medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I've now had a chance to consult Delehaye's _Propylaeum Decembris_ (1940) in the _AA.SS._ Under 22. August there's no entry for or discussion of the Alexandrian martyrs Epimachus and Alexander and, for that matter, no entry for or discussion of a single St. Alexander whom Farmer might have referenced in this context. It would seem that, rather than being ascribable to Delehaye, this exceptional and, to be frank, not very credible association of Epimachus and Alexander with 22. August is a slip on Farmer's part. What misunderstood or mistranscribed datum underlies that slip is probably irrecoverable.
Best again,
John Dillon
On 12/14/14, John Dillon wrote:
> Odd that in _The Oxford Dictionary of Saints_ Farmer should have assigned Epimachus and Alexander to 22. August. One would have expected him to follow the Roman Martyrology, which latter has always entered E. and A. under 12. December (so, double-checking just now, the revisions of 1748 and 1962). On consulting Farmer (4th ed., 1997; p. 14), I see that his source for this unusual date is given as "_Propylaeum_, s.d. 22 August". That's a reference to Delehaye's critical edition of the RM published in 1940 (in a preliminary volume for December in the _Acta Sanctorum_) incorporating his proposed alterations to its traditional calendrical order, lemmata, and elogia. Farmer may have been expecting that this edition might one day become an officially promulgated revision of the RM. But that never happened and those proposals that were not accepted in 2001 or in 2004 (and this August date of commemoration for Epimachus and Alexander apparently is one of them) are in no way standard.
>
> Best,
> John Dillon
>
> On 12/13/14, Matt Heintzelman wrote:
> >
> > With apologies for being tardy! I was away from home and office all day yesterday. So here is the link a day late:
> >
> >
> >
> > https://www.facebook.com/604882972899463/photos/a.624764970911263.1073741830.604882972899463/747361528651606/?type=1&theater
> >
> >
> >
> > "Epimachus and Alexander, martyred at Alexandria in the persecution of Decius, commemorated in the Latin Church on 12 Dec."; <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Epimachus>
> > The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (3rd ed., 1992) gives their feast day as August 22. There are many saints with either of these names, but only these two from Alexandria are paired in this way.
> >
> >
> >
> > Peace,
> >
> >
> >
> > Matt H.
> >
> >
> >
> > Curator, Austria/Germany Study Center; Rare Book Cataloger, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML)
> > Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7300
> >
> > Phone: 320-363-2795; Fax: 320-363-3222
> >
> > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion(http://www.hmml.org/" target="1">http://www.hmml.org
> >
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