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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture 27. October is also the feast day of: Gaudiosus, bp. of Abitina (d. 5th century). His sepulchral inscription (_CIL_ X. 1538) in the Neapolitan catacomb that bears his name informs us that Septimus Caelius Gaudiosus was a bishop of Abitina in Africa (A. Proconsularis, probably) who died in exile at the age of seventy. Although he is not securely dated, this less well known saint of the Regno was laid to rest in an arcosolium close to the first resting place of the Neapolitan bishop St. Nostrianus (d. 454). The usual conjecture (at least as old as Peter the Subdeacon in the tenth century) is that G., like the better attested St. Quodvultdeus, was an exile from Arian persecution in Vandal Africa. G. has long been one of Naples' major saints. At some point between 767 and 780, bishop Stephen II of Naples erected on the site of the former monastery of St. Agnellus (also held to have been an African exile) at the city's acropolis (now Caponapoli) a men's monastery dedicated to G.; this is the complex in which the same bishop erected the women's monastery to which he translated the presumed remains of the recently celebrated St. Fortunata venerated at Patria. G.'s monastery, which lay just within the city walls, helped to preserve his cult during the years that followed, when extremely unsettled conditions led to the cessation of liturgies at the of course extramural catacombs. Possibly also under Stephen II, and certainly by 1132, G.'s remains (along with those of Agnellus) were translated here; in 1799 they were removed to the cathedral, where they remain today. G. was included, along with various sainted bishops of Naples, in the litany of the Neapolitan _Ordo ad unguendum infirmum_ attested from the tenth and eleventh centuries. The ninth-century Marble Calendar of Naples gives 27. October as the date of G.'s laying to rest; I am not sure whether that date is repeated in later Neapolitan calendars, which are often a day or two off from the use recorded by their famous predecessor. Cardinal Baronio, the first editor of the Roman Martyrology, used 27. October for the feast of St. Gaudiosus of Salerno (now usually held to be a doublet of our G.) and fixed G.'s feast on 28. October. Only recently has G. been returned in the RM to the 27th. 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