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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (11. February) is the feast day of: 1) Castrensis (??; in Italian, Castrense or Castrese). Venerated in Campania as an early martyr-bishop, this less well known saint of the Regno is recorded for today in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, in the early eighth-century Calendar of St. Willibrord, and in the ninth-century Marble Calendar of Naples. He is especially associated with the following places in today's Caserta province: Castel Volturno (whose ninth-century bishop Radipert is recorded as having been buried at an altar containing C.'s remains), Capua, and Sessa Aurunca. C. became the leading figure in the thirteenth(?)-century _Vita sancti Castrensis_ (BHL 1644-45), which brings together twelve saints from southern Italy and makes them all Africans who in the fifth century escaped Vandal persecution, made their way in an unseaworthy vessel to Campania, and found death there. A twelfth-century mosaic illustrating two of C.'s miracles http://tinyurl.com/2ntzgg is part of the decor of Sicily's Monreale cathedral, which latter since at least the late sixteenth century has laid claim to his (putative) relics. Alleged to have been brought there in 1182 and to have been placed in the new cathedral's then sole altar, these were translated in 1596 to its present Cappella di San Castrense. A Benedictine convent dedicated to C. was founded at Monreale in 1499; its church, expanded in the eighteenth century and still retaining the original dedication, now serves a local parish. C. is the principal patron of the archdiocese of Monreale as well as the patron saint of Monreale (PA) and, in Campania, of Castel Volturno (CE), Marano di Napoli (NA), and Sessa Aurunca (CE). C.'s image in the much degraded frescoes of the Grotta dei Santi at Calvi Risorta (CE) may be made out here (left-hand column, second view; labelled as Fig. 10): http://www.cattedrale-calvirisorta.com/imgrottasanti.htm C. has given his name both to one of Campania's many locally developed varieties of apricot, the San Castrese, and to a Sicilian pastry, the _biscotto castrense_, supposedly first made by the sisters at his convent at Monreale. 2) Gregory II, pope (d. 731). According to the _Liber Pontificalis_, G. was a sturdy opponent of the iconoclastic policies of the emperor Leo III. For a very different take on Leo, and thus on the accuracy of the LP in this regard, see: http://www.roman-emperors.org/leoiii.htm Though in 730 Leo certainly issued an iconoclastic decree, G.'s differences with him may have had more to do with the fiscal health of the states of the church. On another front, it was G. who in 718 authorized St. Boniface's renewed missionary activity in Germany and who in 722 consecrated him bishop. Portraits of G. and of Leo will be found here: http://tinyurl.com/2erqap Note that that is a "saints of the day" page for _13._ February. Prior to its revision of 2001, that is where the RM had G. 3) Paschal I, pope (d. 824). P. was a native of Rome. His election in 817 had not been cleared in advance with Louis the Pious. Although an exchange of correspondence resulted in Louis' recognizing the autonomy of the church of Rome in choosing its bishop, relations between P. and the western imperial house are often said to have been strained. But the assassination, shortly before P.'s own death, of two prominent papal officials who favored western imperial authority in Rome may have colored such estimates of his papacy as a whole. The eastern emperor at this point was the iconoclast Leo V, whose ecclesiastical policies P. did his best to oppose. P.'s seal on a lead bulla: http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART24948.html Not to miss the censer cover discussed and illustrated (several views) further down in this piece. P.'s enameled reliquary cross (upper part only) in the Musei Vaticani: http://www.italicon.it/museo/I226-008.jpg P. is best known for the churches he rebuilt and had decorated: Santa Prassede, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, and Santa Maria in Domnica. Very brief, illustrated, Italian-language accounts of the first two of these are here: http://www.rositour.it/RomaLazio/RMMosaici/RMMosaici.htm An English-language page on Santa Prassede is here: http://tinyurl.com/ys627s A page of views of Santa Prassede: http://tinyurl.com/25bkbn A page of eight expandable views of mosaics from Santa Prassede: http://www.classicalmosaics.com/photo_album.htm And here's P.'s portrait (detail of the apse mosaic): http://tinyurl.com/2ovdyy An English-language page on Santa Cecilia in Trastevere is here: http://tinyurl.com/22fpws The first view on this page of Arnolfo di Cambio's ciborium/tabernacle (1293) in this church allows a look at the much earlier apse mosaic behind it: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/a/arnolfo/3/index.html Details from Pietro Cavallini's Last Judgment (ca. 1293) in the same church: http://tinyurl.com/2cs4rv An English-language page on Santa Maria in Domnica is here: http://romanchurches.wikia.com/wiki/Santa_Maria_in_Domnica Apse mosaic with kneeling P.: http://www2.siba.fi/~kkoskim/rooma/kuvat/355_021c.jpg http://tinyurl.com/2y43jb http://tinyurl.com/28cx5d 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