medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Today (24. July) is the feast day of, among others, two martyrs celebrated separately at locations along different Roman roads in Italy at some distance from the Eternal City. These are:

1) Christina of Bolsena (?). C. is a martyr of the Via Cassia venerated at today's Bolsena (VT) in the Tuscia section of Lazio in what was once southern Etruria. Her cult there is attested archeologically from the later fourth century onward and a saint of her name appears among the overwhelmingly Western virgin martyrs in the restored later sixth-century mosaics (ca. 560) in the nave of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo at Ravenna (in the view here, she's the third from the left):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pelegrino/4694796330/sizes/l/.

C. has similar, legendary Passiones both in Greek and in Latin (BHG 301, 302; BHL 1749-1759); their narrative core is thought to be an expansion of Eusebius of Caesarea's account of the Theodosia of his _De martyribus Palaestinae_. The Greek ones, whose oldest known representative is a papyrus fragment of the fifth or early sixth century, make her a martyr of Tyre in Phoenicia, as do also her entry in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology and her earlier Latin Passiones (none seemingly older than the ninth century). Apart from these texts there's no ancient indication of C.'s having had a cult at Tyre. The Passiones present our saint as a young virgin of Christian faith who refuses to sacrifice to idols set before her by her pagan father (a high public official) and who then undergoes a series of ineffective tortures before being killed by decapitation.

C.'s later Latin Passiones specify an Italian locale rather than Tyre. They convert an episode in which in earlier texts C. is thrown into the sea with a millstone tied to her neck (she survives and is baptized by Christ) into one in which she is instead cast into the Lake of Bolsena. After various torments she is shot to death with arrows. How her earlier dossier came to specify Tyre is a mystery; possibly an adjective _Tyrrhena_ ('Etruscan') in a now lost early Passio got corrupted into something that was copied as _Tyria_ ('Tyrian').

A literarily noteworthy Latin Passio of C. is that by the eleventh-century Alfanus of Salerno (BHL 1759). Aldhelm has a much briefer version in his prose _De laude virginitatis_. Sherry Reames' introduction to her TEAMS edition of William Paris' late fourteenth-century _Life of St Christina_ is here:
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/40sr.htm
And her text of that Life is here:
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/41sr.htm

C.'s cult site at Bolsena's basilica di Santa Cristina developed from a late antique martyrium in a subterranean Christian necropolis into the eleventh- and twelfth-century hypogean basilica shown here and called the Grotta di Santa Cristina:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2475/3664862548_76faec6091.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/2ao7lqo
http://tinyurl.com/2w68p9w
Early medieval pilgrim itineraries and historical notices attest to the fame of this spot. Before the apse is C.'s rather grand late antique tomb. When it was opened in 1880 it was found to contain a fourth(?)-century funerary urn of marble bearing the tenth- or eleventh-century inscription †I·RQES/CP·BAT·X·M
i.e. †HIC REQUIESCIT CORPUS BEATAE CHRISTINAE MARTYRIS
Human bones said to have come from someone not above fourteen years of age were found in the urn and are now kept in a new, silver urn in a chapel in the upper church. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries other relics said to be C.'s were translated to various places in Christendom.
The tomb is surmounted by a late fifteenth-century recumbent sculpture of the saint in terracotta attributed to Benedetto Buglioni:
http://tinyurl.com/2byzq7h
http://www.comunebolsena.it/Img/da_visitare/sc_7_max.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/254dky5
http://tinyurl.com/2643a2n

A view of the adjacent fourth- and fifth-century catacomb:
http://tinyurl.com/fau2s

Just outside the Grotta are an altar and ciborium from the Carolingian period. Bolsena's Eucharistic Miracle of 1263 or 1264 is said to have occurred here:
http://tinyurl.com/2vy6h5k
http://tinyurl.com/2domlam
http://tinyurl.com/35r8nqm
http://www.comunebolsena.it/Img/da_visitare/sc_6_max.jpg
The altar incorporates a piece of basalt said to have been used to weigh down the saint when she was thrown into the lake and piously believed to bear the imprint of her feet:
http://tinyurl.com/38a5btg
http://tinyurl.com/32lsac6

Ground-level views, showing the church's thirteenth-/fourteenth-century belltower and late fifteenth-century facade:
http://tinyurl.com/l3xsy
http://www.romeartlover.it/Franci22.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/3xp7tzw
The glazed terracotta sculpture in the lunette over the main portal (C. at left) is attributed to Giovanni della Robbia:
http://tinyurl.com/29sbtv4
Interior views of the upper church:
http://tinyurl.com/2akj2dg
http://www.comunebolsena.it/Img/da_visitare/sc_1_max.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/farsergio/3576312700/

A few illustrated pages on the ninth-century church of Santa Cristina de Lena, a UNESCO World Heritage site at Pola de Lena (Asturias):
http://tinyurl.com/5b8yyg
http://tinyurl.com/6m7la8
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cristina_de_Lena
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cristina_de_Lena
http://tinyurl.com/5uwhbb
That latter page has an English-language version:
http://tinyurl.com/5wzgfk
More views (expandable) are here:
http://www.pbase.com/raulencio/preromanicoast
http://tinyurl.com/4xaov5f
http://tinyurl.com/3ascc3l

Pisa's chiesa di Santa Cristina is documented from the eighth century onward. Several times rebuilt, it preserves a tenth- or eleventh-century apse (these views differently expandable):
http://tinyurl.com/667n6q
http://tinyurl.com/5d5kr4
http://tinyurl.com/6k29pc
St. Catherine of Siena is said to have received the Holy Stigmata in this church.
 
C. (at right, after Sts. Theodore and Nicholas) as depicted in the tenth- and eleventh-century frescoes of the rupestrian chiesa di Santa Marina e Cristina at Carpignano Salentino (LE) in southern Apulia, a place that at the time of their creation was still part of the Greek West:
http://tinyurl.com/6bty9z
An Italian-language page on this church:
http://tinyurl.com/6znkbs

C. as depicted in an eleventh-century fresco in the cathedral of St. Sophia in Kyiv/Kiev:
http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=en&mst_id=1073

Some views of the originally twelfth-century church of the monasterio de Santa Cristina at Ribas de Sil (Orense) in Galicia:
Exterior:
http://tinyurl.com/lb8qkf
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/17178858.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/kq89v7
http://tinyurl.com/m9wzum
http://tinyurl.com/nwwwwe
http://tinyurl.com/n2bkhs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/enhiro/3515132907/sizes/o/
http://tinyurl.com/km6tdb
http://tinyurl.com/mg52l3
Interior and access to the cloister:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/enhiro/3515132013/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/enhiro/3515941048/sizes/o/
http://tinyurl.com/kvprjb
http://tinyurl.com/llts8q
http://tinyurl.com/lgnebg
http://tinyurl.com/m8nqe8
http://tinyurl.com/mxo3pr

Welf rule of Tuscia in the twelfth century is thought to have brought C.'s cult from Bolsena to Ravensburg in Baden-Württemberg, where it is documented from 1197 onward. The choir of the present Pfarrkirche St. Christina there dates from 1476. Some views:
http://tinyurl.com/5qqye2
http://tinyurl.com/5vcdcy
http://tinyurl.com/59g83y

C. (at right; at left, St. Juliana venerated at Cumae [a.k.a. J. of Nicomedia]) as depicted in the late thirteenth-century (ca. 1285-1290) Livre d'images de Madame Marie (Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 16251, fol. 102r):
http://tinyurl.com/yggk63b

An expandable view of C.'s martyrdom as depicted in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of Jacopo da Varazze's _Legenda aurea_ (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 81r):
http://tinyurl.com/3tthsfw

C.'s martyrdom as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century French-language collection of saint's Lives (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 183, fol. 92r; illuminations attributed to the Fauvel Master):
http://tinyurl.com/28k5744

C.'s martyrdom as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century copy (1348) of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 168v):
http://tinyurl.com/2bbc9v6

C.'s martyrdom as depicted in an early fifteenth-century (ca. 1414) breviary for the Use of Paris (Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2, fol. 242v):
http://tinyurl.com/lsoevf

C.'s martyrdom as depicted in a later fifteenth-century copy (1463) of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 51, fol. 71r):
http://tinyurl.com/3xfm3ep

C. (at right; at left, St. Paul) in a detail view of the lower right panel of an altarpiece by Sano di Pietro (d. 1481) in the basilica di Santa Caterina at Bolsena:
http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Fotos/Christina13.jpg
The altarpiece as a whole:
http://tinyurl.com/2u5nkw2

An expandable view of C. being baptized by Christ in an illumination from a late fifteenth-century Roman breviary (Clermont-Ferrand, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 69, fol. 481v):
http://tinyurl.com/5h9326

C. (at left, with the Madonna and St. Lucy) in a fifteenth-century fresco in the cappella di Santa Lucia in the basilica di Santa Cristina in Bolsena:
http://tinyurl.com/28h869x

C. (at right; at left, St. Leonard of Noblac) in a fifteenth-century fresco in the basilica di Santa Cristina in Bolsena:
http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Fotos/Christina11.jpg
(I don't have a specific location for this fresco. Can anyone say with certainty where in the church it is to be found? The oratorio di San Leonardo perhaps?)

C. (at left) in a fifteenth-century fresco in the cappella del Santissimo Sacramento of the basilica di Santa Cristina at Bolsena:
http://tinyurl.com/2dwafaw

The much rebuilt église (or chapelle) Sainte-Christine at Valle-di-Campoloro (Haute-Corse) preserves a probably early medieval double apse notable for its interior frescoes dated to 1473. Some views of the church and its paintings:
http://tinyurl.com/3dnbozt
http://casanulela.wifeo.com/images/a/a1s/a1-Sainte-Christine.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/3k7gyfr
http://tinyurl.com/4x33w78
http://tinyurl.com/3l7skvb
http://tinyurl.com/3jg4rvl
Detail views of the frescoes start in the third line here and continue on the following page:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/corsica-antiqva/pool/
To judge from its barely legible label, the third figure from left here appears to depict C.:
http://tinyurl.com/3uhrxln

Two views of the late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century chapelle Sainte-Christine at Glomel (Côtes-d'Armor):
http://tinyurl.com/3z4w2jb
http://tinyurl.com/4xpxcxg

C. in an early sixteenth-century (1506 or 1508) fresco, attributed to Giovanfrancesco d'Avanzarano, in the cappella del Santissimo Sacramento of the basilica di Santa Cristina at Bolsena:
http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Fotos/Christina8.jpg
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/23tgpzl


2) Victorinus of Amiternum (?). This less well known saint of the Regno is a martyr of the Via Salaria venerated at the successor of ancient Amiternum, today's San Vittorino, now a _frazione_ of L'Aquila (AQ) in Abruzzo. The (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, which enters A. under today (prior to its revision of 2001 the RM commemorated him on 5. September), says that this was the place of his burial. A church dedicated to A. is attested there from 763 onward; in the eleventh century it (or its successor) had been rededicated to St. Michael the Archangel but in the twelfth it was back to being called after V. (hence the place's modern name). Today it is again a chiesa di San Michele, with a late twelfth-century fabric reworked in the early sixteenth. Various expandable views (pre-earthquake) are here:
http://tinyurl.com/3kjxm5k
Underneath the church are the catacombe di San Vittorino, described here (in Italian):
http://tinyurl.com/5u8ozl
and shown here (expandable views, including several of a fifth-century memorial to A. erected by a bishop Quodvultdeus):
http://tinyurl.com/3s69ozy

Both the church and the catacombs were damaged during the earthquake of 6. April 2009 in the Aquilano and its aftershocks. They appear on the Italian Ministry of Culture's list of 23. April 2009 of forty-four affected monuments in urgent need of repair and restoration.

According to the legendary acta of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus (BHL 6063-6066; fifth-century?), V. was martyred further to the west in what is now the Sabina district of Lazio by being suspended in the hot sulphurous waters of the Roman spa at Aquae Cotiliae (or Cutiliae), situated at today's Caporio near Cittaducale (RI). Some views of what's left of the latter are here:
http://tinyurl.com/26ah3pj

According to Sigebert of Gembloux (writing over two centuries later), relics thought to be those of V. were among those translated in 970 to Metz by its bishop Dietrich I (Theoderic, Thierry).

Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post revised)

**********************************************************************
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