medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

On Tuesday, July 12, 2011, at 1:04 am, Terri Morgan sent:
 
> Hermagoras and Fortunatus (d. c66) According to tradition, St. Mark
> sent Hermagoras to tend to his converts in Aquileia; Peter is supposed
> to have made Hermagoras the first bishop of Aquileia, and Fortunatus
> became his deacon. They were tortured and beheaded in the reign of Nero.

Rather, (d. ca. 66, supposedly).  There is no good evidence for a Christian community in Aquileia at such an early date.

Hermagoras is also called in medieval Latin Hermac[h]orus and in Italian is often Ermacora (we're well north of the Rimini - La Spezia line here; these are in origin pronunciation spellings of the name in its intervocalic 'g'-form).

Although his traditional status as Aquileia's protobishop made H. the more prominent saint of this pair from for most of the Middle Ages and beyond, in late antiquity the larger palm belonged to F.  St. Venantius Fortunatus twice names him alone as Aquileia's saint, while in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology F. precedes H. in their entries both under today and again under 22. and 23. August.  In those August entries H.'s name is deformed in a variety of ways suggesting an original abbreviation that later scribes, unfamiliar with H., expanded rather differently.  It's only with the development of the legend summarized above that F. gets demoted to being H.'s sidekick.     

Aquileia's patriarchal basilica (a largely eleventh-century structure overlying portions of late antique and Carolingian predecessors) is dedicated to H. and F.  The Italia nell'Arte Medievale page on the building starts here (a second page is on the twelfth-century frescoes in the Cripta degli Affreschi):
http://tinyurl.com/ykxqadm
Other views:
http://tinyurl.com/3te6cdo
http://tinyurl.com/3m44mb3
http://tinyurl.com/3ersgpk
http://tinyurl.com/2cfuus

Scenes from the legend of H. and F. as depicted (twelfth-century) in the basilica's Cripta degli Affreschi:
H. betw. St. Syrus (of Pavia) and F.:
http://tinyurl.com/3qfwrbj
Martyrdom of H. and F.:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uhalde/576879196/
Burial of H. and F.:
http://tinyurl.com/3mkdyph
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uhalde/576990961/
More here (about halfway down the page):
http://tinyurl.com/yfmj4fg

H. (at left) as depicted in a thirteenth-century fresco in the basilica's cappella di Sant'Ambrogio:
http://tinyurl.com/3fkj6y5
http://tinyurl.com/3wxc9b2

Patriarch Gregory of Montelongo (left) and H. (right) as portrayed on an Aquileian _denaro_ from the years 1251-1255:
http://tinyurl.com/42pdlv5
A patriarch (also Gregory?) and H. as depicted on a very similar Aquileian denaro:
http://www.aquileianova.eu/layout/graphics/intro.jpg
A seated H. (or a bust portrait of him) occurs on fourteenth-century coinage from Aquileia:
a) from 1336-1338:
http://tinyurl.com/3srlnuy
b) from 1371; the issuer, patriarch Marquard of Randeck, was also responsible for important additions to the patriarchal basilica:
http://tinyurl.com/3umjocn
c) from 1387-1394:
http://tinyurl.com/3dqv8e6

More impressively, perhaps, H. and F. as depicted by Matteo Giovannetti in panel paintings of ca. 1345, now in the Museo Correr, Venice:
H.:
http://www.aiwaz.net/panopticon/saint-ermagora/gi254c51
F.:
http://www.aiwaz.net/panopticon/saint-fortunato/gi256c51

As patron saints of the patriarchal archdiocese, H. and F. were widely venerated in the latter's territory.  Herewith two views of the originally medieval chiesa dei Santi Ermacora e Fortunato at Chions (PD) in Friuli - Venezia Giulia:
http://tinyurl.com/3m374ak
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/5031343.jpg
Ecclesiastically, H. and F. are co-patrons of today's Italian region of Friuli - Venezia Giulia and are celebrated in all its dioceses.


> Jason and Maurus of Rome (d. 384) Both were beheaded by persecutors of
> Christianity in Rome in 384.

For a very different account of J. and M. see the first item in last year's 'Saints of the day' for 10. December <http://tinyurl.com/43qvrtd>.


> Leo of La Cava (blessed) (d. 1295) became a monk at La Cava dei
> Tirreni (near Salerno) at a very young age, and was elected abbot in
> 1268 (at the age of 29). He was a reformer, built a new church and
> cloister, and developed the scriptorium.

In the numeration of the abbots of Cava de' Tirreni L. is Leo II.  For more about him see last year's 'Saints of the day' for 19. August <http://tinyurl.com/3gea33k>.  The latter was L.'s _dies natalis_ and has been his feast day since at least 1928, when his cult was approved papally along with those of other Blesseds of his house. 

Best,
John Dillon

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