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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (2. January) is the feast day of: 1) Telesphorus, pope (d. earlier 2d cent.). The immediate successor of St. Sixtus I, T. is said in the _Liber Pontificalis_ to have been Greek. A remark by St. Irenaeus of Lyon (_Adv. haer._ 3. 3. 3) has often been taken to mean that T. suffered martyrdom; its repetition in Eusebius (_Hist. eccl._ 5. 6. 4) gave it broader currency. Prior to its revision of 2001 the RM commemorated T. on 5. January, the day assigned to him in earlier martyrologies from Florus of Lyon onward and one given in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology for an African martyr of the same name. Here's a view of his portrait (1480 or 1481; variously attributed) in the Sistine Chapel: http://tinyurl.com/32dm8d 2) Basil the Great (d. 379) and Gregory of Nazianzus (d. 390; also called G. the Theologian, differentiating him from his homonymous father, the sainted bishop of Nazianzus). Fellow students at Athens and then fellow monks, B. and G. followed different paths in their subsequent ecclesiastical careers, though thanks to B., who was metropolitan of Caesarea, G. too attained to episcopal dignity as bishop of Sasima. G. was also briefly and unhappily bishop of Constantinople. Their writings have given them special prominence among the Greek Fathers. Together with St. John Chrysostom they constitute the Three Holy Hierarchs celebrated jointly in Eastern churches on 30. January, though in these churches they have individual feast days as well. Those of B. and G. are their respective _dies natales_, 1. January and 25. January; this is also where they appear in the early ninth-century Marble Calendar of Naples. A black-and-white reproduction of a twelfth-century manuscript portrait of G.: http://www.jcsparks.com/painted/gregory.html (Modern adaptations in color exist on the Web, but I have no idea how true to the original their colors are.) B. with St. Symeon Nemanja in the later thirteenth-century frescoes of the church of the Holy Trinity, Sopoćani Monastery, Sopoćani (Raški District), Serbia: http://tinyurl.com/2esuul Detail: http://tinyurl.com/24ncqq B. and G. in fresco (betw. 1315 and 1321) in the Chora Church (Kariye Camii), Istanbul (Cyril of Alexandria at right): http://tinyurl.com/yp4jmm Distance view: http://tinyurl.com/2acd2m Detail (Greg. Naz.): http://tinyurl.com/2lyukj Portable icon (fourteenth-century) of, clockwise from top left, Sts. John Chrysostom, B., G., and Nicholas the Wonder-Worker (a.k.a. N. of Myra): http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/byzantium_III/mosaics_2.html Two dedications to B.: Church of Agios Vasilios (thirteenth-century?) at Thalames in Lefktra (Messinia prefecture) in the Pelopponese: http://tinyurl.com/2vpdmx A fragmentary fresco in this church: http://www.zorbas.de/maniguide/scans/thal3.jpg His originally late fourteenth-century church at Arta (Arta prefecture) in Epirus, Ag. Vasilios tis Agoras: http://tinyurl.com/2s4qna http://www.nomarxia-artas.gr/index.php?action=vyzantina_4 Brief, English-language account: http://www.culture.gr/h/2/eh251.jsp?obj_id=1667 An ornamented page from a fifteenth-century manuscript of letters and other writings by B., G., and others (London, British Library, Ms. Burney 75, f. 170): http://tinyurl.com/2tx3ed The BL's detailed record for this manuscript: http://tinyurl.com/2vb6ud In November 2004, His Holiness John Paul II returned to the care of the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew, relics of G. and of John Chrysostom that had been brought to Rome in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade. Views of G. (in the bone, as it were) in his display case may be seen here: http://www.ortoweb.fi/konstantinopolin_arkkipiispojen.htm These views were taken in Constantinople. In the ceremony of transfer at Rome the cases were covered: http://tinyurl.com/4kjjg 3) Sylvester of Troina (d. 1072? or 1164? or 1185?). Like Lawrence of Frazzanò (30 December), Conus or Cono of Naso (a.k.a. Conon or Cono of Nesi; 28. March), and Nicholas Politi (17. August), S. is a poorly documented Greek saint from insular Sicily during or, on one view, just before its period of Norman and Swabian rule. The basic details of S.'s life as these are usually recounted come from the early modern hagiographer Filippo Ferrari's summary, in his _Catalogus sanctorum Italiae_, of information derived from S.'s Office at Troina. According to this account, S. was born at Troina, entered the nearby monastery of St. Michael the Archangel, and quickly outstripped his fellow monks in self-denial and general severity of lifestyle. Among his miracles perhaps the most famous is his one-day, round-trip journey by foot in the middle of winter from Troina to Catania in order to pray at the tomb of saint Agatha on her feast. Returning via Palermo from a trip to Rome, S. is said to have predicted, and by his prayers to have obtained, the recovery to good health of the future king William II (the healing of the ruler's son or daughter is a hagiographical topos). An attempt to make him abbot of his monastery caused him to leave the premises and to become a hermit in the woods not far from Troina, where he died, according to one calculation, in 1185. An inventio of S.'s allegedly intact remains occurred in the early fifteenth century, miracles ensued, his cult was confirmed by Julius III, and he (or whoever these remains really belong to) now reposes in the seventeenth-century church in Troina dedicated to him, shown here: http://utenti.lycos.it/pagana/hpbimg/san_silvestro.jpg More precisely, S. is thought to repose within this church in an effigy tomb attributed either to the Palermitan sculptor Antonello Gagini (d. 1536) or to his son Gian Domenico Gagini: http://www.stazzone.it/troina/engyon/storia/images/tomba_san_silvestro.jpg For further discussion, see Alessandro Galuzzi, "Silvestro di Troina, santo", in the _Bibliotheca Sanctorum_, vol. 11 (1968), cols. 1074-75, where, however, Pertusi's death date for S. is erroneously given as 1172 (P., following the _Akolouthia tou hosiou patros hemon Silvestrou tou neoupoleos Trounes prostatou_ published in 1626, moved S. back a century and dated his death to 1072, thus making S.'s Norman connections in the standard account an exercise in historical appropriation by the Latin church). S.'s monastery of St. Michael the Archangel, re-established by Roger I as part of the post-conquest systematization of the Basilian "order" within his domains and later (like so many other Greek houses in Sicily) made Benedictine, was abandoned as ruinous in 1700. A view of the remains (called San Michele Arcangelo _vecchio_ to distinguish it from its successor -- now also a ruin) is here: http://tinyurl.com/8bzff Best, John Dillon (Basil, Gregory, and Sylvester revised from last year's post) ********************************************************************** 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