medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (15. June) is the feast day of:
1) Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia (d. ca. 304, supposedly). We know nothing about the historical V. (Vito, Veit, Vid, Gui, Guy, etc.). His cult is ancient: there is evidence from the fifth century of a church in Rome dedicated to him and from the correspondence of pope St. Gregory the Great we learn that in the sixth century there were monasteries dedicated to him in Sicily and in Sardinia.
V. has a legendary Passio (BHL 8711-8716) whose earliest version is thought to be of the seventh century. According to this, he was a boy of seven years (in some versions, twelve years) at Lilybaeum in Sicily (today's Mazara del Vallo [TP]), a professed Christian, and a miracle-worker. His pagan father had him tortured and thrown in prison in an attempt to get him to renounce his faith. But an angel freed him together with his nurse Crescentia and his tutor Modestus (in some versions, Crescentia's husband), whereupon V., together with these surrogate parent figures, removed to Lucania and continued to profess Christianity and to perform miracles.
In time V.'s fame reached the ears of the emperor Diocletian, who called him to Rome to cure his demonically possessed son. V. obtained this cure but refused to sacrifice to Rome's pagan gods. Diocletian had the saints tortured anew, this time lethally. An angel brought them back to Lucania near the river Sele, where after a final prayer by V. they soon expired. Thus far the Passio of this well known saint of the Regno and his companions.
The seemingly very late seventh- or early eighth-century (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology appears to be following the legend when it says of V. only _In Lucania, Viti_ ("In Lucania, Vitus") without naming a specific cult site. A church ancestral to the present chiesa di San Vito al Sele near Eboli (SA) in a part of southern Campania that prior to 1927 belonged to Lucania/Basilicata is first recorded from 1042. Archeological investigation in the 1970s found remains of an ancient settlement in the vicinity that has been interpreted as the home of V.'s very early cult. In the Roman rite Modestus and Crescentia were celebrated jointly with V. from at least the ninth century onward. Dropped from V.'s feast in the reform of the general Roman Calendar promulgated in 1969 and excluded from the RM in the latter's revision of 2001, they continue as titulars of some churches and of a Roman cardinal deaconry and are celebrated along with V. in some Orthodox churches.
Differently sized views of an illumination of V.'s martyrdom (with M. and C. at the lower corners), in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the _Legenda aurea_ (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 66v), are accessible from the last item on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/33p2qn
In this earlier fourteenth-century copy (1326-1350) of a French-language collection of saint's lives (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 185, fol. 233r) C., M., and V. are shown on the point of being martyred by the sword:
http://tinyurl.com/2fxeyrp
The BnF's description of this scene with three martyrs, one of whom is surely Crescentia, simply as the martyrdom of Vitus and Modestus could be thought appallingly negligent (if not downright sexist).
Scenes from V.'s Passio adorn the wings and predella of the early sixteenth-century (1514 or 1517) altarpiece in the now mostly neo-romanesque Evangelische Pfarrkirche St. Veit in Flein (Rems-Murr-Kreis) in Baden-Württemberg:
http://tinyurl.com/32zvkse
Detail views of scenes on the predella (one showing M. and C. as well):
http://tinyurl.com/325u8co
http://tinyurl.com/32oydds
In a German tradition, abbot Fulrad of Saint-Denis outside Paris had V.'s relics translated thither in the mid-eighth century, whence in turn abbot Hilduin gave them to the monastery at today's Corvey (Lkr. Höxter) in Niedersachsen. The latter, a daughter house of Corbie, became a major medieval and early modern cult center for V., especially in the western empire. During the Thirty Years' War (or perhaps earlier; accounts differ) relics venerated as those of V. wound up in Prague, where they are housed in the medieval cathedral that already was dedicated to him. At about the same time V. was declared patron of Mazara del Vallo (TP), whose cathedral houses what is said to be one of V.'s arms along with other relics of him and where there is a major annual celebration in his honor. V.'s former abbey church at Mönchengladbach in the Rheinland has among its relics a head said to be that of V. Here's a view of a fifteenth-century arm reliquary of V. in the diocesan museum
in Bamberg:
http://tinyurl.com/yb5o3e3
Here's an illustrated, German-language account of the Carolingian-period Westbau of the abbey church at Corvey:
http://www.wernernolte.de/corvey.html
Some single views:
http://tinyurl.com/mcvmcf
http://tinyurl.com/km8bps
http://www.leonardfrank.com/Worldheritage/Corvey04.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/m9dmuz
http://www.ib.hu-berlin.de/~wumsta/Milkau/180-2.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/m6prs6
also (click on the links):
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/01070/01070m.html
and the expandable view at upper left on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/lujlup
christopher crockett's valuable comment of 2009, with bibliography, on the Westbau's formerly extensive medieval decoration in fresco and in stucco is here:
http://tinyurl.com/32eu72q
An English-language page on the originally late tenth- to twelfth-century Klosterkirche St. Vitus at Drübeck (Lkr. Harz) in Sachsen-Anhalt:
http://transromanica.makrohaus.com/en/poi/?artikel=141
Two pages of views:
http://tinyurl.com/4uyq8f
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kloster_Dr%C3%BCbeck
In the church's later fifteenth-century altarpiece (ca. 1470-1480), the young saint to the Virgin's right is presumed to be V.:
http://tinyurl.com/3alqknd
Some views of the originally eleventh-century church of St. Vitus and St. Deocar at Herrrieden (Lkr. Ansbach) in Bavaria:
http://tinyurl.com/6cbulk
http://tinyurl.com/6f29fl
http://tinyurl.com/5w52l3
http://tinyurl.com/59ldb9
An illustrated, German-language page (many expandable views at bottom) on the Münster-Basilika St. Vitus at Mönchengladbach in the Rheinland (begun after 974; consecrated 1275; rebuilt after massive damage in World War II):
http://www.baukunst-nrw.de/index.php?oid=756
Other sets of expandable views:
http://tinyurl.com/664k2e
http://tinyurl.com/543utd
Some views of Prague's originally fourteenth- and fifteenth-century cathedral of St. Vitus (Katedrála sv. Víta):
http://www.ivanweb.net/images/Mondo/Praga/22.jpg
http://www.ivanweb.net/images/Mondo/Praga/23.jpg
http://www.ivanweb.net/images/Mondo/Praga/25.jpg
And a few views of its famous Last Judgment mosaic:
http://tinyurl.com/psof5
http://www.meritoviaggi.com/praga/immagini/city/mosaic_sanvito.jpg
An illustrated, Slovenian-language page on the originally twelfth-century cerkev sv. Vida in Dravograd (formerly Unterdrauburg):
http://www.ntz-nta.si/default.asp?id=5488
Other views:
http://tinyurl.com/6hu2bz
http://tinyurl.com/2bpeaou
Moving down to Croatia, some views of the originally late eleventh-century crkva sv. Vida in the town named for it near Dobrinj, Sveti Vid Dobrinjski:
http://tinyurl.com/n64s5g
http://tinyurl.com/kpu3bp
http://tinyurl.com/na4544
The highest elevation on the Croatian island of Pag is named for V. (sv. Vid; ca. 345 m.). Some views of his chapel (kapelica sv. Vida) at the summit:
http://www.8ung.at/pag/slike420/jezerce.JPG
http://www.8ung.at/pag/slike420/kapelica_otok.JPG
http://www.8ung.at/pag/slike420/kapelica.JPG
Crossing the Adriatic to Apulia, herewith a facade view of the chiesetta di San Vito in Corato (BA), first recorded from 1206 and expanded in the nineteenth century, and an illustrated, Italian-language page on the history of this church:
http://www.coratolive.it/ImgRubriche/00%281164%29%282%29.jpg
http://www.legambientecorato.it/mostra_news.asp?news_id=162
Moving north to Abruzzo, here are some views of L'Aquila's originally late thirteenth-/ early fourteenth-century chiesa di San Vito taken prior to the earthquake of 6. April 2009:
http://tinyurl.com/28b5s6s
http://tinyurl.com/232g5hb
A page of views of L'Aquila's San Vito after the earthquake:
http://tinyurl.com/25khtzt
Another post-earthquake view:
http://tinyurl.com/2g587nr
Moving further north to Emilia, an illustrated (views expandable), Italian-language page on the originally earlier eleventh-century pieve di San Vito in the homonymous _frazione_ of Ostellato (FE), restored in the 1920s:
http://www.luoghimisteriosi.it/emilia_svitoostellato.html
V. is the patron saint of Serbia, where he is celebrated secularly on 28. June (Gregorian calendar) and liturgically on 15. June (Julian calendar) in commemoration of the Battle of Kosovo, reputed to have occurred on V.'s day in 1389. He is also one of the late medieval and early modern Fourteen Holy Helpers, invoked as a protector of animals and in cases of epilepsy; from the same period comes his association with various saltatory disorders.
2) Abraham of Clermont (d. ca. 480). The principal sources for A. (also A. of Saint-Cirgues, A. of Saint-Cyrgues) are St. Sidonius Apollinaris' account of him in verse and prose (_Ep._ 7. 17) and its expansion by St. Gregory of Tours (_In gloria confessorum_, 3). According to these notices A. was a native of Persian-ruled Mesopotamia who after five years' imprisonment there for his faith (Sidonius; Gregory says that he was seized by pagans while on his way to visit the Egyptian desert fathers, held for five years, and released by an angel) traveled to Auvergne, where he founded a monastery in the diocese of Clermont (Gregory specifies that this foundation adjoined an existing church of St. Ciricus [i.e. Quiricus]), served as its abbot, and died a saint.
Gregory rounds out his portrayal of A. the exemplary monk by ascribing to him a lifetime miracle, similar to that of the prophet Elias, of providing an abundance of wine at very short notice. He ends his account by observing that sufferers from fever are cured by sleeping next to A.'s tomb.
A.'s monastery, which took the name of the adjacent church, is generally called that of Saint-Cirgues; little is known about its subsequent history. The church. which no longer exists, was rebuilt in the twelfth century and from then onward served a parish in Clermont. In 1804 relics believed to be A.'s were translated from it to Clermont's église Saint-Eutrope. Here's a view of an early medieval _denier_ issued by the abbey:
http://tinyurl.com/n8xsk3
3) Landelin of Lobbes (d. ca. 686). According to his very late ninth- or early tenth-century Vita (BHL 4696) written at Crespin in today's département du Nord in Franch Hainaut, the ascetically inclined repentant sinner L. founded the monastery of Lobbes and then two others in today's Belgian Hainaut. After Lobbes had become rich from royal patronage L. and two disciples departed for a simpler life and ultimately founded the abbey of Crespin. The place had been without water but L., like so many medieval Moseses in the wilderness, struck the earth with his staff and lo! a spring arose. L. was buried at Crespin, _non sine miraculis_. Thus far the Vita. Herewith a page of views of the remains of the abbaye Saint-Landelin (as that house came to be called):
http://www.crespin.fr/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=95
An illustrated, French-language page on the abbey of Lobbes:
http://users.skynet.be/bk342309/Lobbes/page2.html
A single view, and two sets of expandable views, of Lobbes' originally ninth-century former abbey church, now the collégiale Saint-Ursmer:
http://tinyurl.com/38pll4
http://tinyurl.com/y2k23dm
http://tinyurl.com/y2jlt3k
4) Benildis (d. 853). We know about this martyr of Córdoba from St. Eulogius of Córdoba's _Memoriale sanctorum_, 3. 9. An elderly woman, during the ongoing opposition there by some Christians to Muslim rule she made a public profession of faith and was martyred on the day following the executions of yesterday's Sts. Anastasius, Felix, and Digna. A few days later her body was burned along with theirs in a great fire and what remained was cast into the Guadalquivir.
5) Bernard of Menthon (d. 1008 or 1081). B. (also B. of Aosta) is the reputed founder of the hospices after which the Great and the Little St. Bernard passes are named. His Vitae differ on when he lived. Tradition makes him a priest at Aosta active in the eleventh century and has him dying at the abbey of St. Lawrence at Novara. B. has had a cult at Novara from the twelfth century onward. He was papally canonized in 1681 (his legend has him canonized ca. 1120). The cathedral of Novara claims to have his remains. In 1923 Pius XI** proclaimed B. patron of skiers and of alpine residents.
Thanks to a belief that B. belonged to the family of the former lords of Menthon, today's Menthon-Saint-Bernard (Haute-Savoie) takes its name from him. Elsewhere in the Jura, B. is the titular of the now much rebuilt église Saint-Bernard-de-Menton at Ferrette (Haut-Rhin). Herewith a few views of that church showing its originally twelfth-century belltower:
http://tinyurl.com/6kj8s3
http://www.maison5temps.com/img/ferrette_3.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/y6onvgq
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post revised)
_____
** Or somebody else. In what one may hope is an uncorrected machine translation, one reads on the "ST-BERNARD" subpage of the English-language version of the Château de Menthon's website:
http://www.chateau-de-menthon.com/enindex.htm
the following:
"Saint Bernard de Menthon proclaimed, by Magpie XI, holy for the mountaineers and all those which travel in the mountains,..."
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