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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (10. February) is the feast day of: 1) Zoticus of Rome, Amantius of Rome (??). Z. and A. are martyrs of the tenth milestone on the Via Labicana, uncertainly thought to have perished in the Diocletianic persecution. They appear together in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology but from Bede onward were coupled with other martyrs buried elsewhere, Irenaeus and Hyacinthus, as they were also in the RM until its latest revision (2001). According to the _Liber Pontificalis_ St. Leo III (795-816) restored their cemetery (which at this point was named for Z.); his immediate successor Paschal I (817-24) http://tinyurl.com/2ovdyy brought the martyrs' remains from here to Rome's church of Santa Prassede. An early medieval basilica at the cemetery belonged in the twelfth century to the Greek monastery at Grottaferrata, which latter probably acquired it from the see of Labicum (whose first bishop, attested from 313, was a Z.). Z. and companions have a legendary Passio of the eleventh century (BHL 9027t) in which they are martyrs under Decius. Z.'s cemetery was rediscovered in 1715. It has been the subject of intermittent excavation, including some very recent work. Italian-language introductions to it are here: http://tinyurl.com/29vyl8 http://www.romaotto.it/finocchio.html 2) Scholastica (d. ca. 547). According to Gregory the Great (_Dial._ 2. 33-34), S. was St. Benedict of Nursia/Montecassino's sister. Dedicated from infancy to God, she used to visit him annually. They would meet in a building belonging to his monastery but outside its perimeter. On the last occasion that this occurred, when S. and B. were at table after dinner she entreated him to stay the night in that building so that their conversation could be prolonged until the following morning. B. demurred, saying that he must spend the night within the monastery. Whereupon S. prayed that he would be detained nonetheless. As soon as she raised her head from prayer a tempest broke out and B., without violating any rule, was thus enabled to remain. A few days later S., who had returned to her community, was dead; B. beheld her soul's ascent to heaven. He had her body brought to his monastery and buried in the grave he later shared with her. S.'s feast today is first recorded from the eighth century, when B.'s popularity had begun to spread. She has had several reported inventions and translations, both in Italy and in France. Today's monastery of St. Scolastica at Subiaco (RO) in Lazio goes back at least as far as the ninth century (though its denomination as that of S. alone, as opposed to B. and S., is later medieval). Its home page is here: http://www.benedettini-subiaco.org/benedettini/santa.htm Another illustrated, multi-page, Italian language site on this monastery begins here: http://www.istitutospiov.it/ICCD_roma/pagina.3.8.1.htm S. in a twelfth-century portrait in the Cappella di Sant'Anna at the Abbey of St. Benedict, Montecassino: http://tinyurl.com/2p6aef S. in a late thirteenth-century fresco in the lower church of the Monastery of St. Benedict (the Sacro Speco) at Subiaco: http://www.benedettini-subiaco.org/benedettini/119.htm B. and S. at table during their final visit, as depicted by a fifteenth-century Umbrian master working in the upper church of the same monastery: http://www.ora-et-labora.net/SB_Scolastica.jpg Another view of this scene, in an illuminated initial (ca. 1460-1470) in a corale now at La Spezia: http://tinyurl.com/33ly75 3) William of Malavalle (d. 1157). The spiritual father of the Wilhelmites (an order of hermits later folded into the Augustinian Hermits), W. is largely a figure of legend. After pilgrimages to Compostella, Rome, and Jerusalem, he is said to have settled down in about the year 1155 in a cave in the Malavalle near today's Castiglione della Pescaia (GR) in Tuscany, driving off a large Satanic serpent (_draco_) in the process. In the following year he attracted a disciple, Albert, who wrote his first Vita (BHL 8922) and who inspired his new order's Rule (approved by Innocent III in 1211). W.'s cult, which spread quickly from southern Tuscany across parts of the papal state, was approved by Alexander III at the level of _beatus_. Opinions differ as to whether W. was equivalently canonized by Innocent III in 1202. He is pretty universally referred to as 'Saint' and, indeed, is so designated in the latest version (2001) of the RM. The monastery that replaced W.'s hermitage was abandoned in the later eighteenth century. Here's a view of its ruins: http://tinyurl.com/y3a3ey For details, see Margherita Eichberg, ed., _L'Eremo di San Guglielmo di Malavalle a Castiglione della Pescaia. La storia, lo scavo, il restauro_ (Roma: Edizioni Kappa, 2004). The originally early thirteenth-century church of Santa Maria Assunta at Buriano (AZ) in Tuscany http://tinyurl.com/yypyco http://www.abbazie.com/sanguglielmo/foto/BURIANO8.jpg possesses a relic of W, preserved in the reliquary shown at right here: http://www.abbazie.com/sanguglielmo/foto/BURIANO5.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