medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (4. December) is the feast day of:
5) Sualo (d. 794). We know about the Englishman S. (also known as Solus and as Sola) from his Vita (BHL 7926) by Ermanric of Ellwangen, written between 839 and 842. According to Ermanric, who later became bishop of Passau, S. followed Boniface to Germany, was ordained priest by him, and became a solitary (no pun intended) in the diocese of Eichstätt in a place that became known as Cella Solonis ("Solo's Cell") and to which title was given him by none other than Charlemagne himself. Ermanric adds that Sts. Willibald and Winnebald gave property to S. after Boniface's death and that after S.'s death all of his property was given by Charlemagne to the abbey of Fulda. The latter's necrology records S.'s passing on 3. December.
Notable among the miracles attributed to S. by Ermanric is a plainly allegorical one in which at his bidding an ass on which he had been riding attacks and kills a wolf that was threatening sheep grazing in a pasture with no shepherds present.
Cella Solonis is now Solnhofen (Kr. Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen) in Bavaria. Perhaps better known as the town that Archaeopteryx made famous, it preserves the remains of a ninth-century church (the so-called Solabasilika) built over four predecessors going back to middle of the seventh century (the third church is thought to have been S.'s oratory). A multi-page, German-language introduction to the site is here:
http://tinyurl.com/6xrdlk
And the Wikipedia.de page on Solnhofen has more to say on it:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solnhofen
along with this view:
http://tinyurl.com/35grx2
and this plan:
http://tinyurl.com/25hhron
The Solabasilika contains a fifteenth-century tomb (found to be empty when it was opened in 1828):
http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Fotos/Sola-Basilika.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/ye9gsl9
Remains of four earlier tombs have been found at the site; one of these may have been the one into which S.'s allegedly intact remains were deposited by Fulda's prior at Cella Solonis shortly before the writing of S.'s Vita.
In view of the time of year of S.'s feast, it may be well to recall that, in the Northern Hemisphere at least, one Sualo doth not a summer make.
6) Osmund (d. 1099). After service as a royal chaplain and as William I's chancellor (in the latter role presiding over the switch from English to Latin as the majority language of royal writs issued in England), O. was advanced in 1078 to the recently created see of Salisbury. He completed the barely begun cathedral within the outer precinct of the royal castle at Old Sarum, introduced a community of learned canons, and established a very active scriptorium. O. was remembered as a person of wisdom and holiness. Miracles at his tomb in Salisbury Cathedral are first reported from the later twelfth century; early in the next century come both the first surviving reference to him as Saint O. and the first canonization petition on his behalf. During the later Middle Ages O.'s reputation grew: he was credited both with establishing the Use of Sarum and with having been a nephew of William I. O. was canonized in 1457.
A view of O.'s tomb in Salisbury Cathedral:
http://flickr.com/photos/dryasadingo/497818017/sizes/o/
7) Bernard of Parma (d. 1133). A native of Florence and a member of the family later known as the Uberti (whence he is also known as B. of the Uberti), B. as a young man entered the Vallombrosan order at its Florentine convent of San Salvi, giving away his worldly goods to friends and family and especially to the monastery. In short order he became abbot of his own house and, by 1099 when he had also been made a cardinal by Urban II, abbot major of all the Vallombrosan houses. Under his rule the Vallombrosans for the first time expanded out of Tuscany, establishing houses in Emilia and Lombardy.
A consistent supporter of the reform papacy during the investiture controversy, B. was papal vicar in Lombardy and adjacent areas from ca. 1100 until 1109. In this capacity he secured various donations from the countess Matilda, marchioness of Tuscany, and, in 1102, the renewal of her donation to the Holy See of all her extensive holdings. In 1104, while preaching in Parma's cathedral, B. was seized by a pro-imperial crowd and was held prisoner until his release effectuated by Matilda's soldiers. In 1106 the situation there had changed so much that he was elected Parma's bishop. Paschal II consecrated him early that November when he was in Parma to dedicate its then new cathedral. Though he renounced his abbatial duties, B. continued to live and dress as a monk and to direct the activities of his order.
B. supported the elections to the papacy of Honorius II and Innocent II. In 1133, already old and somewhat ill, he accompanied Lothar II to Rome for the latter's coronation as emperor. B. shortly after his return. Miracles were reported at his tomb and a cult arose. He was given an Elevatio in 1139. B.'s veneration was naturally strong among the Vallombrosans; in the fourteenth century he was also being celebrated in Florence and Mantua. B. entered the early RM from late medieval augmented version's of Usuard's martyrology. In the early modern period his cult was confirmed, with new Offices, for the Vallombrosans and for Florence and Parma. Though referred to by some as Blessed, he appears in the RM at the level of Saint.
B. (at lower left) as depicted by Perugino in his Assumption of Vallombrosa (ca. 1500), now in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence:
http://www.wga.hu/art/p/perugino/madonna/assump.jpg
Detail (B.):
http://www.wga.hu/art/p/perugino/madonna/assump1.jpg
B. (at right; at left, St. John the Baptist) as depicted by Andrea del Sarto in his earlier sixteenth-century Assumption of Vallombrosa (1528) now in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence:
http://www.wga.hu/art/a/andrea/sarto/3/vallomb2.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
(matter from last year's post revised and with the addition of Bernard of Parma)
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