medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Herewith a link to an earlier (2010) 'Saints of the day' for 22. October (including St. Mark of Jerusalem; St. Abercius of Hierapolis; Sts. Philip and Hermes of Heraclea; St. Valerius of Langres; St. Symmachus of Capua; St. Donatus of Fiesole; St. Bertharius):
http://tinyurl.com/94p9sxa
A revised notice of Abercius of Hierapolis:
Abercius of Hierapolis (d. late 2d cent.). Apparently bishop of the Hierapolis in Phrygia Salutaris, A. left an epitaph in verse inscribed on a monument erected before 216 (the year in which this text was adapted for another person's epitaph in a nearby town). Most of that inscription survives in two pieces now in the Museo Pio Cristiano in the Vatican. This speaks of his travels to Rome and in Syria and of his engagement (expressed in part allegorically) with Christian communities during his journeys. A full text of the inscription is given in A.'s late fourth- or early 5th-century Bios (on which latter see the next paragraph). Here's a view of the two fragments on stone:
http://tinyurl.com/38lw7f3
An imaginative reconstruction of the original monument using in its central panel casts taken from those fragments
is in Rome's Museo della Civiltà Romana:
http://tinyurl.com/34nsxla
The correct reconstruction of the original text of the inscription is problematic in places. Here's the text as given in the _Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum_ (_SEG_ 30.1479):
http://tinyurl.com/34lmtkm
The text as given in the Bios is reproduced here (with an English-language translation):
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/abercius.html
A.'s partly legendary late fourth- or early fifth-century Bios (three versions: BHG 2, 3, and the brief 3z) has him overturning a temple statue of Apollo in Hierapolis in protest against an imperial decree from Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus requiring universal sacrifice to pagan gods, later journeying to Rome where (in an early instance of a familiar hagiographic topos) he cures the daughter of the emperor (still Marcus Aurelius), and, later still, restoring the baths at Hierapolis and endowing them with a spring that arose at his prayers.
A. appears in Byzantine synaxaries and menologia from the tenth century onward. He has an expanded Bios attributed to St. Symeon Metaphrastes (BHG 4). A church dedicated to A. existed medievally in the patriarchal palace in Constantinople and a major relic of him was seen by many pilgrims in the church of the Holy Savior in Constantinople's monastery of St. George of the Mangana. If one is to believe the fourteenth-century Russian traveler known as the Russian Anonymus, at the time of his visit to Constantinople healing services honoring A. were conducted every Wednesday and Friday in the city's church of Christ Philanthropus.
A. as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1313 and ca. 1320; by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios) in the diaconicon in the King's Church (dedicated to Sts. Joachim and Anne) at the Studenica monastery near Kraljevo (Raška district) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/ycpehtj
A. (at left; with pope St. Sylvester and patriarch St. Methodius I) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1313 and 1318; conservation work in 1968) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. George at Staro Nagoričane in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/89sadhn
A. as depicted in an October calendar portrait in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (1335-1350) in the narthex of the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/264nf8f
For a recent, illustrated discussion of A. and his inscription see Margaret M. Mitchell, "Looking for Abercius: Reimagining Contexts of Interpretation of the 'Earliest Christian Inscription,'" in Laurie Brink and Deborah Green, eds., _Commemorating The Dead: Text & Artifacts in Context (Studies of Roman, Jewish & Christian Burials)_ (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008), pp. 303-335. A version of Mitchell's article is available on the free Web at:
http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/conferences/thedead/private/mitchell.pdf
Further to Valerius of Langres:
In that earlier post's notice of this saint, the first of the two links to views of the église Saint-Vallier at Norges-la-Ville (Côte-d'Or) no longer functions. Use this instead (view is expandable):
http://www.norges.fr/l-eglise-saint-vallier-de-norges.php
Further to Donatus of Fiesole:
In that earlier post's notice of this saint, the link to the view of the refectory in the Badia di Fiesole no longer functions. Use this instead:
http://tinyurl.com/9olkt86
In the same notice, several of the links to views of the pieve di San Donato in San Donato di Poggio, a _frazione_ of Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (FI), no longer function. Use instead the views in this Italian-language page on that church:
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieve_di_San_Donato_in_Poggio
In the same notice, none of the links to views of the much rebuilt chiesa di San Donato in Fronzano in Reggello (FI) still functions. The only view I've been able to locate quickly doesn't show to advantage any of this church's surviving later medieval features (the more outstanding ones are mentioned in the Italian-language text):
http://www.tuscany.name/cornucopia/aaimmago/chiese/donato1.jpg
In the same notice, the link to a view of the painting of the Madonna and Saints (John the Baptist, Donatus of Fiesole) by Andrea del Verrocchio (completed by Lorenzo Credi) with Donatus depicted at right no longer functions. An expandable view of that object is here:
http://tinyurl.com/g6u9w
Best,
John Dillon
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