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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (2. February) is the feast day of: 1) The Presentation in the Temple / Hypapante / Candlemas / The Purification of the Virgin Mary. This feast is first described by the probably late fourth-century pilgrim Egeria in her account of the services at Jerusalem. An English-language translation is here (go to XXVI for the Presentation): http://users.ox.ac.uk/~mikef/durham/egelat.html#ch26 Clicking on the Roman numeral XXVI will bring up the passage in the original Latin. In this expandable image of a page from the early eleventh-century Codex Aureus of Echternach (Nürnberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Hs. 156142, fol. 19r) the Presentation in the Temple occupies the bottom register: http://tinyurl.com/2elkf3 Here's the Presentation in the Temple on one of the panels of the early thirteenth-century bronze doors of the cathedral of Benevento, badly damaged by the Allied bombing of 1943 and recently restored: http://tinyurl.com/yuze93 And here's an expandable image of a probably fifteenth-century Byzantine painting of the Presentation in the Temple, now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York: http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Byzantium/byzim_40.html 2) Lawrence of Canterbury (d. 619). L., who had been ordained priest, was a senior member of the monastic mission to England sent from Rome under St. Augustine of Canterbury in 596. Early in the seventh century he succeeded Augustine as bishop of Canterbury. In 613, according to Canterbury's medieval historians, L. consecrated the monastic church of Sts Peter and Paul. In 616 or 618 the Christian king Æthelberht died and was succeeded by his pagan son Eadbald. Bede purveys a story in which L.'s conversion of Eadbald was achieved through his showing to the new king the welts that had miraculously appeared on L.'s body after St. Peter had given him a thrashing in a dream for planning to withdraw from England. L. was buried next to Augustine in Sts Peter and Paul. Here's a representation of that church as it was in 1066: http://homepage.mac.com/dmhart/WarArt/BayeuxTapestry/14.JPG In 1091 the remains of both saints were translated to the new church of the abbey that by then was already known as St Augustine's. Here are two views of the abbey as it is today: http://tinyurl.com/236d7c http://volokh.com/sasha/augabbey.JPG 3) Hadeloga (d. ca. 750). H. (also Hadelog, Hadlaug, Hadelonga, Adeloga) was the founding abbess, in the 730s or early 740s, of a double monastery became the imperial abbey at Kitzingen in today's northwestern Bavaria. She is mentioned in Eigil of Fulda's late eighth-century _Vita Sturmi_ (BHL 7294) as its abbess in the year 748. H. has a legendary Vita of her own (BHL 3734; twelfth-century) that makes her a daughter of Charles Martel who to her father's great displeasure chose virginity and who, evicted from the palace, traveled with her wealthy chaplain to Franconia and there founded the monastery. In this text father and daughter were then reconciled and Charles gave the abbey great gifts. One of her lifetime miracles includes a "faithful dog" story. According to the Vita H. was buried before the altar of the BVM in the sanctuary of the abbey church. 3) Burkard of Würzburg (d. ca. 754). The English Benedictine B. (also Burkhard, Burchardus) was a coadjutor in Germany of St. Boniface, who in 741 made him the first bishop of Würzburg. Pope St. Zachary confirmed him in this office in 743. B. is said to have promoted the cult of St. Kilian (Würzburg's patron saint) and to have founded under the Marienberg (on the left bank of the Main) a monastery dedicated to St. Andrew into which his remains were translated in the late tenth century and which subsequently was known by his name. The date of this translation (14. October) is B.'s feast day in Würzburg and in other German dioceses. Today, according to the second of his two Vitae (BHL 1483 and 1484; before 855 and mid-twelfth century, respectively), is his _dies natalis_ and his day of commemoration in the "new" RM. A German-language translation of B.'s Vita prima is here: http://tinyurl.com/yujydg B.'s present church at Würzburg was begun in the early 1030s, was consecrated in 1042, and was radically rebuilt in the fifteenth century. Brief, German-language accounts are at: http://tinyurl.com/3dwaop http://tinyurl.com/yus5a6 A plan of the church: http://tinyurl.com/yrpy7j A view from a painting of 1480: http://www.st-burkard.de/Geschichte/tafelbild.jpg Various views of today's church: http://www.st-burkard.de/fakircheaussen/ http://tinyurl.com/29q263 Here, from a later sixteenth-century illustrated ms. of Lorenz Fries' chronicle of the bishops of Würzburg (f. 6r), is B. taking the episcopal oath on the grave of St. Peter before the pope and two cardinals (expandable image): http://tinyurl.com/2t49kb And here's B.'s presentation as bishop (f. 8r): http://tinyurl.com/2jvzod The home page of this digitization is at: http://fries.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/login/frame.php 4) Martyrs of Ebstorf (d. 880?). The _Annales Fuldenses_ record under the year 880 that Louis king of Saxony (i.e. Louis the Younger) campaigned against Northmen who had long been settled on the River Scheldt and that on 2. February of that year his forces suffered a defeat at some unnamed place in Saxony. Recorded as having been slain in this battle were two bishops, Theoderich (Dietrich) and Markward, twelve counts and all who followed them, and eighteen lesser nobles and all who followed them, except for those beyond count who were captured. Markward was the bishop of Hildesheim. Theoderich was the bishop of Minden; it was later claimed that he had been buried at the canonry of Wunstorf, which he had founded in 871. Between 1200 and 1243 numerous graves discovered at the monastery of Ebstorf in today's Niedersachsen were declared to be those of martyrs, who then received a cult. The latter attracted pilgrims and the monastery prospered. By about the year 1380 the martyrs had been identified as the bishops and other nobles who had fallen in the aforementioned battle. The cult eventually grew to include persons of note from other North German dioceses who had fallen in ninth-century battles with Northmen. Its modern relic in the RM is restricted to the Christian fallen of the battle in 880. The monastery at Ebstorf was founded as house of Premonstratensian canons in about 1160. By about 1200 it had been given to Benedictine runs. It became Lutheran in the sixteenth century but remains a house for women religious. Here's a view of its fourteenth-century church: http://tinyurl.com/383gol And here a are a few illustrated, German-language accounts of its history and buildings, not forgetting to mention the famous thirteenth-century Ebstorf mappamundi (destroyed in the Allied bombing of Hannover in October 1943): http://tinyurl.com/2565fa http://tinyurl.com/yst3lp http://www.uelzen.city-map.de/city/db/012503041500.html Best, John Dillon (Presentation, etc. and Burkard of Würzburg lightly 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