medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (15. June) is the feast day of:
1) Vitus (d. ca. 304, supposedly). We know nothing about V., one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, other than a brief listing in the (pseudo-) Hieronymian Martyrology, _In Lucania, Viti_ ("In Lucania, Vitus"). His cult is ancient: there is evidence of a church in Rome dedicated to him in the fifth century, and from the correspondence of Gregory the Great we learn that in the sixth century there were monasteries dedicated to him in Sicily and in Sardinia.
V. has a legend (BHL 8711-16) that antedates the Carolingian martyrologies and whose earliest version is thought to be of the seventh century. According to this, he was a boy of seven years (in some versions, twelve years) at Lilybaeum in Sicily (today's Mazara del Vallo [TP]), a professed Christian, and a miracle-worker. His pagan father had him tortured and thrown in prison in an attempt to get him to renounce his faith. But an angel freed him together with his nurse Crescentia and his tutor Modestus (in some versions, Crescentia's husband), whereupon V., together with these surrogate parent figures, removed to Lucania and continued to profess Christianity and perform miracles.
Still according to the legend, V.'s fame reached the ears of the emperor Diocletian, who called him to Rome to cure his demoniacally possessed son. V. obtained this cure but refused to sacrifice to Rome's pagan gods. Diocletian then had V. tortured anew and imprisoned along with the always faithful Crescentia and Modestus. But again they were liberated by an angel, who brought them back to Lucania near the river Sele (in an area now in Campania, thus making them saints of the Regno). From here they were called not long afterward to their eternal reward.
In a German version, abbot Fulrad of Saint-Denis outside Paris had V.'s relics translated thither in the mid-eighth century and abbot Hilduin in turn gave them to the monastery at Corvey on the Weser. The latter, a daughter house of Corbie, became a major medieval and early modern cult center for V., especially in the western empire. During the Thirty Years' War (or perhaps earlier; account differ) V.'s head and other relics wound up in Prague, where they are housed in the medieval cathedral already dedicated to V. At about the same time V. was declared patron of Mazara del Vallo (TP), whose cathedral houses one of V.'s arms along with other of his relics and where there is a major annual celebration in his honor.
A few views of the Carolingian-period Westbau of the abbey church at Corvey are here:
http://www.schau-mal-einer-an.com/Lndsch/Weser/Corvey_Westwerk_4.jpg
http://www.wege-durch-das-land.de/2000/images/11_Corvey_Westwerk.jpg
http://www.schau-mal-einer-an.com/Lndsch/Weser/Corvey_Kaiserkirche.jpg
http://www.ib.hu-berlin.de/~wumsta/Milkau/180-2.jpg
and here (click on the links):
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/01070/01070m.html
Various views of Prague's cathedral of St. Vitus are here:
http://www.ivanweb.net/images/Mondo/Praga/22.jpg
http://www.ivanweb.net/images/Mondo/Praga/23.jpg
http://www.ivanweb.net/images/Mondo/Praga/25.jpg
And a few views of its famous Last Judgment mosaic:
http://tinyurl.com/psof5
http://www.meritoviaggi.com/praga/immagini/city/mosaic_sanvito.jpg
V. is the patron saint of Serbia, where he is celebrated secularly on 28. June (Gregorian calendar) and liturgically on 15. June (Julian calendar) in commemoration of the Battle of Kosovo, reputed to have occurred on V.'s day in 1389.
In the Roman rite Modestus and Crescentia were celebrated jointly with V. from at least the ninth century through 1969.
2) Landelin of Lobbes (d. ca. 686). The repentant sinner L. founded the monasteries of Lobbes in today's Belgian Hainaut and of Crespin in today's département du Nord in Franch Hainaut. He became abbot of Crespin and was buried there; in time this monastery took his name. Herewith a page of views of the remains of the abbaye St-Landelin:
http://www.crespin.fr/abbaye.htm
And here's a view of the former abbey church of St-Ursmer at Lobbes, dedicated to that house's great seventh-century abbot:
http://tinyurl.com/38pll4
And an illustrated, French-language page on abbey of Lobbes:
http://users.skynet.be/bk342309/Lobbes/page2.html
3) Bernard of Menthon (d. 1008 or 1081). B. (also B. of Aosta) is the reputed founder of the hospices after which the Great and the Little St. Bernard passes are named. His Vitae differ on when he lived. Tradition makes him a priest at Aosta active in the eleventh century and has him dying at the abbey of St. Lawrence at Novara. B. has had a cult at Novara from the twelfth century onward. He was papally canonized in 1681 (his legend has him canonized ca. 1120). The cathedral of Novara claims to have his remains. In 1923 Pius XI proclaimed V. patron of skiers and of alpine residents.
Here's a view of B.'s retable (ca. 1500) in the originally late fifteenth-/early sixteenth-century church of Ste-Marguerite at Lucéram (Alpes-Maritimes):
http://www.luceram.com/luceram/ret%20sbm.htm
Best,
John Dillon
(Vitus revised from earlier posts)
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