medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
This saint's name appears in our oldest sources as Cleridona or Cleridonia; the now customary Chelidonia, suggesting a swallow, appears to be a relatively late hagiographical flight of fancy. According to her Vita, she was born in the Cicolano, a territory that until its incorporation into Lazio in the great realignment of 1927 was traditionally part of Abruzzo. She is said to have been of noble birth, to have renounced the world at an early age, to have made a pilgrimage to Rome, and then to have settled in a mountain cave near -- but at a greater height than -- the Benedictine monastery complex at Subiaco on the western edge of the Monti Simbruini east of Rome. There she resided as an hermit, engaging in a life or prayer and fasting and occasionally revealing her sanctity through acts of thaumaturgy. After her death (at some time before 1183; traditionally on 13. October 1152 but neither the year nor the day is known with certainty), Chelidonia was buried in the monastery of St. Scholastica at Subiaco. Within a few years that house erected at what was said to be the site of her cave a dependency dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene and transferred into it Chelidonia's remains, whence this monastery came also to be referred to as that of Chelidonia. In 1578, when this monastery was no longer in operation, remains said to be hers were brought down to the monastery of St. Scholastica.
Chelidonia's cult is documented from the late twelfth century onward. Her Vita's oldest form consists of eight readings for an Office preserved at Subiaco in a thirteenth-century manuscript written for a women's monastery, probably the one dedicated to her. Chelidonia is the principal patron of the city of Subiaco (RO). Herewith some views of a thirteenth-century fresco by Magister Conxolus (usually normalized to Consolus) in the lower church of the Sacro Speco at Subiaco, showing her seated in her grotto and receiving veneration from two nuns:
http://tinyurl.com/3ohvqx
http://tinyurl.com/lf29g
http://tinyurl.com/ovoyofz
Views of the remains of the monastery of Sts. Mary Magdalene and Chelidonia, now referred to touristically as the eremo di Santa Chelidonia or as the monastero di Santa Chelidonia, will be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/pn6tzhj
http://www.anienewilderness.it/subiaco-santa-chelidonia/
http://www.simbruinastagna.com/public/news/articlefiles/94-007.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
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