medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (28. December) is the feast day of:
1) The Holy Innocents (ca. 5 BCE [if not wholly legendary]). We read about these sacrificial victims for Christ from Matthew 2: 16-18. Their feast in Rome seems to be no older than the later fourth century. Its stational church is San Paolo fuori le Mura, which latter is said to hold relics of them. Orthodox churches celebrate this feast on 29. December. Herewith a number of medieval representations of the Massacre of the Innocents (including some early antecedents of the German soldier of World War I propaganda with a Belgian baby on his bayonet):
a) Mosaic (fifth-century), triumphal arch, basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome:
http://tinyurl.com/cp6xt3o
b) Pyx (later sixth-century; ivory and copper), Musée du Louvre, Paris:
http://tinyurl.com/37fu5y
Several views of this object will be found here (photographs by Genevra Kornbluth):
http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/MassacreInnocentsPyxis.html
c) Ivory plaque (ninth-century), re-used for the upper cover of a late tenth-century Gospels from Metz (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 9393):
http://tinyurl.com/yceywa4
d) Manuscript illumination (late tenth-century) by the Master of the Codex Egberti in a book of Gospel pericopes (Trier, Stadtbibliothek, Ms. 24):
http://tinyurl.com/6ujrwe
e) Relief (early eleventh-century) on a choir screen from the church of St. Domenica (Sv. Nediljica) in Zadar, now in the Arheološki muzej - Zadar:
http://www.croatianculture.info/pics/59_relief.jpg
f) Frescoes (late eleventh- or mid-twelfth-century) in the église Saint-Aignan at Brinay (Cher):
http://tinyurl.com/cveh9pn
http://www.sagaphoto.com/bassedefWM/18PF0320.jpg
http://www.art-roman.net/brinay/brinay30x.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/6r8jolv
http://tinyurl.com/7zlwdnm
Further views are here:
http://www.art-roman.net/brinay/brinay3.htm#
g) Capital reliefs (ca. 1145; the better preserved portions of a longer frieze) on the central portal of the west facade, cathédrale Notre-Dame, Chartres:
http://tinyurl.com/2ettdp7
h) Glass panels (mid-twelfth-century), Infancy and Life of Christ window, cathédrale Notre-Dame, Chartres (photographs by Gordon Plumb):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4147810624/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4147052747/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4147814192/
i) Reliquary châsse (mid to late twelfth-century), Musée du Louvre, Paris:
http://tinyurl.com/298avy
j) Fresco (ca. 1180), Panteón de los Reyes, Colegiata de San Isidoro, Léon:
http://tinyurl.com/yl7fhdx:
Detail view:
http://www.wga.hu/art/zgothic/mural/12c2/03catala.jpg
k) Reliefs (late twelfth-century) on the west portal of the église primatiale Saint-Trophime in Arles:
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/france/arles/sttrophime/0162.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/bnv4par
l) Manuscript illumination (ca. 1200), Psalter(?) fragment, codex sometimes described as a picture bible (The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 76 F 5; fol. 11v):
http://tinyurl.com/2ule7j
m) Capital (late twelfth- or very early thirteenth-century), iglesia de Santa Cecilia, Aguilar de Campóo (Palencia):
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/9337683.jpg
Detail views:
http://tinyurl.com/3dy6jj
n) The earlier thirteenth-century apse mosaic (ca. 1220) of Rome's basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura has a medievally unusual depiction of the Innocents, showing them as nimbed martyrs rather than as children being slaughtered:
http://tinyurl.com/2badk6h
In addition to being unusual that depiction is also seldom seen. Since basilica's rebuilding in the nineteenth century this section of the mosaic has been hidden from ordinary view by a neoclassical entablature:
http://tinyurl.com/2aa7dbq
http://tinyurl.com/28dmykd
o) Relief on the lid of an iron baptismal font (ca. 1225) in the Hohe Domkirche St. Mariä Himmelfahrt at Hildesheim:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28433765@N07/3941761102/lightbox/
p) Relief (betw. ca. 1220 and 1236), south portal, west facade, cathédrale Notre-Dame, Amiens:
http://tinyurl.com/22rtryv
q) Tympanum relief (bottom register at right), cloister portal (ca. 1250), north facade, cathédrale Notre-Dame, Paris:
http://tinyurl.com/2d2pl7h
r) Manuscript illumination (1266), Epistles according to the Use of Cambrai (Cambrai, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 190; fol. 11v):
http://tinyurl.com/3ymzxh
s) Manuscript illumination (mid to late thirteenth-century), Psalter according to the Use of Arras (Aix-en-Provence, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 14; fol. XI):
http://tinyurl.com/35mlax
t) Tympanum relief (betw. 1280 and ca.1285), north portal, west facade, cathédrale Notre-Dame, Strasbourg:
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/strasbourg/westntympdet.jpg
u) Manuscript illumination (betw. ca. 1285 and ca. 1290), Livre d'images de Madame Marie (Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 16251, fol. 24r):
http://tinyurl.com/ydzmsss
v) An expandable view of a manuscript illumination (late thirteenth-century) in a copy of French origin of the _Legenda aurea_ (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol.11v):
http://tinyurl.com/cakzets
w) Glass window panel (late thirteenth-century), basilique Saint-Urbain, Troyes:
http://tinyurl.com/ygjtj7f
x) Glass window panel (ca. 1290), Life of the Virgin window, chapter house, York Minster (photograph by Gordon Plumb):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/5032614889/
y) Pulpit relief (betw. 1297and 1301) by Giovanni Pisano, cattedrale di San Zeno, Pistoia:
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/giorgio.vasari/pisano/pic12.htm
z) Pulpit relief (1302 or 1303) by Giovanni Pisano, cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, Pisa:
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/italy/pisa/duomopulpit/0045.jpg
aa) Fresco (betw. 1303 and 1305) by Giotto di Bondone, Cappella degli Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua:
http://tinyurl.com/chva3su
bb) Panel painting (betw. 1308 and 1311) by Duccio di Buoninsegna, Museo dell'Opera del duomo, Siena:
http://tinyurl.com/ukbmh
cc) Mosaic (betw. 1315 and 1321), Chora church (Kariye Camii), Istanbul:
http://www.fixcas.com/cgi-bin/herod.py?KariyeCamii
Detail view:
http://savingparadise.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/fig_20-slaughter.jpg
That scene shows Herod ordering the Massacre of the Innocents plus a bit of the Massacre itself. The latter is further depicted in a partly preserved adjacent mosaic now in two major sections:
http://tinyurl.com/85jzr9z
and
http://tinyurl.com/6vahco4
dd) Fresco (ca. 1320) attributed to Giotto di Bondone and workshop, lower basilica, basilica di San Francesco, Assisi:
http://tinyurl.com/bms527o
ee) Glass window panel (Giovanni di Bonino; 1325-1334), cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, Orvieto:
http://www.icvbc.cnr.it/bivi/schede/Umbria/orvieto/1duomo15.htm
ff) Tympanum sculpture (earlier fourteenth-century), église Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption at Mont-devant-Sassey (Meuse):
http://tinyurl.com/c8obsc4
The Massacre of the Infants is at upper left.
gg) Fresco (betw. 1335 and 1350; a December calendar scene, suboptimally preserved) in the narthex of 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/cbhhg4m
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/c566zc8
hh) Wall painting (ca. 1340) by the Master of Waltensburg / Waltensburger Meister / Maister da Vuorz, Pfarrkirche Sankt Zeno, Lüen (Graubünden / Grisons):
http://tinyurl.com/38a53x
ii) Manuscript illumination (Richard de Montbaston; 1348) in a copy of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language translation by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 25v):
http://tinyurl.com/yj2oygb
jj) Manuscript illumination (later fourteenth-century), Gospels in Armenian (Paris, BnF, ms. Arménien 333, fol. 4v):
http://tinyurl.com/y9zn7oo
kk) Glass panel (ca. 1385) by Jakob Acker the Elder, Anne and Mary window (Anna-Marienfenster), Münster (ex-cathedral of the BVM), Ulm:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16459025@N03/3423771517/
ll) Wall painting (1407), chiesa parrocchiale di Santa Maria Assunta / Pfarrkirche St. Mariä Himmelfahrt, Terlano / Terlan (BZ) in the South Tirol (Massacre of the Innocents in bottom register):
http://tinyurl.com/d52k8vk
Detail view:
http://www.burgenseite.com/faschen/terlan_ritter_5.jpg
mm) Glass panel (1449 or 1450), Holy Innocents window, cathédrale Notre-Dame, Rouen:
http://tinyurl.com/y9gsgx4
nn) Glass panel (fifteenth-century, remounted in a window of 1522), collégiale Saint-Émilion, Saint-Émilion (Gironde):
http://inventaire.aquitaine.fr/typo3temp/pics/937aa4decd.jpg
oo) Manuscript illumination (ca. 1450), Missal according to the Use of Nantes (Le Mans, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 0223; fol. 16v):
http://tinyurl.com/2tt7l5
pp) Panel painting (betw. 1450 and 1453) by Beato Angelico, formerly in the church of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence, now in that city's Museo nazionale di San Marco:
http://saints.bestlatin.net/images/gallery/innocenti_angelico.jpg
qq) Glass window panel (I 2g; betw. ca. 1450 and ca. 1455), east window, St Peter Mancroft, Norwich:
http://tinyurl.com/cc74xfh
rr) Panel painting (before 1482) by Hugo van der Goes, part of an Adoration of the Magi triptych, The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg:
http://www.fixcas.com/cgi-bin/herod.py?Goes
ss) Vault painting (ca. 1480) by the Elmelunde Master, Keldby kirke, Keldby (Vordingborg kommune), Sjælland:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28577026@N02/2921673716
http://tinyurl.com/c5r7b32
tt) Mosaic panels (ca. 1481) by Matteo di Giovanni, floor of the cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, Siena:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootsintheoven/471081918/
http://tinyurl.com/y8k8gf
http://tinyurl.com/yeujfbg
http://tinyurl.com/ybhkpn9
uu) Panel painting (1482) by Matteo di Giovanni, chiesa di Sant'Agostino, Siena:
http://www.wga.hu/art/m/matteo/innocent.jpg
vv) Panel painting (1488) by Matteo di Giovanni, Museo nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples:
http://tinyurl.com/yaeg39l
ww) Glass window (ca. 1490) by Antonio da Pandino, formerly in the cathedral of Milan and now in the collection of the Château du Hac, Le Quiou (Côtes-d'Armor):
http://www.icvbc.cnr.it/bivi/estero/1chateau_hac1.htm
xx) Manuscript illumination (before 1498), Breviary according to the Use of Besançon (Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 69; p. 209):
http://tinyurl.com/ytsk3c
yy) Vault painting (ca. 1500) by the Elmelunde Master, Elmelunde kirke, Elmelunde (Vordingborg kommune), Sjælland:
http://tinyurl.com/d229sdw
zz) Glass panel (ca. 1532), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Massacre of the Innocents at upper left):
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/BK-NM-12969
2) Theonas of Alexandria (d. 300). According to Eusebius of Caesarea (_Historia ecclesiastica_, 7. 32), Theonas succeeded Maximus in the see of Alexandria and ruled it for nineteen years. In the numeration of the popes of Alexandria he is Theonas I. He placed the future pope St. Achillas in charge of what became the see's famous catechetical school and ordained as presbyters the theologian St. Pierius of Alexandria and the future martyr St. Peter of Alexandria. According to the Arabic Jacobite synaxary of the Coptic Orthodox Church, which places his feast day on 28. December, Theonas was noted for his learning and his charity. In the Latin west, for reasons unknown Theonas' feast day was placed by the ninth-century St. Ado of Vienne under 23. August; Usuard followed suit, as did the Roman Martyrology prior to its revision of 2001.
3) Antonius of Lérins (d. ca. 525). We know about this late antique holy person from his closely posthumous Vita (BHL 584), written by St. Ennodius of Pavia at the behest of an abbot of Lérins. The offspring of well-to-do parents in Pannonia Valeria and the nephew of a bishop, he lost his father early and was brought up by St. Severinus of Noricum in the latter's monastery at Favianis (now Mautern an der Donau). In 488, when Odoacer organized the withdrawal from Noricum of its remaining Roman communities, Antonius entered Italy with the other refugees and then settled at Lake Como as a disciple of a priest named Marius. Marius had numerous disciples; seeking solitude, Antonius withdrew to a cave near one of the southern extremities of the lake and lived there for a while with two hermits at the tomb of a St. Felix.
Still according to Ennodius, a man who had killed his wife in a fit of jealousy sought to evade punishment by attaching himself to Antonius without revealing that he was a criminal. But Antonius unmasked the hypocrite and drove him from his cell. The acclaim that followed this incident brought the saint too many visitors. Seeking to restore his solitude, he crossed the Alps and entered the island monastery of Lérins. There Antonius found peace and died two years later. Thus far the Vita.
Best,
John Dillon
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