medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear all,
The previous post for this day failed (once again) to include the proffered link to last year's notice. This one is a corrected version making good that omission and adding as a penance a new notice with yet more saints.
Herewith a link to last year's "Saints of the day" for 14. December (including Heron, Ater / Arsenius, Isidore, and Dioscorus; Drosis / Drousilla / Drusina / Drusus of Antioch; Nicasius of Reims, Eutropius of Reims, and companions; Agnellus of Naples; Venantius Fortunatus; and Folcuin of Thérouanne):
http://tinyurl.com/ccmdlxx
14. December is also the feast day of:
1) Thyrsus, Leucius, and Callinicus (d. 250 or 251, supposedly). According to their at legendary joint Passiones (in Greek, BHG 1844z and its Metaphrastic re-working BHG 1845; in Latin, BHL 8277-8281), these saints were martyrs of northwestern Asia Minor during the Decian persecution. Leucius, a prominent citizen of Caesarea in Bithynia, was martyred there by torture and decapitation after he had confessed his faith and had reproached the persecuting official for his actions. Thyrsus, a famous athlete and a pagan, was so impressed by Leucius' courage and fortitude in meeting his fate, that became a Christian and then attempted to engage the same persecuting official in a colloquy over the superiority of Christianity.
The official would have none of this. He had Thyrsus arrested and brought with him to Apollonia in Phrygia. There he and another persecutor engaged in a series of grisly execution attempts, from each of which Thyrsus -- sometimes with angelic help, sometimes not -- emerged unscathed. When the persecuting officials were struck down with fatal illnesses another took over and continued in the same mode and with the same lack of success. Finally, when Thyrsus either was still at Apollonia or else had been brought to Miletus, an attempt was made to kill him by placing him in a wooden coffin and by then sawing both it and him in two. This too failed when the saw miraculously would not move, whereupon Thyrsus gave up his life peacefully. Callinicus (in medieval Latin texts, usually Calenicus or Galenicus) was a pagan priest who was moved by Thyrsus' example to convert to Christianity and who was decapitated shortly before Thyrsus' own death. Fifteen other converted pagan priests are said to have shared his fate. Angels killed the last persecuting official. M. received honorable burial.
Thus far the Passiones. Late in the fourth century remains believed to be those of Thyrsus were translated from Apollonia to Constantinople. The cult flourished there: more than one church in the city was dedicated to Thyrsus and he and the others were commemorated in Byzantine synaxaries under 17. January and 14. December. In the Latin west, Thyrsus, Leucius, and Callinicus appear in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology under six different days in January; most of these appear to be copying errors but the entry under 27. January specifies a location at Apollonia and is presumed to reflect their actual commemoration on that day. The ninth-century martyrologists Florus of Lyon, St. Ado of Vienne, and Usuard of St.-Germain all entered them under 28. January as martyrs of Apollonia; the RM followed suit until its revision of 2001, when, following Byzantine precedent, it placed these saints under 14. December.
In the Latin west Thyrsus' cult was especially vigorous in territories on both sides of the Pyrenees in what was once the Visigothic kingdom. They have a Mozarabic Office and Thyrsus has a Mozarabic hymn (_Exulta nimium, turba fidelium_; _AH_ 27. 249). Herewith a few dedications to Thyrsus from either Iberia or the former Aquitania:
a) Three illustrated, Spanish-language pages on the originally ninth-century and much rebuilt iglesia de San Tirso in Oviedo, a part of whose chevet is still pre-romanesque:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iglesia_de_San_Tirso_%28Oviedo%29
http://tinyurl.com/7tey87e
http://tinyurl.com/7v8twfm
b) Multiple views and single views of the originally twelfth-century iglesia de San Tirso de Oseiro at Arteixo (A Coruña) in Galicia:
http://tinyurl.com/78lg4f9
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/44006890 [Use menu of thumbnails at upper right]
http://tinyurl.com/cwcywh6
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/33835752.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/89mqsh2
http://tinyurl.com/8y8atxo
c) Three illustrated, Spanish-language pages on the originally twelfth-century iglesia de San Tirso at Sahagún de Campos (León) in Castilla y León:
http://tinyurl.com/czy5es2
http://tinyurl.com/c3spd8n
http://tinyurl.com/c4tqp4c
d) Views of the originally twelfth-century église Saint-Thyrse in Châteauponsac (Haute-Vienne):
http://tinyurl.com/bn6xsvd
http://tinyurl.com/cvu4t33
http://tinyurl.com/d9e2mxk
http://tinyurl.com/cgkk2se
2) Ares, Primus, and Elias (d. 308). We know about these martyrs of the Great Persecution solely from a brief notice in Eusebius' _De martyribus Palaestinae_ (Syriac version: 36-37; abbreviated version in Greek: 10. 1). They were among a group of Egyptians who, traveling through Palestine toward Cilicia, where they intended to bring aid to persecuted Christians, were stopped outside the gates of Ascalon and, having stated the nature of their mission, were arrested as malefactors. Seemingly still at Ascalon, they were brought before the governor of the province and received harsh sentences. These three -- the only ones whose names we have -- were sentenced to death: Ares by fire and Primus (in the Greek version, presumably through a corruption in the archetype of the surviving textual witnesses, he's called Promus) and Elias by decapitation. Their sentences were carried out on this day. Thus far Eusebius.
Best again,
John Dillon
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