medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On 12/07/12, I wrote:
> Yesterday (6. December) was the feast day of:
>
> 1) Nicholas of Myra (and of Bari; d. 4th cent.). With any luck, a fresh notice of this well known thaumaturge, protector of children and of seafarers, and patron saint of Russia, will be forthcoming in the next few days along with a revised set of visuals for him.
As was foretold (though by now it's been more than just a 'few days'):
Nicholas of Myra (d. earlier 4th cent. ?). Virtually nothing is known about the historical Nicholas. What gives him a question mark after '4th cent.' instead of the 'supposedly' used in these notices for, e.g., the likewise at least very largely legendary St. Panteleimon / Pantaleon of Nicomedia and St. Blasius / Blaise of Sebaste is the presence of bishop Nicholas of Myra in the longer lists of participants in the First Ecumenical Council. Were it certain that Nicholas was actually among those at Nicaea in 325, as opposed to having been added later when legend had made him a contemporary of St. Constantine I, one could dispense with the question mark altogether. But that would still leave us with a dearth of reliable information about this person's earthly life. While the earliest testimonies both for the existence of his cult at Myra and elsewhere and for his popular construction as a holy man and thaumaturge come from the sixth century, his earliest comprehensive Bios (BHG 1348) and earliest Vita (BHL 6104-6109) seemingly appear only the ninth century (some would date BHG 1348 to the eighth century). These, though they depend ultimately on a source with some knowledge of late antique Myra, are already very largely legendary in character, including such well-known tales as the saving of the three condemned generals, the providing of dowries for the three destitute daughters, and the saving of storm-tossed seamen.
In the tenth century Nicholas' Bios by St. Symeon the Metaphrast (BHG 1349) added other matter, including miracles drawn from the Bios of the earlier sixth-century Nicholas of Sion. At this point Nicholas' cult was widespread both in the Greek-speaking world and in places importantly influenced from it. Seemingly new legends continued to spring up: three that are thought to be of 'Western' origin are those of the barbarian (later, the Jew) with an icon of Nicholas, of Nicholas reviving the three students, and of Nicholas and the boy with the golden cup. Whereas Nicholas' translation to Bari in 1087 gave a renewed impetus to his popularity in lands that were liturgically Latin, by that time his cult was already fairly well established north of the Alps. In short order he was one of the great saints of Christianity in general.
An illustrated, English-language page on Nicholas' relics:
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/relics/
An illustrated, English-language page on the examinations in the 1950s of the relics at Bari believed to be those of Nicholas:
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=943
Two of the many medieval dedications to Nicholas:
1) Nicholas' originally eleventh-century church at Myra (now Demre in Turkey):
http://www.fethiyeyachting.com/st.nicholasdemrechurch.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/a6vfx23
http://tinyurl.com/ygjsae
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ovaloffice2008/2609990154/
http://tinyurl.com/ygrakyn
http://tinyurl.com/2bwg5nq
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3075/3198031197_187f03d888_b.jpg
Panels of mosaic floor:
http://www.fethiyeyachting.com/st.nicholasmosaic.jpg
http://www.fethiyeyachting.com/st.nicholasmosaics.jpg
Nicholas' former tomb:
http://tinyurl.com/ao7ckum
http://tinyurl.com/35zp4g4
2) The basilica di San Nicola in Bari, begun in 1089 and consecrated in 1197:
A virtual tour (in Italian):
http://www.basilicasannicola.it/home/tour.php?lingua_id=1
Views of the exterior:
http://tinyurl.com/ahtaqcr
http://www.arturocovitti.it/SNicola.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6dvtau
http://tinyurl.com/aqxhqum
Views of the interior:
http://www.pbase.com/querido/image/50660487
http://tinyurl.com/69y48r
http://tinyurl.com/b6tymwu
http://www.pbase.com/querido/image/50660478
A view of the crypt:
http://www.pbase.com/querido/image/50660486
http://tinyurl.com/5fzkys
Nicholas' tomb:
http://tinyurl.com/3yv24ld
A few medieval portrayals of Nicholas of Myra:
Nicholas (lower left; lower right, St. John Chrysostom) as depicted on a pair of leaves from a seventh-century encaustic triptych in St. Catherine's monastery, St. Catherine (South Sinai governorate):
http://tinyurl.com/b9nheyz
Nicholas as depicted in a tenth-century glazed ceramic portrait of Byzantine origin now in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore:
http://tinyurl.com/a3cmubb
Nicholas as depicted in the earlier eleventh-century mosaics (restored between 1953 and 1962) in the katholikon of the monastery of Hosios Loukas near Distomo in Phokis:
http://tinyurl.com/d7r8kjz
Nicholas (image at right; at left, the Theotokos) as portrayed on an eleventh-century Byzantine lead seal offered for sale by CoinArchives.com:
http://tinyurl.com/36n7yjg
Nicholas (at left) as depicted in an eleventh- or twelfth-century fresco in the church of the rupestrian Eski Gümüs monastery near Gümüs in Turkey's Niğde province:
http://tinyurl.com/728zxto
Nicholas as depicted in a twelfth-century fresco in the patron niche of the church of Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis at Kakopetria (Nicosia prefecture) in the Republic of Cyprus:
http://tinyurl.com/72ms3vj
Nicholas (at right; at left, St. Athanasius of Alexandria) as depicted in the later twelfth-century frescoes (1164) in the church of St. Panteleimon at Gorno Nerezi (Skopje municipality) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/bumvmhr
Detail view (Nicholas):
http://tinyurl.com/7mvp47g
Nicholas as depicted, in the patron niche, in the later twelfth-century frescoes (betw. 1160 and 1190) of the church of St. Nicholas Kasnitzes in Kastoria (Kastoria prefecture) in northwestern Greece:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/millinerd/2672308962/in/photostream/lightbox/
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/35q6wod
Nicholas as depicted in the later twelfth-century frescoes (ca. 1180) of the church of Agioi Anargyroi in Kastoria (Kastoria prefecture) in northwestern Greece:
http://tinyurl.com/aag4ff7
Nicholas (at right; at left, St. Achilles / Achillius) as depicted in the late twelfth-century frescoes (ca. 1191) in the church of St. George at Kurbinovo (Resen municipality) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/3kdrvjm
Detail view (Nicholas):
http://tinyurl.com/6zzhdq5
Nicholas as depicted in a twelfth- or thirteenth-century fresco in the church of St. Peter (and Paul) at Stari Ras (Raška dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/7kjy66l
The earlier thirteenth-century Life of St. Nicholas window (ca. 1215?) in the cathedral of Saint-Étienne in Bourges (lower panels imaginatively restored in the ninteenth century):
http://www.medievalart.org.uk/Bourges/19_pages/Bourges_Bay_19_key.htm
Further images are here (photographs by Gordon Plumb):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/sets/72157623037192023/
Three earlier thirteenth-century Life and Miracles of St. Nicholas windows (ca. 1215-1235) in the cathedral of Chartres (bays 29b, 14, and 39):
http://tinyurl.com/29vkq8b
2http://www.medievalart.org.uk/Chartres/14_Pages/Chartres_Bay14_key.htm
http://www.medievalart.org.uk/Chartres/039_pages/Chartres_Bay039_key.htm
Further views of the window in bay 39 (photographs by Gordon Plumb):
http://tinyurl.com/2b77yj7
Nicholas as in the earlier thirteenth-century frescoes (1230s) in the narthex of the church of the Ascension in the Mileševa monastery near Prijepolje (Zlatibor dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/bx4cm3f
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/a37kwwr
Nicholas as depicted in a mid-thirteenth-century Novgorod School icon now in the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg:
http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=en&mst_id=446
Nicholas as depicted in the later thirteenth-century frescoes (1259) in the church of Sts. Nicholas and Panteleimon at Boyana near the Bulgarian capital of Sofia:
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0015.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/d5sdgmf
This fresco's position in the church:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vintagedept/4967294741/lightbox/
Another portrait of Nicholas and scenes from his Life in the same later thirteenth-century frescoes in this church:
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0011a.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0011b.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0012.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0012a.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0012b.jpg [the idol is that of Artemis / Diana]
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0013.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0013a.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0013b.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0014c.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0014.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0011.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0014b.jpg
Nicholas as depicted in a later thirteenth-century fresco (betw. ca. 1263 and 1270 or slightly later) in the chapel of St. Symeon Nemanja in the monastery church of the Holy Trinity at Sopoćani (Raška dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/cergvfa
Nicholas (lower register) as depicted in a later thirteenth-century fresco (betw. 1263 and 1270 or slightly later) in the chapel of St. George in the monastery church of the Holy Trinity at Sopoćani (Raška dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/6lpm895
Nicholas giving alms as depicted in the late thirteenth-century (ca. 1285-1290) Livre d'images de Madame Marie (Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 16251, fol. 90v):
http://tinyurl.com/262f2jt
An expandable view of Nicholas reviving the three students as depicted in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the _Legenda aurea_ (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol.1r:
http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ds/huntington/images//000849A.jpg
Nicholas as depicted (with Christ holding a Gospels, the Theotokos holding an omophorion, and saints) in a late thirteenth-century icon (1294) from the church of St. Nicholas on Lipnya in Veliky Novgorod, now in the Novgorod State United Museum:
http://tinyurl.com/28wxm65
Nicholas as depicted in the late thirteenth-century frescoes (ca. 1295) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of the Peribleptos (now Sv. Climent Novi) in Ohrid:
http://tinyurl.com/7ar7xzb
http://tinyurl.com/7r6tfgc
http://tinyurl.com/7bcb5jf
Nicholas as depicted in a late thirteenth or very early fourteenth-century fresco, attributed to Manuel Panselinos, in the bema of the Protaton church on Mt. Athos:
http://tinyurl.com/2878om4
Nicholas as depicted in a late thirteenth- or very early fourteenth-century fresco in the church of the Holy Apostles in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć 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/y8wqrl7
Nicholas as depicted in an early fourteenth-century fresco in the apse of the right transept of the basilica di San Nicola in Bari:
http://www.pbase.com/querido/image/50660484
Nicholas as depicted (with the boy with the golden cup) in an early fourteenth-century fresco in the rupestrian church of Santa Maria delle Grotte in Rocchetta a Volturno (IS) in Molise:
http://www.francovalente.it/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/grotte034.jpg
Detail view (Nicholas):
http://www.francovalente.it/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/grotte035.jpg
Nicholas as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1308 and ca. 1320) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. Nicetas the Goth (Sv. Nikita) at Čučer in today's Čučer-Sandevo in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/7kpxc5b
http://tinyurl.com/84p4zmv
Scenes from the St. Nicholas cycle as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1311 and ca. 1322) in the church of St. Nicholas Orphanos in Thessaloniki:
http://tinyurl.com/6veqz5c
http://tinyurl.com/74xgadu
http://tinyurl.com/7lnggfe
http://tinyurl.com/bw7r4n8
http://tinyurl.com/cwkvo8h
http://tinyurl.com/czvqzta
http://tinyurl.com/7becpxb
http://tinyurl.com/7r75n56
Nicholas' badly degraded portrait next to the door below those frescoes:
http://tinyurl.com/7svfqqb
Nicholas cutting down the demon-infested tree 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 in Staro Nagoričane in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://www.eikonografos.com/album/albums/uploads/servia/30.jpg
Nicholas (at lower right) as depicted by Simone Martini in an earlier fourteenth-century polyptych (betw. 1320 and 1320) now in the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge:
http://tinyurl.com/agqss3k
Detail view (Nicholas):
http://tinyurl.com/bhw9px5
Nicholas as depicted on an earlier fourteenth-century icon donated to the church of St. Nicholas in Bari by the Serbian tsar Stefan Uroš IV Dušan in 1327:
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/galleries/gallery/2390/
Detail view:
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/media/images/b/bari-icon-serbian-lg.jpg
Nicholas as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (1330s) in the apse of the church of the Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć at 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/yzb6xly
Nicholas as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) of the nave in 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/2a4j82d
Detail views:
http://tinyurl.com/2bcl6qc
http://tinyurl.com/2a4j82d
Nicholas (at right; at left, St. Sabas of Jerusalem) as depicted in a December calendar composition in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć 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/bszau2d
Three pages of views of the Life of St. Nicholas cycle in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) of the parecclesion of St. Nicholas in 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, begin here:
http://tinyurl.com/39ajslh
Nicholas' birth as depicted by the Fauvel Master (attrib.) in an earlier fourteenth-century collection of French-language saint's lives (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 183, fol. 141v):
http://tinyurl.com/2fnf2zx
Nicholas providing dowries for the three destitute daughters as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century copy (betw. 1326 and 1350) collection of French-language saint's lives (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 185, fol. 143r):
http://tinyurl.com/2bovzh4
Nicholas as depicted in the mid-fourteenth-century frescoes of the monastery church of St. Michael the Archangel at Lesnovo in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/a3ewerp
Detail views:
http://tinyurl.com/b2lpk86
http://tinyurl.com/9woh9x2
Two scenes from Nicholas' Life as depicted in the later fourteenth-century frescoes (1360s and 1370s; restored in 1968-1970) in the church of St. Demetrius in Marko's Monastery at Markova Sušica (near Skopje) in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
a) Constantine's three officials appeal to Nicholas:
http://tinyurl.com/a6twxd3
b) The dormition of Nicholas:
http://tinyurl.com/a924s7y
Nicholas with scenes from his Life as portrayed on a fourteenth century relief mounted on the exterior of the basilica di San Nicola in Bari:
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/media/images/b/bari-bas-relief-lg.jpg
Nicholas with scenes from his Life as depicted in a later fourteenth-century Moscow School icon now in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow:
http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=en&mst_id=443
Nicholas (second from left) as depicted by Gentile da Fabriano in a panel, now in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, from his dismembered earlier fifteenth-century Quaratesi polyptych (ca. 1425):
http://www.wga.hu/art/g/gentile/quarate.jpg
Four predella panels from the same altarpiece now in the Pinacoteca, Musei Vaticani, Città del Vaticano:
http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/PIN/PIN_Sala02_02.html
Larger views of two of those predella panels:
http://www.wga.hu/art/g/gentile/quarate3.jpg
http://www.wga.hu/art/g/gentile/quarate4.jpg
Another predella panel from this altarpiece (supplicants at Nicholas' tomb in Bari), this one now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC:
http://www.wga.hu/art/g/gentile/quarate0.jpg
Nicholas revives the three students as depicted in the earlier fifteenth-century Hours of Marguerite d'Orléans (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 1156 B, fol. 172r):
http://tinyurl.com/3322ur8
Nicholas as depicted in a fifteenth-century Novgorod School icon now in the Karelian Fine Arts Museum in Petrozavodsk:
http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=en&mst_id=2770
Scenes from Nicholas' Life as depicted in a later fifteenth-century copy (1463) of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 51, fols. 117v, 118r, 119r, 121r, 122r):
http://tinyurl.com/36fgjjt
http://tinyurl.com/37wdb45
http://tinyurl.com/2vbe4gt
http://tinyurl.com/3y37c7a
http://tinyurl.com/32v9g3b
Nicholas as depicted in a later fifteenth-century fresco (1465) by Benozzo Gozzoli in the apsidal chapel of the chiesa di Sant'Agostino in San Gimignano:
http://tinyurl.com/bg9wrnd
Nicholas reviving the three students as portrayed in a late fifteenth- or very early sixteenth-century wooden statue of southern Netherlandish origin now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York:
http://tinyurl.com/3xawexg
Expandable views of the dome portrait of Nicholas and of scenes from his Life as depicted in 1502 by Dionisy and sons in the Virgin Nativity cathedral of the St. Ferapont Belozero (Ferapontov Belozersky) monastery at Ferapontovo in Russia's Vologda oblast will be found on these pages:
http://www.dionisy.com/eng/museum/1195/
http://www.dionisy.com/eng/museum/1214/?frag
http://www.dionisy.com/eng/museum/1278/?frag
Nicholas as depicted in an early sixteenth-century icon (ca. 1502) by Dionisy now in the icon museum of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery at Goritsy in Russia's Vologda oblast:
http://tinyurl.com/cm2kpeh
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/dxqmhyy
Nicholas as depicted (with Christ holding a Gospels and the Theotokos holding an omophorion) in an earlier sixteenth-century Ukrainian icon from the village of Sushystya the Great (Lviv oblast):
http://tinyurl.com/2c9jhfy
The earlier sixteenth-century St Nicholas window in the Church of All Saints, Hillesden (Bucks; photographs by Gordon Plumb):
http://tinyurl.com/368krjo
Another view of the window as a whole:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/erichardyuk/413775089/
Another set of views:
http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/Hillesden/Sa-Ew.htm
Nicholas as depicted in the earlier sixteenth-century frescoes (1527) by Theofanis Strelitzas-Bathas (a.k.a. Theophanes the Cretan) in the katholikon of the monastery of St. Nicholas Anapafsas in the Meteora district of Greece's Trikala prefecture:
http://tinyurl.com/7sswsf6
Nicholas (lower register) as depicted in the earlier sixteenth-century frescoes (1545-1546) by Theofanis Strelitzas-Bathas (a.k.a. Theophanes the Cretan) in the katholikon of the Stavronikita monastery on Mt. Athos:
http://tinyurl.com/3zsqr27
> 4) Obitius of Niardo (d. ca. 1204).
He should have been followed by:
5) Benvenuto of Piticchio (Bl.; d. 1273). We know about this holy person of the central Marche (in Italian, Benvenuto del Piticchio as well as Benevenuto di Piticchio; in Latin, Beuenutus / Beneuenutus / Benuenutus de Petichio) from the work of Andrea di Giacomo (d. 1326), the fourth prior general of the Silvestrine community and its early hagiographer. According to Andrea's Vita of the community's founder St. Silvestro Guzzolini (BHL 7744, 7745), Benvenuto was one of the latter's disciples and assistants at their house on Monte Fano. A native of Piticchio in today's _comune_ of Arcevia (AN) and a person of dovelike simplicity, he was illiterate, highly devout, given to constant prayer and contemplation, and an example of monastic perfection. An evil spirit tormented him, driving him violently from place to place when at prayer, frequently causing him to lose sleep, and finally throwing him at night from the window of the monastery's solarium. Benvenuto lingered for ten days before dying of his injuries; after his death he operated many miracles.
Thus far Andrea di Giacomo, who both in this Vita and in that of Bl. Ugo degli Atti (BHL 4033b, 4033c) relates a miracle in which a brother suffering from a very painful and ultimately fatal intestinal disorder repeatedly calls upon _sanctus Beuenutus_ as well as _beatus Siluester_ and is rewarded with a dream vision in which Benvenuto appears to him dressed in white and predicts that the brother will endure only one more week of torment before joining him in heaven. Now celebrated by the Silvestrine Benedictines as a Beatus, Benvenuto has yet to grace the pages of the RM.
Best,
John Dillon
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