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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture On Wednesday, December 13, 2006, at 5:11 am, Bill East wrote: > I may also add that an icon of St Spyridon looks down at me from my > mantelpiece as I write this note. He was - perhaps someone has pointed > this out already, in which case apologies - one of the fathers of the > Council of Nicea, but more importantly for the Corfiotes, he ensured > that they were the only Ionian island not to be conquered by the Turks. Devotional and touristic accounts of S. routinely assert that he took part in the Council of Nicea. For some decades now, scholarly accounts have been more cautious. Thus Joseph-Marie Sauget, s.v. "Spiridone, vescovo di Trimithonte", _Bibliotheca Sanctorum_, vol. 11 (published, 1968), cols. 1354-56, says (col. 1355): "Non si sa se abbia participato al concilio di Nicea (325)". Similarly, Alexander P. Kazhdan and Nancy P. Ševčenko, s.v. "Spyridon", _The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium_ (OUP, 1991), vol. 3, p. 1940, put it this way: "His participation in the Council of Nicaea in 325 is questionable". The matter is discussed more fully in Paul van den Ven, _La légende de s. Spyridon, évêque de Trimithonte_ (Louvain: Publications universitaires, 1953). To judge from the review by Gérard Garitte, _Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique_ 50 (1955), 125-40, at pp. 126-27, the testimony appears only in the Greek text of Rufinus' continuation of Eusebius, not in the Latin. 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