medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Herewith a link to an earlier 'Saints of the day' for 28. February (including Sts. Marana and Cyra; St. Romanus of Condat):
http://tinyurl.com/7k72zrh
Today (28. February) is also the feast day of:
1) Martyrs of Alexandria (d. 261). This commemoration honors those clerics and other members of the church of Alexandria who during a great pestilence in the year 261 chose not to withdraw but instead fearlessly visited the sick and consequently fell fatally ill themselves. We know about them from part of a letter from their bishop St. Dionysius of Alexandria as quoted by Eusebius at _Historia ecclesiastica_ 7. 22. An English-language translation of that is here, perhaps halfway down the page (go to 'Chapter XXII.--The Pestilence which came upon them'):
http://www.mb-soft.com/believe/txub/eusebiua.htm
2) The Translation of St. Augustine to Pavia (ca. 724, traditionally). St. Bede the Venerable's _Chronica majora_ is our earliest source for the reported translation of the remains of St. Augustine of Hippo from Cagliari (whither, according to Bede, they had been translated because of devastation perpetrated by barbarians) to Pavia by the Lombard king Liutprand once he taken control of a Sardinia depopulated by Saracen raids and after he had paid a great price for these relics. Their perhaps original and certainly later resting place in Pavia was that city's early cathedral, San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, where Liutprand was also buried and where since at least the thirteenth century Augustine had been said to repose in the crypt (of what by then was a much rebuilt church). In 1362 San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro received the great marble tomb for Augustine that is still one of its glories:
http://tinyurl.com/n786cj
http://tinyurl.com/lcq4ft
http://tinyurl.com/7fx9acd
Detail view of Liutprand transporting Augustine's body across the sea to mainland Italy:
http://tinyurl.com/6tzn6yf
Detail view of a panel portraying (lower register) Augustine's entry into Pavia and (upper register) his entry into San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro:
http://tinyurl.com/78fy2r6
The bones now on display in this tomb were discovered in 1695 beneath the floor of the crypt of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro; in 1728 they were adjudged papally to be those of St. Augustine of Hippo; in 1833 they were placed in their present display reliquary of bronze and crystal; and in 1900 that reliquary and, below it, a medieval chest in which these relics are said to have been found were placed on/in the tomb's altar, as shown here:
http://santagostinopavia.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/imgp6966.jpg
Liutprand as portrayed on some of his coinages:
http://www.leibbrandt.com/LEIBBRANDT_Archive/Liutprand/Liutprand_coins.htm
A plaque identifying what is said to be Liutprand's resting place in San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro:
http://tinyurl.com/72zsytd
A black-and white view of an earlier fourteenth-century glass window panel (betw. 1300 and 1334) in the Augustinerkirche in Erfurt and interpreted as depicting Augustine's translation to the Italian mainland for transportation to Pavia:
http://tinyurl.com/7cg7o4s
The medieval glass panels in this church have recently been restored. Does anyone have views of them to share? Or of Ottaviano Nelli's depiction of this translation in his Augustine cycle in the chiesa di Sant'Agostino in Gubbio?
The feast of Augustine's translation to Pavia was dropped from the RM in its revision of 2001. It is still celebrated on this day in Pavia's basilica di San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro.
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
|