medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (15. December) is the feast day of:
1) Valerian of Abbenza (d. 457). V. is a martyr of the Vandal persecution in Africa. Our only source for him is Victor of Vita's sometimes tendentious _Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae_. An octogenarian, V. was expelled from the city of which he was bishop. His decree of banishment included a provision forbidding others to shelter him and he spent the brief remainder of his life on public roads. V. entered the historical martyrologies in the second edition of the martyrology of Florus of Lyon.
2) Maximin of Micy (d. ca. 520, supposedly). According to his early ninth-century Vita (BHL 5817) by Berthold of Micy, M. (in French: Mesmin, Même) was the first abbot of the monastery of Micy on the Loire near Orléans. This institution was believed to have been founded by Clovis towards the beginning of the sixth century; whether it really was that old is unknown. Relics said to be those of M. were preserved in the abbey church. Among his alleged disciples are St. Leonard of Noblac and M.'s reputed successor as abbot, St. Avitus. Excerpts translated by Thomas Head from Berthold's Vita of M. are here:
http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/~thead/berthold.htm
According to the Vita, M. was initially buried not at the abbey but in a spot of his own choosing where earlier he had killed a dragon. This place is now La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin (Loiret). Its originally late eleventh-/twelfth-century église Saint Mesmin has been much rebuilt. Herewith some views showing its partly restored early twelfth-century west portal. The second link is to a set of photographs whose views of the church are in the fifth line from the top:
http://tinyurl.com/6fjc83
http://tinyurl.com/3664fb
http://tinyurl.com/3duels
http://tinyurl.com/32o574
The former Prieuré Saint-Mesmin at Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine (Indre-et-Loire), dating from ca. 1060, was converted into a parish church in the thirteenth century and became private property with the suppression of the abbey in 1793. Here are two fairly recent views of the present structure:
http://tinyurl.com/2yc6z6
http://www.francebalade.com/valvienne/stemaumesm2.jpg
3) Marinus of La Cava (Bl.; d. 1170). This less well known holy person of the Regno was abbot of the Benedictine monastery of the Most Holy Trinity at what is now Cava de' Tirreni (SA) in Campania. It is said that when, shortly after his election in 1146, he went to Rome to receive the blessing of the pope he was awarded not only that but also the Roman monastery of San Lorenzo in Formoso (now known as San Lorenzo in Panisperna) in order to reform it according to Cavensian discipline. In 1149 M. got the same pope (Eugenius III) to make Holy Trinity at La Cava an abbey _nullius_. In 1156 he got king William I to confirm all the abbey's rights and possessions and to proclaim its status as a royal abbey.
During his lengthy time in office M., who had previously been the abbey's vestiarius (which put him in charge of a lot more than vestments), greatly increased the abbey's substance and embellished its church with marbles and with a polychrome mosaic floor. Though earthquakes and rebuilding have caused the loss of almost all this adornment, the abbey church retains a cosmatesque ambo from these years:
http://tinyurl.com/ozn96
Here's a view of the twelfth-century crypt, with re-used columns said to be originally of the ninth or tenth century:
http://www.scafati2.it/Cava/cripta.jpg
M.'s cult was confirmed in 1928.
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post lightly revised)
**********************************************************************
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
|