medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (29. April) is also a feast day of:
Jason and Sosipater and companions (d. 1st cent.). Jason and Sosipater are kinsmen of St. Paul whose greetings to the Romans Paul conveys at Rom. 16:21. That Romans apparently was written from Greece makes it plausible, though not certain, that its Jason and the Jason who appears in Acts 17:1-9 as the leader of the Christians of Thessaloniki are identical. Early medieval Greek tradition recorded in their legendary Passio (BHG 776) and in related texts has Paul make Jason bishop of Tarsus and Sosipater bishop of Iconium; a Syriac tradition makes Jason the apostle of the territory about Apamea and a martyr who suffered martyrdom by exposure to wild beasts.
According to the aforementioned Passio and related texts Jason and Sosipater left their churches in Asia Minor and traveled to Corfu, where they made many converts for the faith, were imprisoned on the orders of the local ruler, miraculously survived an attempted execution, and were ultimately successful as apostles of the island. During the early stages of this process many of their converts lost their lives; these are their companions. One of them was the ruler's daughter Cercyra (Kerkyra; the ancient Greek name for Corfu), clearly a symbolic figure for the island's transition to Christianity. For an English-language summary of this Passio see:
http://tinyurl.com/3l6rtvg
Jason and Sosipater and their companions occur in medieval Greek menaia and synaxaries under 27. April, 28. April, and 29. April. Orthodox churches now celebrate them variously on 28. April or 29. April (without their companions they are also celebrated on 4. January among the Seventy [or Seventy-Two] Apostles). The Italo-Greek church and the Melkite Greek Catholic church commemorate Jason and Sosipater on 28. April. These saints have yet to grace the pages of the RM (the Jason formerly entered there under 12. July is St. Mnason of Cyprus, thought by Cardinal Baronio to have also been called Jason).
Venerated as the apostles of Corfu, Jason and Sosipater are the titulars of an originally probably twelfth-century church (although one commonly reads that it was built ca. 1000) in Anemomilos / Anemomylos, a suburb of Corfu (city) near the site of the latter's ancient predecessor Palaeopolis ('Old City'). Herewith a couple of English-language accounts of this structure, which before the present dedication begins to be recorded in the late Middle Ages had been a church of St. Andrew:
http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/3/eh352.jsp?obj_id=1686
http://www.corfuchurches.com/content/view/63/75/lang,en/
Multiple views of this church:
http://tinyurl.com/4ydqzrc
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7549203@N04/sets/72157623996822277/
More views (expandable) are here:
http://www.pbase.com/provatosxhmos/corfu
A few single views:
http://www.alovelyworld.com/webgrece/htmgb/gre174.htm
http://tinyurl.com/yjvuygs
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3419/3978088036_9a4625ef56_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3034/2918631834_44f07f587b_b.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
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