medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
An older post revised:
Eugenia of Rome (?). Also known as Eugenia of Alexandria, this saint is the heroine of a popular, romance-like, and highly legendary Passio whose earliest form is in Latin (BHL 2666-2668; in Greek, translations are BHG 607x, 607y [both from BHL 2666], and BHG 607w [from BHL 2667]; St. Symeon Metaphrastes' expanded Passio of Eugenia is BHG 608). This confection associates her with the otherwise differently attested Sts. Protus and Hyacinth, here presented as eunuchs of her household with whom she converts to Christianity, and has her then maintain her virginity against the wishes of her father, the Roman governor of Egypt. To do this she puts on men's clothing, assumes a male identity, and, taking the name Eugenius, enters a monastery in Alexandria. There she proves herself a paragon of virtue and is elected abbot. When she has to refuse the attentions of a woman named Melanthia who had fallen in love with her the latter denounces the supposed Eugenius to the authorities; tried before her father, who had thought her dead, Eugenia reveals her true identity and is acquitted. Her entire family converts to Christianity. Eugenia's father is assassinated in a local persecution and her mother moves the family to Rome. There Eugenia refuses another suitor (this time male), is denounced as a Christian, undergoes numerous tortures, and finally is slain by the sword on 25. December of some very indeterminate year.
Some medieval images of Eugenia of Rome:
a) Eugenia as depicted among the female saints of the carefully restored earlier to mid-sixth-century mosaics on the triumphal arch in the Basilica Eufrasiana in Poreč:
http://nickerson.icomos.org/porec/u/ud.jpg
b) Eugenia as depicted (at far left) in the heavily restored later sixth-century procession of female saints (ca. 561) in the basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna (photo courtesy of Genevra Kornbluth):
http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/images/ApNNorth2.jpg
c) Eugenia 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/nld6mls
d) Eugenia revealing herself to her father as portrayed on a twelfth-century capital in the basilique Marie-Madeleine at Vézelay:
http://www.medart.pitt.edu/menufrance/vezelay/capitals/vezcap59.html
http://tinyurl.com/culx6vv
e) Eugenia's martyrdom as depicted (upper register) in a late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century picture bible of Spanish origin (Augsburg, UB, Cod. I. 2. 4° 15, fol. 265v):
http://tinyurl.com/nm8yph6
f) Scenes from Eugenia's legend as depicted by the Master of Soriguerola on a late thirteenth-century altar frontal from the iglesia de Santa Eugenia de Saga in Saga (Ger, Baja Cerdaña), Cataluña, now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris:
http://tinyurl.com/qx2mxos
g) Eugenia's martyrdom as depicted (lower left; with two martyred companions) in an earlier fourteenth-century set of miniatures from Thessaloniki (betw. 1322 and 1340) for the Great Feasts (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Gr. th. f. 1, fol. 22r:
http://tinyurl.com/nhgp3b7
h) Three scenes from Eugenia's legend as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century copy (ca. 1335) of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Arsenal 5080, fols. 152r, 152v, 154r):
Eugenia being instructed by her father:
http://tinyurl.com/7adawck
Eugenia being baptized together with Sts. Protus and Hyacinth:
http://tinyurl.com/7r7g7fp
Eugenia revealing herself to her father:
http://tinyurl.com/pbm8gyj
i) Eugenia being instructed by her father and Eugenia at the baptism of Sts. Protus and Hyacinth 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 50, fol. 392r):
http://tinyurl.com/lug4dwz
j) Eugenia being accused by Melanthia 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 50, fol. 393v):
http://tinyurl.com/layk44a
k) Eugenia's sufferings (at lower left, the martyrdom of Sts. Protus and Hyacinth) and Eugenia's martyrdom 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, fol. 26r):
http://tinyurl.com/7ssjvlz
l) Eugenia (at right; at left, Sts. Protus and Hyacinth) as depicted in a late fifteenth-century Roman Breviary of French origin (Clermont-Ferrand, Bibliothèque du patrimoine, ms. 69, fol. 548v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht4/IRHT_081388-p.jpg
m) Eugenia (with Sts. Protus and Hyacinth) as depicted in a late fifteenth-century copy a French-language version of Bl. Jacopo da Varazze's _Legenda aurea_ (Angers, Université Catholique de l'Ouest, Bibliothèque universitaire, incunable non coté, fol. 202v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht16/IRHT_043098-p.jpg
n) Scenes from Eugenia's legend as portrayed on the recently restored late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century great altarpiece of the iglesia de Santa Eugenia in Astudillo (Palencia):
http://tinyurl.com/ncxhf7s
Detail views:
http://palenciapatrimonio.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/dsc03942.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/nvl6fkz
http://tinyurl.com/or36mso
http://tinyurl.com/pp4w6es
http://tinyurl.com/pb632da
o) Eugenia's martyrdom as depicted in an earlier sixteenth-century fresco (1546/1547) by George / Tzortzis the Cretan in the katholikon of the Dionysiou monastery on Mt. Athos:
http://tinyurl.com/kztfgaq
Best,
John Dillon
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