medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Mercurialis (d. later 4th cent.) is an historically attested bishop of Forlė in Emilia-Romagna who took part in the Council of Rimini in 359. Medievally, he became Forlė's apostolic-era protobishop. His cult is first attested from the ninth century; in the tenth it had spread to Ravenna and to Pistoia. In the later eleventh century a monk who was not of Forlė composed the saint's Vita (BHL 5932), combining praise of a model bishop with narrative elements said to be derived from paintings in Mercurialis' originally extramural late antique basilica. One of the latter depicted Mercurialis, assisted by bishop St. Rufillus of nearby Forlimpopoli, slaying a dragon that was infesting the area between their two towns. Whereas this image will surely have been created with allegorical intent, contextual information allowing one to determine the precise nature of the allegory is lacking. Episcopal defeat of an enemy imagined as a large serpent is of course an hagiographical topos. What makes this instance unusual is the co-operation of bishops from adjacent sees.
In 1173-81 Vallombrosans erected at Forlė the monastery church dedicated to Mercurialis now known as the basilica abbaziale di San Mercuriale. Herewith a page on -- and other views of -- this structure, badly damaged in World War II and since rebuilt:
http://www.medioevo.org/artemedievale/Pages/EmiliaRomagna/Forli.html
http://tinyurl.com/jpo5spv
http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/abbey-of-san-mercuriale/view/google/
http://tinyurl.com/22t66b8
http://tinyurl.com/29txh43
http://www.filoweb.it/galleria2015/foto/IE8RTTDD3NZJVW2095XVW8424.jpg
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/23421315.jpg
Mercurialis' putative relics repose in a recently restored baroque chapel in this church.
Two views of the adjacent cloister:
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/37797332.jpg
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/5822015.jpg
St. Mercurialis of Forlė as depicted (bottom register, second from left) by Baldassarre Carrari in an early sixteenth-century panel painting of the Coronation of the BVM with Saints (betw. 1509 and 1512) in the Pinacoteca civica of Forlė:
http://tinyurl.com/hehv6nh
Detail view (Mercurialis):
http://tinyurl.com/zgb9bo4
Best,
John Dillon
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