medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today, March 3, is the feast day of:
Marinus and Astyrius (d. c262) Marinus was a wealthy noble who became a
Roman soldier, denounced as a Christian by a rival for the office of
centurion. He was given three hours to consider his faith. He was steadfast
and was executed. A Roman senator named Astyrius witnessed the execution. He
took Marinus' body and buried it after which he was arrested and martyred.
Emetrius and Chelidonius, martyrs (304) - patrons of Santander.
Cleonicus & Eutropius, Basiliscus (d. c306, supposedly) According to their
legendary Passio (two versions: BHG 656a and 656b) the brothers Cleonicus
and Eutropius were companions in arms of St. Basiliscus (said in these texts
to have been a nephew of St. Theodore the Recruit), were martyred at Amasea
(today's Amasya in Turkey) under Maximian, and were entombed there.
Byzantine synaxaries record all three saints jointly under today, as do
modern Orthodox churches. The RM followed suit until its revision of 2001,
when it dropped from today's commemoration the better attested Basiliscus
(also and still entered in the RM under May 22).
Cleonicus and Eutropius as depicted in the (between c1312 and 1321/1322)
frescoes in the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending
on one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija
or the Republic of Kosovo:
Eutropius: http://tinyurl.com/yjxnwpp , Cleonicus:
http://tinyurl.com/yfedjeh
Basiliscus is depicted on a pendentive of the same dome:
http://tinyurl.com/yl8wyjb
Eutropius & Cleonicus (in that order in the upper register; Basiliscus
beneath) as depicted in the (between 1335 and 1350) frescoes 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/yfpsf
Nonna / Non (5th century) Nonna was the mother of David of Wales. The vita
of David tells that Nonna was a nun in Dyfed, seduced by a prince. Or she
may have been the daughter of a Pembrokeshire noble, and David the product
of wedlock rather than seduction. While in labour with David she left the
impression of her hand on a stone which was by her side. Nonna does,
however, appear to have settled in Cornwall (there's a church and holy well
in her honor at Altarnon) and died in Brittany.
In that first vita of St David, his father is King Sanctus, described as
sanctus by name and by nature, an elderly man who receives prophecies about
the coming of a miraculous son - but this holy, mature man then completely
loses the plot and rapes a beautiful young noblewoman, Non. It is the only
way she could have a child without her spiritual virginity being damaged.
Arthelais/Arthelais/Artelais (d. c560) An odd legend tells that Arthelais
was the daughter of a proconsul in Constantinople. She was so beautiful that
Emperor Justinian fell in lust with her. She fled to her uncle in Benevento,
her coming foretold by a series of miraculous events. She then settled down
to a life of prayer and fasting until she died at the ripe old age of
sixteen.
Arthellais' uncle in the story is called Narsus; he has the rank of
patricius and is generally taken to be Narses, Justinian I's general in, and
later prefect of, Italy. His brother-in-law, Arthellais' father (Lucius), is
not only a man of proconsular rank but also on friendly terms with the
emperor's family, as after his daughter flees he escapes Justinian's wrath
by hiding out in the home of Justinian's nephew Justin (presumably the
future emperor Justin II). So Arthellais is very well placed imperially. And
her family is wealthy.
When she flees, she does so in the company of several household servants
(eunuchs); presumably because she is a minor, these have control of the
fortune she has been given to aid her on her journey and to sustain her in
voluntary exile. Once the party reaches Bulona (on the Adriatic just north
of Albania) it is attacked by robbers, who capture and imprison Arthelais
while the eunuchs escape and perform works of charity with some of her
money. One recipient of this largesse turns out to be Jesus Christ,
disguised as a pauper. By way of recompense He causes the bandits (who in
the meantime had been planning to put Arthelais in a brothel) to perish in
demonic fits and sends an angel to liberate Arthelais from her prison,
slaying the jailer and his hench people in the process. She and her eunuchs
now cross the Adriatic and arrive at Siponto. From here they go to the
sanctuary of St. Michael on the Gargano, where she makes a large donation.
They return to Siponto, are met by uncle Narsus, and journey by way of
Lucera to Benevento. Here she makes an even larger donation at the church of
the BVM in the middle of the city. Remaining in Benevento, fasting every day
except Sunday and staying in constant prayer, Aethelais performs miracles,
catches a fever, and dies.
By the late eleventh century Benevento had a church of St. Aethelais.
This still existed in 1370. At some point after that Aethelais' relics were
moved to Benevento's medieval cathedral (a later version of the church of
the BVM mentioned in the Vita), where in the eighteenth century they were
said to repose below the main altar. With any luck they will have survived
the terrible bombing of the cathedral by American warplanes on September 12,
1943. The website of the Archdiocese of Benevento omits Aethelais from its
section on Santi, Beati e Testimoni Beneventani.
Anselm of Nonantola (d. 803) Duke of Friuli and brother-in-law of the
Lombard king Aistulf, Anselm was a soldier who became a cleric and with
Aistulf's support founded, a couple of years after the Lombard conquest of
Ravenna in ca. 750, a monastery in southern Emilia near Bologna. This later
became the great abbey of (pope) St. Sylvester at Nonantola, whose
reconstruction of its early history included an imagined papal donation of
Sylvester's remains to Anselm. Anselm's abbatial tenure saw the creation of
several dependencies. It was interrupted for the entirety of the reign of
Lombard king Desiderius, when Ansselm was banished to Montecassino and
another abbot was appointed. Anselm was restored after Charlemagne's
conquest of the Lombard kingdom in 774. He assisted in reconciling the count
and the bishop of Brescia (both nephews of Desiderius) with their new
overlord, the king of the Franks.
We know about Anselm chiefly from Paul the Deacon's Historia
Langobardorum.
This panel from the twelfth-century sculptures of the main portal of the
abbey church, the basilica di San Silvestro, at Nonantola seems to show
Aistulf endowing Anselm with the possession of the land on which his
monastery would be built: http://tinyurl.com/yk8aako
This one shows the completed monastery with a founder's portrait of the
now tonsured and beardless Anselm (looking a great deal like a more recent
_duce_): http://tinyurl.com/yl7ymub
Here Anselm receives the pope's blessing: http://tinyurl.com/ykp7ruf
Gervin / Gerinus (d. 1075) Gervin was born in c. 1000 in Laon. He was a
canon of Rheims who gave up his comfortable life to become a monk at
St-Vanne, Verdun, from which he moved on in 1045 to be abbot of St-Riquier.
G. was famous for his holiness; he was a preacher, scholar, and spiritual
counselor as well as a great promoter of the Cluniac reform. He was noted
for his collection of both Latin and Greek manuscripts. He contracted
leprosy (or at least what was called leprosy), suffered for four years, and
then died. When his body was washed all trace of the leprosy had vanished.
Serlo, abbot of Gloucester (1104) - a Norman, when appointed abbot there
were only two adult monks and eight young boys at Gloucester; by the time
Serlo died, there were more than a hundred professed.
Frederick of Mariengaarde (d. 1175) Frederick was born at the beginning of
the twelfth century in Hallum (Frisia). In 1163 he founded and became first
abbot of the Premonstratensian monastery Mariengaarde near Hallum. He seems
to have been venerated as a saint in his own lifetime, and after his death
various of his relics were distributed to several monasteries in Belgium.
Jacopino of Canepaci (1508) - a Carmelite lay brother, he spent much of his
time begging from door to door in the town of Vercelli.
happy reading,
Terri Morgan
--
"Nobility depends not on parentage or place of birth, but on breadth of
compassion and depth of loving kindness. If we would be noble, let us be
greathearted." - anon. [log in to unmask]
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