medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Hi, Bill. In Latin tradition at least, there is no attested saint Namor. The name occurs in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology (edd. De Rossi and Duchesne) at prid. Id. Maii, where it is one of several recorded variants (another is Nemor) for the Milanese saint Nabor of the group Victor, Nabor, Felix, and Rusticus. Nabor and Felix shared a martyrial church in Milan; consequently, they often appear liturgically as a pair. As they would appear to do in the procession of male martyrs in Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, where "Namor" and Felix are part of a sequence in which pairs of Milanese saints alternate with individual Ravennate ones: John, Paul (a Roman pair), Gervasius, Protasius (a Milanese pair), Vitalis (a Ravennate martyr connected legendarily with Gervasius and Protasius), Nemor, Felix (presumably the Milanese pair Nabor and Felix), Apollinaris (another Ravennate martyr). See:
http://c8.alamy.com/comp/B0FPY5/mosaic-of-procession-of-martyrs-basilica-of-santapollinare-nuovo-ravenna-B0FPY5.jpg
There is no more reason to suppose that the inscriptions in Sant'Apollinare Nuovo imply the existence of a saint Namor who is not Nabor under another spelling than there is for supposing that the same inscriptions imply the existence of a saint Demiter who is not Demetrius under another spelling. See:
http://c8.alamy.com/comp/E92YP1/san-apollinare-nuovo-byzantine-mosaic-procession-of-martyrs-E92YP1.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
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