medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (31. December) is the feast day of:
1) Columba of Sens (d. 274, supposedly). The virgin martyr Columba (in French, Colombe and Colome; in Spanish, Coloma and Comba) is a poorly documented saint with a cult that seems at least as old as the seventh century both in Gaul, where her great abbey at Sens is said to have been founded by Chlotar II in around 620 and where a basilica dedicated to her is said to have existed at Paris in the time of St. Eligius (so E.'s Vita BHL 2474, an eighth(?)-century reworking of one by his contemporary St. Audoenus), and in Iberia, where the church of Santa Comba at Bande (Orense) has been dated on the wording of a ninth-century charter to ca. 675.
Columba's legendary, originally seventh- or early eighth-century Passio (BHL 1892) makes her a martyr at Sens under emperor Aurelian; expansions of this from the ninth century onward present her a as pagan prince's daughter at Zaragoza who, desiring to become a Christian, flees to Gaul and is baptized at Vienne before going on to Sens. There she is soon arrested in a persecution, endures a lengthy colloquy with Aurelian, rejects his offer of marriage to his own son, is placed among prostitutes at the amphitheatre, is assaulted by a miscreant, is saved miraculously by a she-bear who then obeys Columba's command to release the scoundrel, converts him to Christianity, is protected from soldiers by the she-bear, reaffirms her Christianity to a very irritated Aurelian, and finally is executed by decapitation.
Columba's feast on this day is attested in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology and in the historical martyrologies of the ninth century. Her medieval cult, which in France seems to have been strongest in today's Bourgogne and Île-de-France, extended across Francia from the Rhineland and from southern Belgium to the Pyrenees as well as in many places in today's Spain and Portugal. In Italy Columba is the subject of a sermon by St. Peter Damian (BHL 1896m) and the titular of the cathedral of Rimini, whose predecessor, also dedicated to her, was consecrated in 1154.
An illustrated, Spanish-language page on the originally seventh(?)-century iglesia de Santa Comba at Bande:
http://tinyurl.com/ydet5tv
Further views:
http://tinyurl.com/ycrnz72
A brief, illustrated, French-language account of the much rebuilt, originally eighth(?)-century église Saint-Sylvestre-et-Sainte-Colombe at Colombiers (Hérault):
http://tinyurl.com/2v7yrnk
Further views:
http://tinyurl.com/ygnqd47
http://tinyurl.com/y9eh7zo
This church's Visigothic altar:
http://tinyurl.com/3426tq9
An illustrated, French-language page on the much rebuilt, originally ninth-to-early-eleventh-century église Sainte-Colombe at Chevilly-Larue (Val-de-Marne):
http://fr.topic-topos.com/eglise-sainte-colombe-chevilly-larue
The originally tenth- to fifteenth-century Kirche St. Kolumba in Köln, bombed out in 1943. Herewith two views of the ruins some decades after the bombing, showing a later twentieth-century wedding chapel built into the remains of the medieval church:
http://tinyurl.com/2ahlcqn
http://tinyurl.com/27elslz
Remnants of the church have since been incorporated into Köln's diocesan museum that opened in 2007. See this illustrated, French-language page:
http://tinyurl.com/27npaa2
Other exterior views of the museum showing remnants of the church:
http://www.architravel.com/architravel/building/kolumba-art-museum
http://tinyurl.com/24p56lg
http://tinyurl.com/39pq7kl
http://tinyurl.com/38z4cek
http://tinyurl.com/3aa8rps
http://tinyurl.com/3xvjxdd
Other interior views of the museum showing remnants of the church:
http://tinyurl.com/33ea5jp
http://tinyurl.com/2aew9cx
http://tinyurl.com/2v7wtll
http://tinyurl.com/2nse8m
Remains of the church's originally eleventh-century baptistery:
http://www.bilderbuch-koeln.de/Fotos/119804
A page of views of the originally later twelfth-century église Sainte-Colombe at Sainte-Colombe (Charente):
http://www.romanes.com/Sainte-Colombe/
Some French-language pages on the originally twelfth-century église Sainte-Colombe at Gréville-Hague (Manche) with its thirteenth-century wall paintings and its fifteenth-century statues:
http://tinyurl.com/yc366jb
http://www.greville-hague.fr/patrimoine-eglise.htm
http://www.greville-hague.fr/patrimoine-eglise-2.htm
An illustrated, French-language page on the originally thirteenth-/sixteenth-century église Sainte-Colombe at Servon (Seine-et-Marne):
http://fr.topic-topos.com/eglise-sainte-colombe-servon
A page of views of the much rebuilt, originally thirteenth-century église Sainte Colombe (with an eleventh[?]-century tower) at the locality of Soulme in Doische (prov. de Namur):
http://tinyurl.com/y8wpd9z
Expandable views of panel paintings from the 1340s or early 1350s by Giovanni Baronzio depicting scenes from Columba's Passio; formerly in the cathedral of Rimini, these are now in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan:
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/b/baronzio/index.html
English-language and Italian-language pages on, and some other views, of the basilica cattedrale di Santa Colomba at Rimini, better known as the Tempio Malatestiano (1447-1466, restored after heavy damage in World War II; the belltower is a survivor from the church's central medieval predecessor):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempio_Malatestiano
http://tinyurl.com/28onwpt
Further views:
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/8886851.jpg
http://image28.webshots.com/28/0/98/62/279009862WcQwAc_ph.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3331/3455444088_81007cdf13.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/y8nan8h
2) Donata, Paulina, Rogata, Dominanda, Serotina, Saturnina, and Hilaria (?). Also known as the Septem Virgines, Donata et socc. are Roman martyrs of the cemetery of the Jordani on the Via Salaria. Entered under today in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, they are also included in at least one of the earlier seventh-century guidebooks for pilgrims to Rome, the _Liber de locis sanctis martyrum_. An inventio of their relics under pope St. Hadrian I led to a late eighth-century renewal of their cult.
3) Sylvester I, pope (d. 335). Bishop of Rome from 314, Sylvester occupied the see of Peter for most of the reign of Constantine I. He attended neither the Synod of Arles (314) nor the Council of Nicaea (325), sending instead representatives to these major assemblies. Little else is known about him as pope, though one can suppose that he will have had some hand in the design of the major Roman churches endowed by Constantine. Sylvester was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria. In late antiquity he had a _titulus_ in the vicinity of, perhaps beneath, today's San Martino ai Monti, whose full titulature is Santi Silvestro e Martino ai Monti. In 762 his remains were removed to the later much rebuilt church that now is known as San Silvestro in Capite; in 1601, when the present structure was being consecrated, these (along with the remains of two other popes) were re-interred under the high altar.
Sylvester's being such a blank historically may have had a lot to do with the ease with which legends about his relationship with Constantine took hold from the fifth century onward. In their standard form, Sylvester had fled from persecution by the pagan emperor Constantine and was in hiding on Mount Soracte (in Italian, Soratte; the limestone massif that dominates the Tiber valley north of Rome) when Constantine sought his aid in curing the leprosy with which he was now afflicted. Sylvester descended from the mountain and healed the emperor, who in gratitude converted to Christianity, was baptized by Sylvester in the Lateran Baptistery, and then richly endowed the Roman church. In the early Middle Ages this supposed endowment came to include a grant of supreme temporal power in the western territories of the empire, the so-called Donation of Constantine.
In 747 the Frankish king Carloman retired to Mt. Soracte, where he either expanded an already existing monastery (one is attested from the late sixth century) or established a new one. In either event, he was subsequently viewed as the imperial founder of the monastery of St. Stephen located on the upper reaches of this height overlooking the Tiber plain and Rome. This house lasted until the nineteenth century: remaining now are its restored twelfth-century church and some fragments of other structures. A brief, illustrated, Italian-language account of what's now called the eremo di San Silvestro and of its crypt is here:
http://www.avventurasoratte.com/storia%20cultura.htm
Other views, starting with the front:
http://tinyurl.com/yhqgtb
http://www.santoreste.it/img/gallery/san_silvestro.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/yjfnhs3
Rear:
http://tinyurl.com/kne5t
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/13643815.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/yfjzmp
Rear, plus a side seldom photographed:
http://tinyurl.com/2a2mbs4
Interior:
http://tinyurl.com/37zljnk
http://tinyurl.com/23fz7v3
http://tinyurl.com/ag5g6sz
http://tinyurl.com/26d5sl4
http://tinyurl.com/2cx2osb
St. Sylvester: a spectral manifestation?
http://tinyurl.com/2crk8ph
One may compare the present austerity of that site with the richness of the papal chapel dedicated to Sylvester at Rome's fortified church of Santi Quattro Coronati. Herewith some expandable views of the chapel's cosmatesque floor and of its frescoes of 1246 depicting scenes from the legend of Sylvester and Constantine:
http://www.giovannirinaldi.it/page/rome/santiquattro/
http://tinyurl.com/b5j7d39
Some details of the frescoes:
a) Constantine's messengers approaching Sylvester on Mt. Soracte:
http://www.giovannirinaldi.it/page/rome/santiquattro/image17.htm
b) Constantine transferring temporal power (symbolized by the tiara) to Sylvester:
http://www.maryfalco.altervista.org/img/san_silvestro.jpg
c) Constantine holding the bridle of Sylvester's horse; Sylvester wearing the tiara:
http://www.giovannirinaldi.it/page/rome/santiquattro/image25.htm
The late twelfth-century belltower of Rome's San Silvestro in Capite:
http://tinyurl.com/2nrhpv
Beyond Rome, a major monument to Sylvester is the church of what until its suppression in 1769 was his abbey at Nonantola (MO) in Emilia slightly north of the kingdom of Italy's border with the papal state. One of medieval Italy's great monasteries, the abbey was founded in the mid-eighth century by a brother-in-law of the Lombard king Aistulf and housed remains of two sainted popes, Sylvester (whose putative relics are said to have been presented by pope Stephen II) and Hadrian III (who died there in 885). In 1117, the church was severely damaged by an earthquake; what one sees today is an imaginative modern restoration (1913-21) of the structure as rebuilt in the twelfth century plus its better preserved eleventh-century crypt. A few views follow:
http://tinyurl.com/anqv3t9
http://tinyurl.com/bzgl3n7
http://tinyurl.com/bgf7945
http://tinyurl.com/b3tftcx
A page of multiple views, including some of the probably mid-twelfth-century sculptures of the west portal:
http://tinyurl.com/yzz8pu
The west portal's relief of the translation of Silvester's relics to the abbey:
http://tinyurl.com/auzxfxq
http://tinyurl.com/aculqkc
The crypt (which runs the entire length of the church):
http://tinyurl.com/2et376v
Capitals in the crypt:
http://tinyurl.com/ya52e4
Silvester's putative relics in this church:
http://tinyurl.com/8gmorqe
4) Zoticus of Constantinople (d. probably mid-4th cent.). We know about Zoticus chiefly from his Bios (BHG 2479), preserved in the earlier eleventh-century Imperial Menologion, where he is said to have been a Roman priest who moved to Constantinople once the capital had been transferred there. He directed a hospital in that city, was noted for his personal devotion to the poor and to lepers, and operated miracles. Zoticus' notice in the Synaxary of Constantinople elevates him anachronistically to the important civil service post of Orphanotrophos and makes him a martyr under the Arian-leaning emperor Constantius II. His earlier thirteenth-century Bios by Constantine Acropolites (BHG 2480) adds further miracles.
Zoticus of Constantinople as depicted in the late tenth- or very early eleventh-century so-called Menologion of Basil II (Cittŕ del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Vat. gr. 1613):
http://tinyurl.com/a2379w4
5) Melania the Younger (d. 439). Our chief sources for the life of this very wealthy Roman aristocrat and monastic founder in Africa and Palestine are the surviving Greek-language and Latin-language versions of her earlier fifth-century Bios by her associate and successor at Jerusalem, Gerontius (BHG 1241; BHL 5885). A granddaughter of St. Melania the Elder, she was married at a young age to the also highly aristocratic St. Pinianus and bore him two children. After these had died young Melania and her husband converted to Christianity and are said to have maintained a celibate union.
Melania, who inherited her parents' great wealth, and the likewise wealthy Pinianus had estates in various parts of the empire through which they traveled and where they lived ascetically. After two years in Nola in the company of St. Paulinus of Nola, another two at Messina, and seven or so in Africa (where they befriended St. Augustine of Hippo and where Melania founded a monastery) they moved on to Jerusalem. There Melania founded a religious community for women at the Mount of Olives and later, after Pinianus' death, a men's monastery which she directed with Gerontius' assistance.
Melania the Younger as depicted in the late tenth- or very early eleventh-century so-called Menologion of Basil II (Cittŕ del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Vat. gr. 1613):
http://tinyurl.com/amyb26f
6) Barbatianus (d. earlier 5th cent., supposedly). According to his very legendary originally eighth- or tenth-century Vita (two versions: BHL 972 and 972b), Barbatianus was a priest from Antioch who at the beginning of the fifth century became an hermit at Rome's cemetery of Callistus. In addition to practicing a life of prayer and penitence he operated miracles on behalf of members of the imperial court. The empress Galla Placidia brought him to Ravenna, where he enabled her miraculous acquisition of relics of St. John the Evangelist which latter she then used to sanctify a church that she had built in the Evangelist's honor in fulfilment of vow (i.e. Ravenna's basilica di San Giovanni Evangelista). When Barbatianus died the empress and bishop St. Peter Chrysologus saw to it that he was buried in his church of St. John. This edifice later came to be called that of Sts. John and Barbatianus.
Thus far the Vita. Late antique evidence for Barbatianus and/or his cult appears not to exist. But from at least the time of the Vita's creation onward he has been one of Ravenna's canonical early saints. Relics believed to be his repose in Ravenna's cathedral in a probably mid-fifth-century sarcophagus into which they are said to have been translated in 1658:
http://tinyurl.com/6vz6oel
http://tinyurl.com/72yovpu
One of the very few survivors of the earlier twelfth-century apse decoration of Ravenna's basilica Ursiana (the city's medieval cathedral, ruinous when it was pulled down in the eighteenth century) is this mosaic portrait, now in the Museo arcivescovile, of a figure traditionally identified as Barbatianus:
http://tinyurl.com/7r9t367
An Italian-language account of this mosaic's restorations from 1743 onward:
http://tinyurl.com/8xspskb
7) Marius of Avenches (d. 596). We know about Marius, a late sixth-century bishop of Aventicum (today's Avenches in Switzerland) chiefly from his metrical epitaph in the church of St. Thyrsus (later, of St. Marius) in Lausanne, to which latter he had moved his see. He is said to have been both a goldsmith who made sacred vessels for his church and a farmer who ploughed his own land (it's not clear whether these descriptions are purely metaphorical) as well as a man of learning, the founder from his own funds of a church on his own land, and a protector of the poor. Surviving from Marius' pen is a brief chronicle covering the years 455 to 581. Because he is credited with transferring the diocesan seat from Avenches to Lausanne he is also known as Marius of Lausanne. Today is Marius' _dies natalis_.
Aventicum, once the largest Roman town in what now is Switzerland, seems to have been considerably decayed by Marius' time. Herewith an illustrated, English-page dealing in large part with its Roman remains:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aventicum
Best,
John Dillon
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