medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Thanks, John.
A fascinating post.
Erica
http://www.ericaobey.com
Back to the Garden (Five Star Mysteries, 2013) available for order here
-----Original Message-----
From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious
culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Dillon
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2015 4:29 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [M-R] Another Saint for the Day (January 16): St. Honoratus of
Fondi
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Honoratus of Fondi (d. earlier 6th cent.?). This monastic founder is the
subject of Book 1, Chapter 1, of the _Dialogues_ of pope St. Gregory the
Great. According to Gregory, he was the son of peasants working on an estate
somewhere in the mountains of Samnium. Already very ascetic in his youth, he
managed to irritate his parents by refusing to eat meat at a feast that they
had prepared for their neighbors. The parents scoffed at Honoratus and asked
if perhaps they should have a fish -- a foodstuff of which they had heard
but which they themselves had not experienced -- brought to him in the
mountains. Whereupon the young saint, fetching water for the feast from a
spring, scooped up in his bucket a fish along with the water and brought it
back, dumping it out when he emptied the bucket. The fish sufficed to feed
Honoratus for the entire day.
Later (still according to Gregory) Honoratus founded a monastery at what now
is Fondi (LT) in southern Lazio, became its abbot, and was exemplary in
keeping his conversation to a minimum. One day a huge rock on an adjacent
overhanging cliff broke free, threatening both the destruction of the
monastery and the death of the brothers. Calling upon Christ, Honoratus
stopped the rock in its course by making a sign of the Cross with his
outstretched right hand; according to Gregory's informant, the rock can
still be seen on the cliffside giving the appearance of being about to fall.
Thus far Gregory.
The next chapter in Gregory's _Dialogues_ concerns a later head of the same
monastery, St. Libertinus of Fondi, whose dating by Gregory to the Gothic
War (535-554) provides a _terminus ante_ for Honoratus' death. By the early
twelfth century it was believed that a monastery at Fondi honoring St.
Magnus "of Trani" was the one founded by Honoratus and that Honoratus had
brought Magnus' body there (so the Vita of St. Peter of Anagni and the
separate account of Magnus' translation from Fondi to Veroli and thence to
Anagni). An undated legendary Vita of Honoratus (BHL 3980b; earliest witness
is probably fifteenth-century) from Fondi relates how his body, along with
those of Sts. Paternus and Libertinus, was translated from his monastery to
Fondi's cathedral during a pestilence that ceased miraculously once this
pious operation had been completed (local historians have dated the
pestilence, and thus the translation, to 1215).
Since at least the later Middle Ages Honoratus has been Fondi's principal
patron saint and the name saint of numerous members of its later medieval
comital family, a branch of the Gaetani (Caetani), notably including both
Onorato I, count of Fondi and Traetto in the later fourteenth century and
his descendant Onorato II, who for most of the later fifteenth century was
logothete and protonotary of the mostly mainland kingdom of Sicily (_vulgo_,
kingdom of Naples) and thus also a member of the latter's Sacro Regio
Consilio. 16. January is Honoratus' day of commemoration in the RM. At Fondi
he has long been chiefly celebrated on his patronal feast of 10. October.
Prior to Italian unification Fondi (which has been in Lazio only since 1927)
was the first real town encountered by many travelers headed from either
Velletri or Terracina towards Naples once they had crossed the border from
the papal state. It was here, relatively close to Rome but in an
Angevin-ruled polity, that in 1378 French cardinals unhappy with the
recently consecrated pope Urban VI met in what was then the local cathedral
and, hosted by count Onorato I, elected in his stead Robert of Geneva,
cardinal priest of the Twelve Apostles. Taking up residence in Avignon and
reigning from there as Clement VII, Robert commissioned the book of prayers
that is now Avignon, Bibliothèque-Médiathèque Municipale Ceccano, ms. 6733
and that crossed the horizon of this honourable list only a few days ago in
connection with images of St. Hilary of Poitiers. Some know him better as
the first pope of the Avignon obedience during the Great Western Schism.
An exterior view of Fondi's much rebuilt, originally twelfth-century
ex-cattedrale di San Pietro Apostolo:
http://tinyurl.com/4w43fx6
Two Italian-language accounts of this church:
http://www.santuariodellacivita.it/s_pietro_fondi.htm
http://www.sanpietroapostolofondi.com/la-chiesa/profilo-storico.html
Further views are here (starting with the cosmatesque throne):
http://www.laziosud.net/litorale/fondi.html
Minutes 4:55 to 11:47 of this half-hour Tv2000 program on Fondi from June
2014 offer a very informative tour of the church, clearly delivered and
showing medieval decor not widely reproduced elsewhere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=33OVYC-afew
That program's later segments on the holdings of the local historical museum
(incl. an early Christian sarcophagus and various later pieces of religious
art) and on Fondi's also originally medieval chiesa di San Francesco are
also worth watching.
Honoratus of Fondi (at left, holding Fondi's baronial castle) as depicted by
Cristoforo Scacco in a late fifteenth-century triptych of the Annunciation
with Saints in the ex-cathedral's cappella Caetani:
http://www.atlantedellarteitaliana.it/immagine/00020/13801OP2332AU21954.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
(an older post revised)
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
|