medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Herewith a link to an earlier (2011) 'Feasts and saints of the day' for 16. August (including St. Ambrose of Ferentino; St. Arsacius of Nicomedia; St. Theodore of Octodurum; St. Armel; St. Stephen of Hungary; St. Ralph of la Fustaye; Bl. Lawrence 'Loricatus'; St. Roch):
http://tinyurl.com/9p2ypvc
Further to Ambrose of Ferentino:
In the first sentence of that earlier post's notice of this saint, for 'honored since at least the central Middle Ages' please read 'honored since late antiquity'. In 404 St. Paulinus of Nola, surveying preeminent saints of various regions, referred to Ambrose as Latium's saint _par excellence_, on a par with Vincent in Iberia and Martin in Gaul.
In the same notice, the first view of the remains of the Roman quadrifrons arch called the Carcere di Sant'Ambrogio no longer functions. Use this instead:
http://tinyurl.com/cmjnubk
Further to Roch:
Roch (at left, with pope St. Fabian and St. Sebastian) as depicted in an earlier sixteenth-century fresco (ca. 1520) in the parrocchiale San Pietro in Benna (BI) in Piedmont:
http://tinyurl.com/yc7jjpb
In that earlier post's notice of this saint, the second of the three links to views of the Kirche zum Hl. Rochus / chiesa di San Rocco in Pfuß / Pozzo no longer functions. Use this instead:
http://www.pfarrei-kaltern.it/de/seelsorge/st-rochus-in-pfu.html
Today (16. August) is also the feast day of:
Diomedes the Healer (d. early 4th cent., supposedly). Our principal accounts of this Holy Unmercenary (also Diomedes the Martyr, Diomedes of Tarsus, and Diomedes of Nicaea) are a handful of perhaps eighth- and earlier ninth-century martyria (BHG 548-550) and a later ninth-century encomium by Nicetas the Paphlagonian (BHG 551) that is said to draw on BHG 548 and 550 or on others very similar to these. According to BHG 550 (an epitome and thus the most succinct of the lot), Diomedes was a physician from Tarsus who in the reign of Diocletian moved to Nicaea and there was moved by Christ to become a healer of souls as well as bodies. During Diocletian's persecution Diomedes visited his imprisoned fellow Christians, comforting them and tending to their injuries. Arrested on Diocletian's orders, he died peacefully while being taken to that worthy in Nicomedia. The soldiers who were his escorts cut off his head, intending to show it to the emperor, and were immediately blinded. Nonetheless, they manged to reach the emperor and to fulfil their intention. Diocletian ordered them to return the head to where Diomedes' body lay; once they had reunited the head with the body they regained their sight and confessed themselves Christian. A lady named Petronia brought Diomedes' body back to Nicaea and had him laid to rest there; miracles continue to occur at his tomb until the present day. Thus far this epitome. A greatly expanded treatment in a later thirteenth-century encomium (BHG 552) by Maximus Planudes, a native of Nicaea, barely notices the saint's prison ministry.
The SynCP's notices of Diomedes under this day (D. celebrated alone; this notice offers a brief narrative similar in outline to those of the martyria) and under 19. August (D. celebrated along with St. Maximus the Confessor) associate him with a church of the Theotokos in Constantinople's Jerusalem section near the Golden Gate. His veneration there is recorded from the sixth century onward and from its earliest attestations it would appear that Diomedes' aid was then sought for calming stormy winds and rough seas. This church (legendarily founded by Constantine the Great) and the monastery associated with it later were also known under the name of Diomedes. Basil I (867-886) is reported to have been associated with monastery as a young man and later to have patronized it greatly.
Orthodox and other Eastern-rite churches celebrate Diomedes today. He has yet to grace the pages of the RM. This saint is the eponym of the Diomede Islands in the Bering Sea, which latter were so named by Vitus Bering who first saw them on 16. August 1728.
Diomedes (at right; at left, St. Sampson the Hospitable) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1311 and ca. 1322) of the church of St. Nicholas Orphanos in Thessaloniki:
http://tinyurl.com/3uadwcr
Diomedes (at right; at left, St. Orestes) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321) in the northwest little dome in the monastery church of the Theotokos at Graèanica in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/86gdpsu
Best,
John Dillon
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