medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (11. November) is the feast day of:
1) Menas of Egypt (d. c. 300). Despite his early veneration, nothing is known of the historical M. (also Mennas, Minas, Minnas), a saint of Egypt. His Lives (Greek, Latin, and Oriental), which make him a soldier in the Roman army who was beheaded in the Great Persecution, are late and untrustworthy. Several place his execution at Cotyaeum in Phrygia, whence he is also called M. of Cotyaeum or M. of Phrygia. From his association with camels in his early iconography it has been inferred that M. was a camel driver.
M.'s shrine at his tomb at today's Mariut in lower Egypt was a major pilgrimage site in late antiquity and the nucleus of a city, Abu Mina, whose extensive remains were excavated in the last century. From at least the ninth century onward it was believed that M.'s remains had been translated to Constantinople.
An illustrated site on Abu Mina:
http://www.stmina-monastery.org/abu_mena.htm
A sixth-century pyxis in the British Museum showing scenes of M.'s martyrdom:
http://tinyurl.com/yd95vpx
A pilgrim flask, now in the Louvre, that will have contained water from M.'s holy well at Abu Mina:
http://www.introibo.fr/IMG/jpg/1111mennas2.jpg
Another, less well preserved (these were produced in great quantities):
http://www.ucc.ie/milmart/mns1l.jpg
M. as portrayed on a late seventh-century ivory plaque now in the Museo del Castello Sforzesco in Milan:
http://tinyurl.com/25bo3bl
An illustrated piece from _Al-Ahram_ in 2002 on the history, archaeology, and imperiled present state of the complex at Abu Mina is here:
http://www.stmina-monastery.org/stmenas_ahramweekly594.pdf
The site is also dealt with in Terry Wilfong's chapter, "Christian Monasticism and Pilgrimage in Northern Egypt," in Roger Bagnall and Dominic Rathbone, eds., _Egypt from Alexander to the Early Christians: An Archaeological and Historical Guide_ (Los Angeles/London: Getty Publications/British Museum Press, 2004).
Some hagiographic texts on M. are available in English translation here:
http://www.ucc.ie/milmart/Menas.html
An illustrated touristic piece on M.'s church in Cairo:
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/churchmenas.htm
M. as depicted in the mid-thirteenth-century frescoes of the altar area in the church of the Holy Apostles in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/2aohgzv
M. bearing an icon of Christ (as often in his later portraiture) as depicted in the later thirteenth-century frescoes (either ca. 1263-1270 or slightly later) frescoes of the nave in the monastery church of the Holy Trinity at Sopoćani (Raška dist.) in southern Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/33gyhcp
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/2u5r274
M. as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1313 and 1320) of the King's Church (dedicated to Sts. Joachim and Anne) in the Studenica monastery near Kraljevo (Raška dist.) in southern Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/2eb7ceq
M. as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) of the nave of the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/yea9z6q
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/y9arpf2
M. (roundel at left) as depicted in the mid-fourteenth-century frescoes of the arch between the intermediate and the western bay in the church of the Holy Apostles in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/2cptmk8
M. in an early sixteenth-century fresco (1502) by Dionisy and sons in the Virgin Nativity cathedral of the St. Ferapont Belozero (Ferapontov Belozersky) monastery at Ferapontovo in Russia's Vologda oblast:
http://www.dionisy.com/eng/museum/113/355/index.shtml
M. (detail view of a full-length portrait) as depicted in an earlier sixteenth-century fresco (1545-1546) by Theofanis Strelitzas-Bathas (a.k. a. Theophanes the Cretan) in the katholikon of the Stavronikita monastery on Mt. Athos:
http://tinyurl.com/25gq3px
For a recent overview of M.'s iconography with useful information on his cult, see Warren T. Woodfin, "An Officer and a Gentleman: Transformations in the Iconography of a Warrior Saint", _Dumbarton Oaks Papers_ 60 (2006), 111-143.
2) Martin of Tours (d. ca. 397). According to his student and biographer Sulpicius Severus, M. (in Eastern-rite churches, also Martin the Merciful) was a Pannonian who entered the Roman army at the age of fifteen and who was discharged at the age of twenty, two years after his baptism. Still according to Sulpicius, whose Vita of M. (BHL 5610, 5610b) is greatly influenced by Athanasius' of St. Anthony, M. then visited Poitiers, whose St. Hilary ordained him exorcist and later founded a monastery headed by him. M. was elected bishop of Tours in 370/71. In that office he is said to have continued to practice an ascetic lifestyle, to have been a thaumaturge, and to have prescribed for his clergy a monastic education.
Early witnesses to M.'s cult include Sts. Paulinus of Nola, Gregory of Tours, and Venantius Fortunatus as well as the poet Paulinus of Petricordia, author of a metrical Vita of M. in six books (BHL 5617).
Some visuals:
Various (Paradox Place):
http://tinyurl.com/y9fkwdq
Portrayals:
a) Various (ms. illuminations in the BnF; click on the icons to see the images):
http://tinyurl.com/yb9n4bp
b) M. as depicted in an earlier twelfth-century (betw. 1101-1133) _Vitae sanctorum_ from Cîteaux (Dijon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 641, fol. 113r):
http://tinyurl.com/2e7tzpv
c) M. as depicted in a somewhat restored twelfth-century mosaic in the basilica (ex-cattedrale) di Santa Maria Assunta on Torcello:
http://tinyurl.com/26vvdrv
http://tinyurl.com/25a2z44
d) Scenes from M.'s Vita as portrayed in four earlier thirteenth-century reliefs on the facade of the cathedral dedicated to him in Lucca:
http://tinyurl.com/27df48s
http://tinyurl.com/26rpoeb
http://tinyurl.com/2agms7o
http://tinyurl.com/29zfghw
There are detail views on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/32c6gkz
e) M. cutting his cloak as depicted in an earlier thirteenth-century copy (ca. 1236-1250) of part of the _Magnum legendarium Austriacum_ (Zwettl, Stiftsbibliothek, cod. 14, fol. 149r:
http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7002565.JPG
f) M. as depicted in a late thirteenth- or very early fourteenth-century fresco, attributed to Manuel Panselinos, in the Protaton church on Mt. Athos:
http://tinyurl.com/24e7crb
http://tinyurl.com/25h8d5r
g) Expandable views of scenes from M.'s Vita as depicted by Simone Martini in a series of earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1312 and 1317) in the chapel dedicated to him in the lower church of the basilica di San Francesco in Assisi:
http://tinyurl.com/2cf97jd
http://tinyurl.com/2d9mosb
h) M. (at left; at right, St. Theodore the Stoudite) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the narthex of the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/yzgnrt2
i) Martin with the beggar as portrayed in a later fifteenth-century statue (ca. 1475-1480) of German origin now in the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle (WA):
http://www.wga.hu/art/m/master/zunk_ge/zunk_ge8/5martin.jpg
j) M. as depicted in a late fourteenth-century reliquary bust (from Avignon?; restored in the last century) now in the Musée du Louvre in Paris:
http://tinyurl.com/27ulvqo
k) M. as depicted by Simon da Cusighe in a late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century painting of M. in the cathedral dedicated to him at Belluno (BL) in the Veneto:
http://www.diocesi.it/bellunofeltre/images/cat3.jpg
Dedications:
a) English-language and German-language pages on the originally eleventh-century église Saint-Martin at Vic in today's Nohant-Vic (Indre), frescoed in the twelfth century:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89glise_Saint-Martin_de_Vic
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Martin_de_Vic
More views:
http://tinyurl.com/324t3ba
b) The cathedral of Mainz is dedicated to M. An illustrated, English-language account of the present structure, consecrated in 1036 and re-consecrated on 4. July 1239 (NB: can be slow to load):
http://tinyurl.com/34djwz
An illustrated, German-language one:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainzer_Dom
The first of three illustrated, German-language pages on the the cathedral museum:
http://tinyurl.com/496fzv
c) Views of the originally earlier eleventh-century église Saint-Martin at Chapaize (Saône-et-Loire) in Bourgogne:
http://tinyurl.com/3xanrsz
http://www.romanes.com/Chapaize/
d) Illustrated English-, French-, and Italian-language pages on, and other views of, the originally eleventh-/fourteenth-century cathedral of St Martin at Lucca:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucca_Cathedral
http://tinyurl.com/yadt4ed
http://tinyurl.com/yd7rrer
http://www.lkjh.org/bike/tuscany/north/lucca/f7482.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/yaofbtq
http://tinyurl.com/33bu35m
http://tinyurl.com/32c6gkz
http://tinyurl.com/384od6j
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Duomo_(Lucca)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alerullo/1891693588/sizes/l/
http://tinyurl.com/ybrurum
Another view of M. on the facade (a copy; the thirteenth-century original is now inside the church):
http://tinyurl.com/yepec7b
e) Two views of the originally twelfth-century église Saint-Martin at Heuchin (Pas-de-Calais), whose present choir is seventeenth-century:
http://tinyurl.com/2gxjqal
http://tinyurl.com/32rp2s7
f) Views of the originally twelfth- to early thirteenth-century collégiale Saint-Martin (belltower completed in 1537) at Étampes (Essonne):
http://tinyurl.com/2a3gf8g
http://tinyurl.com/28nvpve
http://tinyurl.com/25pbbxg
A huge set of exterior and interior views:
http://tinyurl.com/27g8md2
An old-postcard view of the belltower:
http://tinyurl.com/2ep6tsu
g) An illustrated, English-language account of the territorial archabbey of St. Martin (Szent Márton) at today's Pannonhalma in Hungary, founded in 996 (prior to 1965 the town was called Győrszentmárton), whose originally thirteenth-century basilica incorporates a substantial remnant of its twelfth-century predecessor:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pannonhalma_Archabbey
h) Views of the originally early thirteenth- and fourteenth-century collégiale Saint-Martin at Chablis (Yonne):
http://tinyurl.com/2a7wz5c
http://tinyurl.com/247dpel
http://tinyurl.com/2egmhd2
http://tinyurl.com/27aajuv
i) An illustrated, English-language page on, and other views of, the originally thirteenth- and fourteenth-century collégiale Saint-Martin in Colmar (Haut-Rhin):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Martin_Church,_Colmar
http://tinyurl.com/2bv8ses
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/898/dscn0276si3.jpg
j) Utrecht's thirteenth- to sixteenth-century cathedral is also dedicated to M. Herewith two illustrated, Dutch-language accounts:
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dom_van_Utrecht
http://www.domkerk.nl/bezoek/geschiedenis.html
and two illustrated, English-language ones:
http://utrechtchurches.tripod.com/utrechtdom.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Saint_Martin,_Utrecht
Other views (incl. two of the cloister):
http://tinyurl.com/4sqx8h
http://tinyurl.com/4gdf2y
http://tinyurl.com/4ulvgd
k) An English-language account and some views of the restored remnant of the mostly fourteenth- and fifteenth-century church of St Martin le Grand in York (badly damaged in 1942 and partly restored in the 1960s), including views of its earlier fifteenth-century St Martin window (the last of these pages is courtesy of Gordon Plumb):
http://www.docbrown.info/docspics/yorkscenes/yspage11.htm
http://tinyurl.com/ydmh9ly
http://tinyurl.com/yekavw8
http://tinyurl.com/ydykygw
http://freespace.virgin.net/cade.york/limen/smlg/smlgmap.htm#4
http://tinyurl.com/ye6cg2y
l) Views of the originally earlier fifteenth-century igrexa de San Martino in Noia (Galicia):
http://www.galiciaguide.com/pics/church-san-martino.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/29hmgqh
http://tinyurl.com/24ekrfr
http://tinyurl.com/24545h8
m) An illustrated, French-language account of the mostly fifteenth-century église Saint-Martin at Sillegny (Moselle) in Lorraine, noted for its early sixteenth-century mural paintings (watch out for line breaks in the URL; in the menu, choose Moselle):
http://www.impens.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?P1=105&&P2=L=FR&X=1,13,57,980
3) Mennas of Samnium (d. ca. 583). Our information about this less well known saint of the Regno comes entirely from the _Dialogues_ of St. Gregory the Great (3. 26).
According to Gregory, M. (also Menas) was a poor hermit in the province of Samnium (the mountainous area around Benevento) who raised bees for the sustenance their honey would provide. With but a slight wand, he was able to drive off bears who would come from a nearby wood to steal the honey. A Lombard of similarly larcenous intent was less fortunate: reprehended by M., he fell victim straight away to diabolic possession. The report of this incident caused others to supply M. with charitable gifts, for which M. repaid them with rebukes when they had been seriously sinful. One such sinner, who had carried off a nun and compelled her to marry him against her will, feared to visit M. in person. Instead, he sent a gift that was put before M. together with those from others.
M. rejected this one gift, rebuking the absent donor in a way that led others to believe that M. had perceived the donor's sin and thus to fear the power of this holy man. In a comment that follows, Gregory includes M. in a category of martyrs who though not having been killed for their faith nonetheless suffered secretly. That certification of M.'s sanctity, together with the cult that developed in the eleventh century, may be what underlies his designation as a saint in the latest version (2001) of the RM. Previously, the RM had called him Blessed, though at today's Caiazzo (CE) and Sant'Agata dei Goti (BN), both in Campania, M. has been a saint from the late eleventh century onward.
In the 1090s the count of Caiazzo (a town in the Beneventan area) wished to have the body of an important saint for a church he was erecting there. The abbot of Santa Sofia in Benevento and the abbot of the monastery at San Lupo, who were in town to negotiate the count's protection of their properties, were made aware of his need for such a relic. Lo and behold, a body said to be that of M. was discovered on Monte Taburno in a ruined chapel near today's Vitulano (BN) and in a series of translations was brought first to Caiazzo and then, some years later, to Sant'Agata dei Goti. Whereas M.'s presumed remains now repose in a chapel in the cathedral of Sant'Agata dei Goti, his chief monument is the little church dedicated to him in the same town.
This church, San Menna, began in the late eleventh century as a chapel serving the town's castle. It was consecrated by Paschal II in 1110. Badly damaged in the Conza earthquake of 1980, it was restored in stages, served for a while as an exhibition hall, and was returned to Christian worship three years ago. It boasts an impressive mosaic floor variously said to be of the late eleventh century or of the twelfth. Herewith a page of expandable views:
http://www.santagatadeigoti.net/SanMenna/PhotoGallery.htm
Leo Marsicanus' (Leo of Ostia's) Translations and Miracles of M. (BHL 5927, 5929) are edited by Hartmut Hoffmann, "Die _Translationes et Miracula s. Mennatis_ des Leo Marsicanus", _Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters_ 60 (2004), 441-81.
Best,
John Dillon
(matter from last year's post revised)
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