medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Yesterday (14. May) was also the feast day of:
1) Isidore of Chios (d. 250 or 251, supposedly). The megalomartyr I. has an early Passio (BHG 960) that's thought be of the first half of the fifth century and probably to have been written on Chios, where he has long been the patron saint. According to this text, I. was was sailor on the Roman fleet who while stationed on Chios during the Decian persecution was denounced as a Christian, steadfastly maintained his faith during an interrogation by his naval commander, had his tongue removed as a punishment for contumacy, was executed by decapitation on 14. May, and was given honorable burial by a comrade. By the time of St. Gregory of Tours (_In gloria martyrum_, 101) one could visit both his large martyrial basilica on Chios and a well in which it was said his body had first been thrown. Here's a view of the remains of that basilica:
http://www.travel-to-chios.com/place.php?place_id=86
The last three views (expandable) on this page from the Archeological Museum of Chios show mosaics and column capitals from that church:
http://www.chiosonline.gr/gallery_museum.asp
Outside of Chios, the veneration of relics of I. is attested for North Africa and for Constantinople in the fifth century and for Rome by the end of the eighth century (when a church dedicated to him was recorded in the Einsiedeln Itinerary). A relatively late legendary Passio (BHG 961) makes I. a native of Alexandria in Egypt (a major base for the East Roman fleet until 641); his veneration in the Coptic church has produced further legendary Passiones in that tongue. For the probable veneration of this I. as the titular of the church of the originally tenth-century Benedictine abbey at Dueñas (Palencia) in Castile, see the article by Charles Julian Bishko reproduced here:
http://libro.uca.edu/monastic/monastic6.htm
Some views of the now Trappist monasterio de San Isidro at Dueñas:
http://tinyurl.com/ok5m27
Shortly after 1125 Venetians removed I.'s remains from his basilica on Chios and brought them to thier city, where since 1354/55 they have reposed in the chapel dedicated to him in San Marco. The chapel's rich decor includes mosaics illustrating scenes from I.'s life as well as his translation to Venice. Does anyone have views of these to share?
At some point in the Middle Ages or (perhaps) early in the early modern period a church dedicated to I. (Agios Isidoros) was erected near today's Neochori in Agios Minas on Chios at a spot reputed to have been that of his execution. This church was badly damaged by invading Turks in 1822 and was later rebuilt on the same plan. Some of the lower courses of its masonry may be survivors from the earlier structure:
http://tinyurl.com/qge897
http://tinyurl.com/p678bn
In the Latin historical martyrologies from Florus of Lyon through the RM prior to the latter's revision of 2001 I. was commemorated today (15. May). The "new" RM moved his commemoration to the day given in his early Passio (also I.'s ordinary feast day in the Greek church).
2) Felix and Fortunatus (d. ca. 304, supposedly). F. and F. (sometimes both called "of Aquileia") are martyrs of northeastern Italy of whom St. Venantius Fortunatus says in his _De virginitate_ (vv. 165-66) that Vicenza rejoices in Felix for his merits and that Aquileia boasts Fortunatus as its own. They have a legendary Passio (BHL 2860) whose oldest witness has been dated to the eleventh century and that makes them brothers from Vicenza who were martyred at Aquileia under Diocletian and Maximian, with the Vicentines reclaiming Felix' body and the Aquileians retaining that of Fortunatus. But each city appears to have had relics of both at an early date. From their martyrial churches their joint cult spread widely in the Middle Ages across northern Italy from the diocese of Aquileia, where they were celebrated on 14. August, to that of Milan, where they were celebrated on 14. May (so also in the Passio and in the diocese of Vicenza).
Aquileia's relics of both saints were translated in the early Middle Ages first to Grado and then to Malamocco in the Venetian lagoon. In about 1100 they were moved to Chioggia, where F. and F. now repose in that city's seventeenth-century cathedral and where they are the patron saints, celebrated in early June. Here's a view of their chapel in the cathedral:
http://www.cartoleriapegaso.com/images/duomo_interno_2.jpg
In Vicenza, the present basilica dei Santi Felice e Fortunato is a replacement for one destroyed by Magyars in 889. Built into a paleochristian cemetery, it incorporates as a chapel a fifth-century martyrion that, according to an inscribed stela that De Rossi dated as early as the first half of the fourth century, honored both saints. The church was badly damaged in the great earthquake of 1117 and was rebuilt shortly afterward; its present look dates from a restoration in the 1930s. An illustrated, Italian-language page on it is here:
http://tinyurl.com/qlnbp6
And here are some views of mosaics undergoing restoration or recently restored in the former martyrion (now the sacello di S.Maria Mater Domini):
http://www.operarestauro.it/?PAG=4&SEZ=21&SCH=31
3) Hallvard (d. 1043, supposedly). Tradition makes H. the son of a prominent farmer of Huseby in Lier (Buskerud), Norway. He became a trader in the Baltic. One day, while his ship was in the Drammenfjord, he gave sanctuary on it to a women suspected of theft. In at least one account, she was pregnant. Her enemies shot him/them to death with arrows. Wishing to conceal H.'s fate, they tied a millstone to his body and threw it into the fjord. Miraculously, both the body and the millstone floated to the surface, H. was buried at Lier, then in the diocese of Oslo. In the twelfth century his relics were translated to Oslo's new cathedral dedicated to him (now a ruin); his Passio (BHL 3750) may date from the 1170s. H., who has been shown on the city's seal since the fourteenth century, is Oslo's patron saint. Today (15. May) is his feast day in Norway.
Some views of the remains of Oslo's Hallvardskatedralen:
http://tinyurl.com/2ec46m
http://tinyurl.com/5lwjxr
The restored, originally early thirteenth-century church of St. Nicholas at Botne in Holmestrand (Vestfold) has an originally thirteenth-century wooden statue of H.:
http://tinyurl.com/ourbd7
http://www.lier.kommune.no/liers-historie/5-117.gif
An originally thirteenth-century church at Løvøy in Borre (Vestfold) is dedicated to H. (and to St. Martin of Tours). Here's an illustrated account of it in its present restored state:
http://tinyurl.com/r7bbbd
Whereas this page has some revealing, expandable views of the building prior to restoration:
http://tinyurl.com/yp4d5c
And here's a view of H.'s holy spring at Lier:
http://www.olavsrosa.no/images/251872.jpg
Lucky Oslo: it gets to celebrate its patron saint just before the national holiday (Syttende mai, commemorating the signing of independent Norway's constitution on 17. May 1814).
Best,
John Dillon
(Hallvard lightly altered from a post of 2008)
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