medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture On Friday, April 28, 2006, at 2:47 am, John Briggs wrote: > Phyllis G. Jestice wrote: > > > > Today (28. April) is the feast day of: > > Vitalis [presumably martyred in 1969] Martyred in 1969 but present today in the MR with a _laterculus_ whose language evokes one of the grounds for papal approval of a cult. In 1969 the line seems to have been that today's V. (the V. of Ravenna) was really the V. of 4. November (V. of Bologna; sometimes celebrated jointly with Agricola of the same city on 27. November), outfitted with new and spurious Acta after he had been translated first to Milan and thence to Ravenna. V. of Ravenna was then excised altogether from the Roman Calendar and in places where his cult was too strongly rooted in tradition to be simply done away with (e.g., Fuorigrotta in Naples) he was replaced by V. of Bologna and is now celebrated liturgically on 4. November. He is back, though, in the online Italian-language version of the RM, where under today one reads: "A Ravenna, in Emilia, la commemorazione di san Vitale; secondo la tradizione, in questo stesso giorno, gli sarebbe stata dedicata una celeberrima basilica in città. E’ venerato, da tempo immemorabile, con i santi martiri Valeria, Gervasio, Protasio e Ursicino, uccisi per l’incrollabile professione di fede." So he now seems to have a recognized _cultus ab immemorabili tempore_. As the website of the archdiocese of Ravenna-Cervia: http://www.diocesi-ravenna.org/ appears to have been hijacked, it's a bit difficult to tell how this is playing out there. The homepage of Ravenna's parish of San Vitale is silent (discreetly? suspiciously?) about the saint to whom its famous sixth-century basilica (_sensu ecclesiastico_) is dedicated: http://www.racine.ra.it/parsanvitale/index.htm A very nice, illustrated, Swedish-language site on that basilica is here: http://www.formonline.se/kyrkor/Ravenna/SanVitale/ This has links at bottom to subpages on particular details (mostly mosaic). Other, expandable views are here: http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/San_Vitale.html Some expandable architectural views, including a plan and sections, will be found here: http://intranet.arc.miami.edu/rjohn/ARC%20267/Byzantine_2002.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