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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (1. November) is the feast day of: Caesarius of Terracina (??). Today's less well known saint of the Regno -- the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Vasto (CH) in Abruzzo has what are said to be his relics -- is an alleged early martyr whose cult seems to have radiated from Rome, the site of multiple early medieval dedications to him. In several Passiones (BHL 1511-1514b) as well as in identical entries in the martyrologies of Ado and of Usuard, C. is said to have been a deacon from Africa who arrived at Terracina in southern Lazio in the time of a Claudius who seems to have been the one we now call Nero. These accounts go on to say that C. preached publicly against idolatry and that for this he was arrested, tortured, and -- along with a priest named Julian -- put in a sack and thrown into the sea. Although Caesarius appears without accompaniment in numerous church dedications and calendar entries (including that in the Marble Calendar of Naples), Julian gets added billing in Ado, Usuard, and -- until its latest revision (2001) -- the RM. For an overview of C.'s various medieval dedications in Rome, see the pertinent entries on this page from Hülsen's _Chiese medievali di Roma_: http://tinyurl.com/yhjwjo The most important of these are: 1) a church in the Lateran palace, already in existence in the late sixth century; 2) a monastery, also called that of St. Stephen and St. Caesarius, that was predecessor of the Benedictine monastery of St. Paul adjacent to the basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura; and 3) the originally ninth-century church of San Cesareo in Palatio (a.k.a. San Cesario de Graecis), erected in the imperial palace complex on the Palatine. This last church was originally Greek-speaking and has connected with it legendary translation account in Greek and in Latin whereby Galla Placidia, the daughter of Valentinian III, was at Terracina cured of a disease by C.'s relics and had them brought to Rome and installed in an oratory that became C.'s church on the Palatine. C. is the patron saint of San Cesario sul Panaro (MO) in Emilia (where his cult is attested from 1112 in a charter of Matilda of Tuscany) and of San Cesario di Lecce (LE) in Apulia (the Roman-period Castrum Caesaris; a dedication to C. first attested from 1180 in a comital charter of Tancred of Lecce). A page of vews of his originally twelfth-century church at San Cesario sul Panaro is here: http://tinyurl.com/ylvjpf Another view of that church: http://tinyurl.com/ykdho5 In the absence of a surviving medieval dedication to C. in San Cesario di Lecce, here's a view of its church of San Giovanni Evangelista (1320-21; rebuilt, nineteenth century): http://www.comunesancesariodilecce.it/ChiesaSanGiovanni.htm Returning to C., here's an Italian-language account of his originally twelfth-century church at Nave (BR) in Lombardy (rebuilt in 1233 and again in the fifteenth century): http://www.valletrompia.it/or4/or?uid=esy.main.index&oid=22217 Views: http://www.valletrompia.it/esy/images/23008.jpeg http://www.comune.nave.bs.it/tour/Images/jpgallery_7.jpg 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