medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The cult of Lucillianus and companions (d. ca. 273, supposedly) is attested to by the existence of his former martyrion in Constantinople, documented in tenth-century synaxaries, as well as by entries in various Eastern calendars, etc. It is supposed, because of the coincidence of dates, that the Lucianus whose passion is commemorated on this day in the earlier ninth-century Marble Calendar of Naples is the same saint recorded under a slightly different name (also used for him in some later medieval painted calendars) and not the martyr Lucian of Antioch, the teacher of Eusebius.
Lucillianus has a legendary Passio (BHG 998y) that makes him a pagan priest of Nicomedia (today's İzmit in Turkey) who became a secret Christian and who for two years managed not to perform sacrifices until a Jew turned him in, in the reign of Aurelian. Lucillianus was arrested along with seventy others who were hiding with him. After an interrogation that did not go well, he and four male children (Claudius, Hypatius, Paulus, and Dionysius) were sentenced to be burned alive. But as soon as that torment had begun a sudden downpour extinguished the fire. The official in charge ascribed this turn of events to magic operated by Lucillianus. All five were sent to Chalcedon and finally to Byzantium, where Lucillianus was crucified and his companions were beheaded. Thus far their Passio. Byzantine synaxaries add a separate elogium of a virgin named Paula or Paulina who had comforted L. and his companions in prison, who collected their corpses, and who was also martyred.
In its revision of 2001 the Roman Martyrology ceased to present elogia for Lucillianus and companions and for Paula. They are celebrated today in Orthodox and other Eastern-rite churches.
Lucillianus as depicted in a June calendar portrait in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/1322) of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending on one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/3xua922
Paula as depicted in a June calendar portrait in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/1322) of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending on one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/35dyp8y
Lucillianus in fire and (beneath him) the four children martyred by the sword as depicted in a calendar composition beginning with 3. June in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the narthex of the church of the Holy Ascension in the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nLiHvst1mds/T8kaDEh6pbI/AAAAAAAAFuk/nLxDh3_4IiM/s1600/s1303002.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
(an older post revised)
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