medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (28. October) is the feast day of:
1) Simon and Jude, apostles (d. 1st cent.). S. (Simon the Zealot; Simon Cananaeus) and J. (Jude Thaddaeus, Jude of James) occur next to each other in lists of the Twelve Apostles (Mt 10:3, 4; Mk 3:18; Lk 6:15; Acts 1:13). It is not certain that J. is the author of the Epistle that bears his hardly unique name. The reported places and manners of their deaths vary enormously. The two have a legendary, originally late antique Passio (BHL 7749-7750a) that calls S. 'S. Chananaeus' and J. 'J. Zelotes' and that narrates their evangelizing, conflict with magi, and subsequent martyrdom on this day in what would appear to be Parthia. Or perhaps Armenia, where they are traditionally considered its apostles along with St. Bartholomew and where J. (as Thaddaeus) and Bartholomew are commemorated jointly on 28. November. In many Eastern churches S. is celebrated on 10. May and J. is celebrated on 19. June.
Some depictions:
a) The Sts. Simon and Jude window (ca. 1220-1225) of the cathedral of Notre-Dame at Chartres, showing a scene from their Passio:
http://tinyurl.com/ykcgkt2
b) S. and J. in a panel painting of ca. 1324-1325 by Ugolino di Nerio, once part of his now dismembered Santa Croce Altarpiece and now in the National Gallery in London:
http://tinyurl.com/yha7k85
c) S.'s crucifixion as depicted in the May calendar in the fourteenth-century nave frescoes of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending on one's view of the matter, Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/ylz7sur
d) J. as depicted in fresco (ca. 1440) by Bicci di Lorenzo, formerly in the cathedral of Florence and now in its Museo dell'opera del duomo:
http://tinyurl.com/yhmo9m5
e) S. and J. overcoming demons in the presence of magi and the king of Babylon as depicted in a later fifteenth-century (1463) illustrated copy of Vincent de Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in the translation by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 50, fol. 335v):
http://tinyurl.com/yjht8us
f) S. and J. accused by magi as depicted in an even later fifteenth-century (ca. 1480-1490) illustrated copy of Vincent de Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in the translation by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 245, fol. 148v):
http://tinyurl.com/yfsrxtx
g) S. (at left, with the saw by which he is often said late medievally to have suffered) in a panel of the high altar (1503 or 1504) of the Münster St. Marien und St.Jakobus in Heilsbronn in Bavaria:
http://tinyurl.com/yhe4wkc
Some churches:
a) Views of what's left of the originally later eleventh-/earlier twelfth-century church of S. and J. at Goslar in Niedersachsen:
http://tinyurl.com/ylkfsuh
http://tinyurl.com/yhucppm
b) An illustrated page on the originally twelfth-century church of St Simon and St Jude, Bramdean (Hants):
http://www.upperitchen.org/index.php?id=54
c) An illustrated, English-language page and some single views of the originally thirteenth-/fifteenth-century H.H. Simon en Judaskerk in Ootmarsum (Twente) in Overijssel, restored most recently in 1969-1973 with a chiefly interior renovation following in 2003:
http://overijsselchurches.tripod.com/ootmarsumsimon.html
http://tinyurl.com/yztao5d
http://tinyurl.com/yzzclhd
http://tinyurl.com/yfguvta
http://www.pbase.com/pijkkuiperi/image/89641665
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94171975@N00/17450027/
http://tinyurl.com/yla4okk
Plan:
http://tinyurl.com/ylhexb4
Choir:
http://tinyurl.com/yjysamj
d) Views of the mostly earlier fourteenth- (1329-C15) / nineteenth-century Saint Thaddeus monastery near Maku in Iran's province of West Azarbaijan (the areas of dark or alternating dark and light stone, which give the site its name in Turkish, Kara Kilise ("Black Church"), are fourteenth-century; the light sandstone is modern):
http://tinyurl.com/ykebgy5
http://tinyurl.com/yzlt2k9
http://tinyurl.com/yjlet6a
http://tinyurl.com/yfcukxm
http://tinyurl.com/yztqpej
http://tinyurl.com/yhwpkkh
http://tinyurl.com/yz3hksd
An illustrated, English-language account:
http://tinyurl.com/yf3c3t5
e) Two illustrated pages on the mostly fourteenth-century former church of St Simon and St Jude in Norwich (whose interior was drastically altered in 1952):
http://tinyurl.com/5wj9az
http://tinyurl.com/5hfzw6
Another view:
http://tinyurl.com/6d376q
f) Views of the originally fifteenth-century Pfarrkirche SSt Simon und Judas in Bad Sassendorf (Lkr. Soest) in Nordrhein-Westfalen:
http://tinyurl.com/yhaw7zf
http://tinyurl.com/ykqjerp
http://tinyurl.com/yhp7nwr
2) Fidelis of Como (d. ca. 304, supposedly). F.'s cult is at least as old as the sixth century, when he is mentioned by St. Ennodius of Pavia. He and his companions (the latter are now celebrated on 7. August) are said in a number of medieval texts of uncertain date (BHL 2922, etc.) to have been Christian soldiers who slipped away from the Roman army during the persecution of Maximian. According to these accounts, they were pursued, caught up with at different locations in the vicinity of Como, and put to death at their places of capture. F. is said to have gotten as far as today's Novate Mezzola (SO) in Lombardy. There, on the shore of the Lago di Mezzola (just north of the Lago di Como), he was clubbed, crucified, and decapitated. A great storm then arose, accompanied by lightning and terrifying the martyr's killers. One of the latter buried F. at the site of his execution. Thus far his Passio.
An English-language translation of BHL 2922 is here:
http://www.ucc.ie/milmart/Fidelis.html
And various views of the originally late tenth- or very early eleventh-century chapel of San Fedelino (restructured in 1905; restored in 1992/93) at the supposed locale of F.'s martyrdom are here:
http://www.viaspluga.com/ita/guidebook/fedelino/index.php?photo_num=02
http://tinyurl.com/yffe6d4
Further views:
http://flickr.com/photos/28721991@N08/sets/72157608394224482/
Some closer views of the chapel's eleventh- and twelfth-century frescoes:
http://www.viaspluga.com/ita/guidebook/fedelino/index.php?photo_num=01
http://www.gruppoartecultura.it/Percorsi/sanfedelino.htm
In 964 F.'s relics were translated to Como and deposited in a church formerly dedicated to St. Euphemia but now rededicated to him (BHL 2925). Como's present basilica di San Fedele is of the twelfth century with later medieval additions and with early twentieth-century restorations (belltower, 1906; facade and interior of the apse, 1914).
Views of the facade in differing light are here:
http://tinyurl.com/9cdfx
http://www.inviaggionelmondo.it/Como/Como_SanFedele.JPG
http://digilander.libero.it/felice/Como/Chiese4.jpg
http://www.mondimedievali.net/Edifici/Lombardia/como01.jpg
The rear portal is noteworthy, especially for its reliefs:
http://tinyurl.com/ap5ds
http://www.mondimedievali.net/Edifici/Lombardia/como23.jpg
Two exterior views of the apse:
http://digilander.libero.it/sys76/Resources/sfedele2.gif
http://tinyurl.com/d6db6
The interior contains this font for holy water; carved from a Roman-period capital, it is said to be of the eighth century:
http://www.mondimedievali.net/Edifici/Lombardia/como18.jpg
The damaged sculpture beneath it shows a human figure bestriding a lion.
There are also some fourteenth-century frescoes, e.g.:
http://www.mondimedievali.net/Edifici/Lombardia/como22.jpg
http://www.mondimedievali.net/Edifici/Lombardia/como08.jpg
A ground plan:
http://www.gacom.it/como/luoghi/pianta.jpg
A multi-page, illustrated, Italian-language discussion:
http://www.mondimedievali.net/Edifici/Lombardia/Como.htm
The Italia nell'Arte Medievale page on this church is here (at this writing the entire site is still off-line):
http://tinyurl.com/2leqbv
3) Vincent, Sabina, and Christeta (d. 306, supposedly). V., S., and C. are martyrs of Ávila (today's Ávila de los Caballeros). The earliest testimony to their existence, the seemingly pre-conquest Mozarabic hymn _Huc vos gratifice, plebs pia, convocat_ (_AH_, XXVII, 179), tells us nothing about them.
These saints have a legendary Passio (BHL 8619; earliest witness is of the tenth century) whose narrative part is thought to be of the late eighth century. This makes them a brother and two sisters, originally of today's Talavera de la Reina, who were martyred with great cruelty at Ávila on 27. October in some year during the Great persecution and whose remains, exposed to the elements outside the city, were protected by great snake. According to this text, the snake attacked a Jew who had come to despoil the bodies and wrapped itself violently around him. Recognizing in this an evident miracle, the Jew then converted to Christianity and erected on the site a church dedicated to the martyrs.
The present-day successor to the church indicated in the Passio is Ávila's originally twelfth-century Basilica de San Vicente. An illustrated, English-language page on it is here:
http://tinyurl.com/6ynxs3
Illustrated, Spanish-language accounts:
http://olmo.pntic.mec.es/~mdem0011/sanvicente.htm
http://tinyurl.com/5v24xj
http://tinyurl.com/5fqqba
Other views:
http://tinyurl.com/5dqmrx
http://www.pbase.com/amlobcas/image/74627468
http://z.about.com/d/gospain/1/0/_/7/-/-/P1050163.JPG
http://www.pbase.com/amlobcas/image/74667707
http://tinyurl.com/68hn43
4) Faro (d. 7th cent.). We know about F. (in French, Faron) chiefly from his own not very reliable ninth-century Vita by bishop Hildegar of Meaux (BHL 2825). F., who is thought to have been the brother of St. Fara or Burgondofara, is said to have grown up in the court of Theudebert II of Austrasia and to have passed from there to those of Chlotar II and of the latter's successor Dagobert I, whom he served as chancellor. He and his wife decided to enter religion and, once they had separated, F. became a cleric of Meaux. In about 626 F. became that city's bishop. He is said to have wrought various miracles.
Late in life F. founded the monastery at Meaux that bore his name. In his day it was Columbanian but within a century it had become Benedictine. In 762 it became the mother house of the re-founded abbey of Prüm in the Eifel. In the twelfth century it was connected with the legendary Ogier le Danois, whose tomb was in its church.
Expandable views of illuminated pages of a fourteenth-century breviary for the Use of Saint-Faron de Meaux (Meaux, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 4) are accessible from here:
http://tinyurl.com/6hb7z2
5) Leodard (d. 7th or early 8th cent.). L. (in French, Léodard) is a local saint of Soissons who first appears in the surviving record in litanies composed there during the reign of Charlemagne. He has an exiguous Vita (BHL 4849) preserved in the late medieval "ancient" breviary of Soissons that makes him an unlettered but very pious and chaste baker in the service of what then will have been the double monastery of Notre-Dame at Soissons. A layman and famous for miracles operated in his long lifetime, he was buried in that city's church of St. Martin; his relics later were translated to the abbey church of Notre Dame, where they were suitably enshrined. In about the year 1300 L.'s head was placed in a silver reliquary. The latter was still present when the Vita was written in the form that we have it.
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post revised and with the addition of Leodard)
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