medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
James the deacon and Marian(us) the lector (d. 259) are the protagonists of BHL 131, the Passio of the Martyrs of Lambesa written by a contemporary at the outbreak of the Decian persecution. While they and the Passio's author were traveling, seemingly from Africa proconsularis, across Numidia they halted for a while at a villa in a suburb of Cirta (today's Constantine in Algeria). Staying at the same place were the Numidian bishops Agapius and Secundinus, who left shortly afterward. A few days later James, Marian, the author, and others were arrested and taken for interrogation to Cirta, where they were all imprisoned and Marian was tortured. During his imprisonment James learned in a dream that the two bishops and others had already been martyred. James and Marian were soon taken to the provincial capital of Lambaesis (today's Lambesa in Algeria), where they were decapitated. Thus far their Passio (used by St. Augustine of Hippo in Sermon 284).
Prior to its revision of 2001 the Roman Martyrology entered Marian and James under 30. April. Their transfer to today accords with the record of their feast on this date in the early sixth-century Calendar of Carthage.
A problematic inscription cut into a rock at Cirta in late antiquity (_CIL_ VIII, 7294) speaks of the celebration on 2. September of the suffering of Marian, James, and another nine saints (none bearing the names of the other martyrs in the Passio of Marian and James), all of whom are characterized as _marturorum Hortensium_. The significance of _Hortensium_ is not clear and 2. September is not otherwise recorded as a feast day for Marian and James. Here's a view of the inscription:
http://www.cassiciaco.it/navigazione/africa/martiri/images/rummel.jpg
The originally later thirteenth- to mid-fourteenth-century cathedral of Gubbio (PG) in Umbria is dedicated to Marian and James and houses their putative relics in a late antique sarcophagus beneath the central altar in the sanctuary. Some exterior views of this church, whose predecessors are referred to in early diocesan documents as having been dedicated to Marian:
http://tinyurl.com/jyaeppv
http://www.gubbiofacentro.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Il-Duomo.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/h4gxvst
http://www.gubbio.name/foto_cattedrale/Cattedrale_DSC_9477.jpg
The sculptures on the facade (the Agnus Dei and the symbols of the four evangelists):
http://tinyurl.com/h3jdgdc
http://www.okre.it/wp-content/uploads/DSCF8832_1.jpg
http://www.okre.it/wp-content/uploads/DSCF8833_11.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/4gtvhf
Some views of the interior:
http://tinyurl.com/h3sbuzz
http://www.flickr.com/photos/berettoni/3357011442/sizes/l/
http://tinyurl.com/djr8ko
http://tinyurl.com/d7puu6
http://tinyurl.com/jzox4yr
Some period-pertinent images of Marian and James:
a) as portrayed by an Umbrian sculptor in late thirteenth-century statues in the Museo diocesano in Gubbio:
1) Marian:
http://tinyurl.com/hqy6byv
2) James:
http://tinyurl.com/zkudh3o
b) as depicted (lower register, first and last figures) in an earlier fourteenth-century polyptych (ca. 1325-1350) in Gubbio's Museo civico:
http://tinyurl.com/gqws8ey
c) as depicted in two mid-fourteenth-century panel paintings by Mello da Gubbio, once in Gubbio's cathedral and now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy, where they flank another panel painting from the same set but depicting the Crucifixion:
1) Marianus, James, and other clerics being escorted by soldiers into a walled city:
http://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/09-519887-2C6NU096Q9HM.html
2) Marianus' torture at Cirta (hung up by his thumbs as specified in the Passio):
http://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/09-519885-2C6NU096ZBWA.html
3) the panel of the Crucifixion:
http://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/09-519886-2C6NU096QKCY.html
Best,
John Dillon
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