 |
 |
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (1. September) is also the feast day of: Priscus of Capua (d. 68, supposedly, or perhaps 368 or 378). Today's less well known saint from the Regno is an early martyr recorded for the today in the pesudo-Hieronymian Martyrology, in the Marble Calendar of Naples, and in various other early-to-Carolingian sources. His cult is attested from the early fifth century, the approximate date of the now lost portrait mosaics of Campanian saints that once adorned the church dedicated to him at what is now San Prisco (CE), between Capua and Caserta. In the Martyrology of Ado he is said to have been one of Christ's disciples; local tradition (neither unanimous nor particularly credible) makes him a companion of St. Peter and the first bishop of Capua (who is otherwise said to have been Rufus of Capua [27 August]). P.'s Casssinese Vita (BHL 6927; ?10th cent.) makes him a bishop expelled from Africa during a later fourth-century persecution who settled at Capua, destroyed the temple of Diana on the site of the later Sant'Angelo in Formis, and was martyred for his pains. The even more legendary eleventh- or twelfth-century _Passio sancti Castrensis_ includes him among the dozen bishops who fled Vandal persecution in Africa and settled down in various parts of Campania. Real proof of P.'s episcopal dignity is lacking. Domenico Ambrasi, s.v. "Prisco di Capua, santo, martire," in the _Bibliotheca Sanctorum_, vol. 10 (1968), cols. 1114-16, suggests he may have been a soldier or an imperial functionary. And the day of remembrance of: Agnes of Venosa (d. 1142, supposedly). Today's less well known _supposed_ saint from the Regno is the sexually promiscuous noblewoman of John of Nusco's late twelfth-century Life of William of Vercelli (BHL 8924) who made a bet with Roger II that she could seduce William and thus prove to Roger and to his admiral, George of Antioch, that their favorite holy man was really a hypocrite. When she arrived, the divinely forewarned William invited the woman to his bed; she accepted but backed off when the bed turned out to be of burning coals. William lay down on it anyhow and arose unscathed, thus shaming the would-be seductress, who returned remorsefully to Roger's court and there told the king what had happened. On the following day spies whom Roger had sent confirmed this miraculous event. Roger was fearful and contrite at his part in this attempt to dupe a man of God; George, who had been convinced of William's virtue all along, was delighted. William's final hermitage became the dual (male and female) monastery of the Holy Savior at Goleta. John's Life of William ends with a verse epitaph for the saint proclaiming its erection by the abbess Agnes. The sixteenth-century hagiographer Felice Renda identified Agnes will the would-be seductress of the Life, adding that A. had been so ashamed of her behavior that she had entered religion at Goleta and become its first abbess. In the next century the Bollandists conflated this Agnes with a thirteenth-century abbess (d. 1241) of this name buried at Rome and listed her among the _praetermissi_ of 1. September. In 1742 pope Benedict XIV authorized an abbatial feast in honor of the Madonna of Montevergine (the famous abbey outside of Avellino founded by William of Vercelli ca. 1124) on 1. September. While that's not medieval, the abbey's famous icon of the BVM certainly is: http://www.santiebeati.it/search/jump.cgi?ID=91053 (jpegs open up in new windows and are again expandable) Italian-language accounts of the icon are at: http://www.avellinomagazine.it/montevergine.htm http://www.comuneospedaletto.it/mammaschiavona.htm Best, John Dillon ********************************************************************** 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