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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture The completed notice: Today (31. July) is the feast day of: Tertullinus (d. 257, supposedly). T. is problematically first recorded in the legendary Passio of pope St. Stephen I (BHL 7845-47; sixth- century??), where he is said to have been arrested in the Valerianic persecution two days after Stephen had ordained him priest, to have been subjected to various tortures and then decapitated, and to have been laid to rest on this day at his place of execution in the pozzolana crypts at the second milestone of the Via Latina. Seventh- century pilgrim itineraries record a memorial basilica dedicated to him on the same road (precise location not given; the cemetery in this vicinity now known as the Catacomba di Tertullino, though not fully explored, appears to be no earlier than the fourth century). T. enters the martyrologies with Bede (a brief notice, based on the aforementioned Passio). Ado, who has a much fuller extract from the same Passio, lists T. under 4. August, which is where Usuard also put him, as did the RM until its revision of the year 2000. The calendar in a late thirteenth-century missal from Austria now at Yale (Marston Ms. 213) shows the continued influence of Stephen's Passio by listing T. on 31. July, a datum consistent with the online Grotefend's reporting of listings for T. on this date in calendars of Brixen, Freising, Regensburg, and Salzburg. A likely point of origin for this particular distribution is identified below. T.'s basilica on the Via Latina was rebuilt by pope St. Adrian I (772- 95). Relics of him are said to have been included among those translated by pope St. Paschal I (817-24) to Rome's church of Santa Prassede. In 1624 a printed edition of the propers of Le Puy-en-Velay in Auvergne asserted that T.'s relics were at the high altar of its cathedral of Notre Dame; the early Bollandists were unable to locate anything to substantiate this claim. Long before this, though, the monastery of Schlehdorf in Oberbayern claimed to have them. In the tradition of this community (Benedictine in the eighth and ninth centuries; refounded in the twelfth century by bishop Otto I of Freising and entrusted to Augustinian Canons), the founding abbot had brought them from Rome in 769. Whatever the truth of that may be, the medieval abbey's church was dedicated to T., as is its successor, the present Pfarrkirche St. Tertulin. That church only dates from 1773, but others belonging to today's Pfarrei are medieval in origin. There's a menu here: http://www.pfarrei-schlehdorf.de/htm/1Geschichte.htm Of these, the baroque Friedhofskapelle has a crucifix said to be from ca. 1200: http://www.pfarrei-schlehdorf.de/htm/US%20Friedhofskapelle.htm And the St. Georgskirche in Grossweil has a piece of choir barrier from the eighth or ninth century as well as a thirteenth-/fourteenth-century fresco of Christ receiving the crown of thorns: http://www.pfarrei-schlehdorf.de/htm/USGeschichteGrwlalt.htm Kloster Schlehdorf promoted T.'s cult through its possessions stretching from Bavaria through to southern Austria, e.g. the predecessor (dedicated to T.) of the fourteenth-century church of St. Giles (Aegidius) at Hatting in the Tirol: http://tinyurl.com/prrjb Best, John Dillon PS: Today is of course also the feast day of Germanus of Auxerre. But there are people on this list more knowledgeable about him than I who could, if they wished, contribute a brief account (highlights) of his life and cult. ********************************************************************** 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