medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Thursday, June 23, 2011, at 11:41 pm, Terri Morgan sent:
> June 26
> David of Thessalonika (d. c540) was from Mesopotamia. He must have
> made his way to Thessalonika at a young age, because he was a hermit
> outside the city for seventy years – living three of them in a tree.
> Pavia has had his relics since 1054.
>
The earliest source for David of Thessalonika (latinized as Thessalonica; now Thessaloniki) is ch. 69 of the _Leimon_ (title latinized as _Pratum spirituale_) of John Moschus, who died in the earlier seventh century and who was informed about David by an elderly abbot of Thessaloniki who told him that as a young man he had been so impressed by David that he became a monk. According to John Moschus, David was a hermit of Mesopotamian origin who lived for seventy years in a hut or cell near but outside Thessaloniki's city wall. Flames were seen nightly to emanate from this dwelling but on the following day both it and its occupant were always found unharmed. This continued until David's passing.
David has multiple Bioi, of which the best known (BHG493) presents itself as having been written ca. 180 years after the events it recounts. Usually thought to be a century or so later than that, its understanding of sixth-century matters is noticeably defective and so casts doubt upon the accuracy of whatever oral tradition (if any) it may have drawn on. David's three years as a dendrite (_terminus technicus_ for 'tree dweller') followed by his living in a cell at a monastery to which he is said to have belonged seem first to occur here.
Relics said to be David's are venerated in a chapel of the katholikon of the monastery of St. Theodora of Thessaloniki in Thessaloniki.
David of Thessaloniki depicted as a dendrite in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1315 and 1321) at the entrance to the parecclesion of the Chora church in Constantinople:
http://tinyurl.com/2co5gff
http://tinyurl.com/2g67fvc
http://tinyurl.com/4ttmul5
http://tinyurl.com/4lstdev
David of Thessaloniki depicted as a stylite in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (1330s) of the church of the Hodegetria 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/4zs3y5h
Best,
John Dillon
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|