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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Dominic of Sora is one of Italy's fairly numerous crop of reformer saints from the late 10th and early 11th centuries. Active primarily in central Italy, his foundations were chiefly in what are now Abruzzo and southern Lazio. Prior to Italian unification much of this area was part of the mostly mainland kingdom of Sicily, vulgo "kingdom of Naples"; hence the inexact reference of Phyllis' source to monasteries "in the region around Naples". Dominic, revered as a protector against snakebite, is famously celebrated in the Abruzzese town of Cocullo. Like other saints with winter feast days (e.g., the recently commemorated Efisio, patron saint of Sardinia and especially of Cagliari), his popular festival takes place in early May. The reptilian aspect of this celebration has been linked to earlier pagan practices from this region (one thinks of Angitia, the snake goddess of the ancient Marsi, and of the Lombard snake cult opposed by S. Barbato of Benevento); the connection with Dominic is, however, controversial. Here are a few shots of Dominic and his (very live) snakes from the procession at Cocullo: http://www.abruzzoitalico.it/Paese.asp?ID=2&Paese=Cocullo http://www.schule.provinz.bz.it/ms-prad/serpi1a.jpg http://www.schule.provinz.bz.it/ms-prad/serpi2a.jpg And here's a bilingual account of the annual event: http://abruzzo2000.com/incammino/2001_0/cocullo.htm Best, John Dillon On Tue, 21 Jan 2003 18:17:34 -0800 Phyllis wrote: >Dominic of Sora (d. 1031) Dominic was born in Foligno, became a >Benedictine monk, and ended up founding several monasteries in the region >around Naples before dying at the age of eighty. ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html