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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (28. February) is the feast day of: 1) Marana and Cyra (d. ca. 455?). We know about M. and C. from the _Historia religiosa_ of Theodoret of Cyr(r)hus. They were holy women of Beroia in Syria (today's Aleppo/Halab) who acquired a small house outside of town and immured themselves in it, living a life of extreme asceticism and self-mortification. They received food and wake-up calls from devoted maidservants for whom they erected a smaller, attached house and with whom they conversed through a communicating window. Theodoret's portrait of these hermits presents them as still living at the time of his writing (early 440s). Baronio entered M. and C. in the RM under 3. August. Byzantine synaxaries usually recorded them on today's date; the RM's latest version (2001, rev. 2005) has followed suit. 2) Romanus of Condat (d. ca. 465). We know about R. chiefly from the early sixth-century _Vita patrum jurensium_. By the time of Gregory of Tours' _Vita patrum_ some seventy years later he was already fading into legend. Around 435 R., who was then perhaps in his mid-thirties, decided to imitate the life of the Eastern desert fathers in the fastnesses of the Jura, where he established a hermitage at a place called Condidasco, now Saint-Claude in the Swiss canton of Jura. He attracted followers, notably his brother St. Lupicinus, and in time they founded other monastic colonies in the region. In 444 R. was ordained priest by St. Hilarius of Arles at a council in Besançon. One of R.'s foundations was a community of women ruled over by his sister Iola (Yole) that overlooked the gorge of La Balme at today's Pratz (canton Jura). In his extreme old age R. died there on what had been intended as a farewell visit. The originally thirteenth-century chapelle de Saint-Romain-de-Roche at Pratz marks the traditional location of his grave: http://tinyurl.com/2zy6yc http://www.racinescomtoises.net/IMG/jpg/11042007368.jpg http://www.racinescomtoises.net/IMG/jpg/11042007373.jpg http://www.racinescomtoises.net/IMG/jpg/11042007374.jpg A brief, French-language account of the monastery of Condat and its successors is here: http://tinyurl.com/2zn26l R. is said to have founded, in the middle of the fifth century, a monastery at today's Romainmôtier-Envy (canton Vaud). Destroyed in the sixth century by Alamanni and refounded in 632, it is credited with being the earliest monastery in what is now Switzerland. In the early tenth century it was given to the reformed Benedictines of Cluny, who operated it as a priory. In the fifteenth century, when it was within the gift of the counts of Savoy, it regained abbatial status. An illustrated, German-language page on this house is here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Romainm%C3%B4tier Many views of Romainmôtier's eleventh- to fifteenth-century buildings are here: http://www.dpeck.info/romainmotier.htm And more views of the church are here: http://tinyurl.com/2azz3k The third view from left in the lower row is of the church's ambo, a survivor from this building's eighth-century predecessor. Best, John Dillon (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