medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
hi Terri,
many thanks for taking over the thankless task of posting the daily saints.
i notice that you have changed the format used by John D. and his
predecessor(s) somewhat.
might i suggest that listing the saints in an alphabetical order is great for
the index of a book, but a chronological arrangement is more suitable for the
daily listing which you put together, as it allows those with, say, a special
interest in a particular period to quickly browse through the pre- and post-
periods of lesser interest, and to quickly concentrate on those Lesser Known
Saints of the Regno which fall within a particular period of interest.
perhaps others might find the alphabetical format preferable --and should
speak up, if that is the case-- but, to me, it is curiously inappropriate, in
this context.
please consider returning to a chronological listing format.
thanks,
c
------ Original Message ------
Received: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:59:05 PM EST
From: Terri Morgan <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [M-R] Feasts and Saints of the Day - January 21
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Today, January 21, is the feast day of:
>
> Abo of Tbilisi (d. 786) According to his Georgian-language Passio, the
> martyr Abo was an educated Muslim and a maker of perfumes and unguents in
> Bagdad. He became acquainted with a Georgian great noble of Christian faith
> who had been imprisoned there and who had been released upon the accession
> of a new caliph. When the noble returned to Georgia (which had been under
> Muslim rule since 655), Abo accompanied him as a member of his household.
> Abo became both orally proficient in Georgian and literate in that tongue.
> He read Holy Scripture and other Christian writings but for fear of
> denouncement as an apostate refrained from converting.
> When the noble and his household were later in exile among the Khazars
> Abo did convert; later they all returned to Georgia, where Abo spent three
> years as a practicing Christian in Tbilisi before being denounced. The amir
> before whom he was brought offered him opportunities to abjure his
> Christianity. Abo refused and was executed; a miraculous pillar of light
> appeared that evening on the spot of his execution and glowed in the dark
> for some three hours. An even more marvellous light, so bright that it
> illuminated the whole town, appeared there on the following night. Abo has
> yet to grace the pages of the RM. He is Tbilisi's patron saint.
>
> Agnes of Rome (d. 258/9 or c304?) Entered under today in the Depositio
> martyrum of the Chronographer of 354, Agnes is a martyr of the Via
> Nomentana, where a cemetery was named for her. Adjacent to it Constantine's
> daughter Constantina erected a large basilica dedicated to her, remains of
> which can still be seen today. When Agnes was martyred is unknown: the two
> leading candidates are the persecutions of Decius and Valerian. Early
> literary notices, of which there are a number (Agnes was always a popular
> saint), stress her youth (twelve years old, says St. Ambrose) and,
initially
> as an indicator of her age but quickly sexualized (as in Prudentius,
> Peristephanon, 14), her virginity.
> By the time of St. Maximus of Turin (d. c465) Agnes had a legendary
> Passio. This exists in numerous versions; according to some, the son of the
> urban prefect of Rome fell in love with Agnes and wanted to marry her, but
> she insisted that her bridegroom was Christ. The angered prefect wanted to
> kill her, but she miraculously survived an effort to burn her at the stake.
> She was then beheaded. Along with that are extended treatments of Agnes's
> being placed in a brothel and of the blinding of a male admirer (both
> already present in Prudentius' poem) and an execution in the Circus
Agonalis
> (today's Piazza Navona). Agnes's early modern church there (Sant'Agnese in
> Agone) is variously said to have some of her hair and/or her head. But her
> chief place of veneration in Rome is the church over her burial site at the
> aforementioned cemetery, Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura. Erected by Honorius I
in
> the early seventh century, several times rebuilt, and containing such of
her
> relics as are not elsewhere, this has long been the venue of today's
> blessing of two lambs from whose wool archiepiscopal pallia are made by the
> nuns of St. Agnes in Rome. Their connection with Agnes depends upon the
> similarity between her name and the Latin words agnus and agna ('lamb'; a
> frequent attribute of Agnes).
> A text of the Ambrosian hymn Agnes beatae virginis is here (starts a
> little more than halfway down the page): http://tinyurl.com/28kynq and a
> text of Prudentius, Peristephanon, 14 (the closing piece in this collection
> of triumphal poems celebrating Christian martyrs):
http://tinyurl.com/27x5gz
> Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura apse mosaic:
> http://www.santagnese.org/foto/mosaico.jpg and Marjorie Greene's views, in
> Medrelart, of the Sant'Agnese complex: http://medrelart.shutterfly.com/385
> The very young Agnes in a fourth-century pluteus from the altar erected
> by pope Liberius (352-366) at Agnes' tomb and now, like the Damasan
> inscription shown above, embedded in a wall alongside the basilica's
> entrance stairway: http://www.santagnese.org/img/pluteo_liberio.gif
> Agnes accompanied by a lamb in the procession of the virgin martyrs
> (c560; heavily restored) in Ravenna's Sant'Apollinare Nuovo:
> http://www.classicalmosaics.com/images/DSCN2519.JPG Detail:
> http://tinyurl.com/3yjbth
> Agnes at left (St. Barbara at right) as depicted in the c1285-1290 Livre
> d'images de Madame Marie (Paris: BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française
> 16251, fol. 96r): http://tinyurl.com/y9wmsx6
> Agnes appears at far right, holding the Agnus Dei, in Duccio di
> Buoninsegna's great Maestà (betw. 1308 and 1311) for the cathedral of
Seina.
> Here's a detail view of her:
> http://www.wga.hu/art/d/duccio/buoninse/maesta/maest_07.jpg
> Agnes defending herself from her suitor and his friends as depicted in a
> (1348) copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de
> Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 44v):
http://tinyurl.com/y96nhmg
> The c1370-1380 Royal Gold Cup in the British Museum is notable for its
> scenes from Agnes's Passio: http://tinyurl.com/ywqzgm . It is a bit
> depressing to find the British Museum misspelling the name of Agnes'
> legendary sister, St. Emerentiana.
> Scenes from Agnes's passio as depicted in a 1463 copy of Vincent de
> Beauvais' Speculum hisoriale in its French-language version by Jean de
> Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 51, fol. 257r):
http://tinyurl.com/y8flqbc
>
> Edward Stransham, martyr (1586) was arrested while celebrating mass in a
> house in Bishopsgate Street Without, in London.
>
> Eugenios of Trapezunt (d. 310) Eugenios, from Trapezunt in Asia Minor, was
> executed along with several companions after knocking over a pagan statue.
> His cult became important: a monastery and a church were named after him,
he
> became the city patron of Trapezunt, and in the Middle Ages he even
appeared
> on coins.
>
> Fructuosus, Augurius, and Eulogius (d. 259) Fructuosus, bishop of Tarragona
> and his deacons Augurius, and Eulogius were victims of the Valerianic
> persecution, said to have been burned at the stake. Eulogized by Prudentius
> (Peristephanon, 6), they have a brief Passio (BHL 3196) that though thought
> to date in its present form from the fifth century consists chiefly of a
> summary eyewitness account of the judicial proceedings against them. At
> least one of St. Augustine's surviving sermons was delivered on the day of
> their feast, which latter in the (ps-)HM and in all the Mozarabic calendars
> is recorded for today. This is still their day of commemoration in the RM
> and the day of their feast (a Solemnity) at Tarragona; in most Spanish
> dioceses they have an optional Memorial on January 20.
> The cult of Fructuosus, Augurius, and Eulogius radiated from Iberia into
> what is now southern France, where their Passion is depicted on one of the
> late eleventh- or very early twelfth-century capitals of the abbey cloister
> at Moissac: http://tinyurl.com/733hpy , http://tinyurl.com/727btx
>
> Meinrad (d. 861) was born to a peasant family near Wurtemberg, and became a
> monk of Reichenau who then became an hermit at a place in today's
> Switzerland. (In the following century a monastery was founded there that
> later became the famous Benedictine abbey of Einsiedeln.) He lived there
for
> 25 years and is said to have been murdered by robbers. Venerated as a
> martyr, Meinrad has a late ninth-century Passio (BHL 5878) that probably
was
> composed at Reichenau, where in 1039 his relics received a formal elevatio
> and where an Office was written for him that is still in use. Even before
> this, distribution of Meinrad's relics had begun. Einsiedeln has a head
said
> to be his. A later fourteenth-century Vita by George of Gengenbach (BHL
> 5878b) added numerous miracles and other legendary episodes.
> Here's a full-page illustration from a later fifteenth-century
manuscript
> in the university library at Heidelberg showing Meinrad's martyrdom.
> Included in this scene are two ravens that, so the story goes, Meinrad had
> been feeding for some time and that had become habituated to him. They are
> said to have pursued Meinrad's murderers and by calling attention to these
> felons to have caused them to be brought to justice:
> http://tinyurl.com/387lho
>
> Neophytos (d. c250) Celebrated only by the Orthodox Church, Neophytos'
story
> is quite wonderful. He was born to a Christian family of Bithynia, and
> started working miracles at the age of nine (miraculously producing food
for
> his schoolmates). One day when he was in bed, a dove flew in and spoke to
> Neophytos in human voice - Neophytos's mother was so shocked that she died,
> but Neophytos's prayer soon resurrected her. Neophytos and the dove then
> went off to set up housekeeping in a cave on Mt. Olympus, where Neophytos
> was nourished by angels. He returned home at the age of 11, where he gave
> all the family goods to the poor. Then, led by an angel, Neophytos went to
> Emperor Decius and professed his Christian faith. After surviving all
> tortures unscathed, Neophytos was finally killed with the sword.
>
> Publius (d. c. 112) According to tradition, Publius was head of the
> Christian community on the island of Malta. When Paul was shipwrecked
> there, he and Publius became friends. Publius is supposed to have later
> become bishop of Athens, where he was martyred in the reign of Trajan.
> Another tradition reports that Publius was first bishop of Malta.
>
>
>
> Terri Morgan
> --
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