 314 that dealt with the Donatist question. With the exceptions of the Arian Auxentius (355-74) and of a line of bishops in exile in the later sixth and earlier seventh centuries, all the early bishops of Milan from its early third-century protobishop Anatolus through Natalis (d. 751) are considered saints. Among these, M. had in late antique and early medieval tradition a certain profile, probably because he was the incumbent when the Edicts of Milan were promulgated. St. Ambrose names him among his exemplary Catholic predecessors (_Ep._ 21. 18) and St. Ennodius (d. 521) thinks it worth mentioning that St. Epiphanius of Pavia (d. 496) was through his mother's family related to M. Today is his _dies natalis_.
3) Tudwal (d. mid-6th cent.). One of the seven founding saints of Brittany, T. (also Tugdual) is first recorded in a Breton liturgy of the tenth century. His originally eleventh- or twelfth-century Vita (different versions: BHL 8350, 8351, 8353) makes him a Welsh monk who arrives in Brittany at what would be the outset of the twelfth century and there, after spending some time as a hermit, founds a monastery at today's Tréguier (Côtes-d'Armor). Later T. goes on pilgrimage to Rome, is elected pope (taking the name of Leo), and returns to Tréguier, where he dies and is buried. Underlying this story is a misapprehension about the significance of T.'s appellation Pabu (Breton for 'father'), applied to Breton monastic founders and to the monasteries named for them.
The diocese of Tréguier was erected in 848. Its first cathedral is thought to have been destroyed by Northmen or, when the place was abandoned under the pressure of their attacks, to have succumbed to the elements. When a new cathedral was built in the later tenth century it was dedicated to T., as was also its originally fourteenth- and fifteenth-century successor, now a cathedral of the diocese of Saint-Brieuc et Tréguier. Some views of that structure:
http://tinyurl.com/5juhma
http://tinyurl.com/62d52b
http://tinyurl.com/5zcflx
http://tinyurl.com/6h6lps
Best,
John Dillon
(Andrew the Protoclete lightly revised from last year's post)
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