medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (5. March) is the feast day of:
1) Lucius I, pope (d. 254). Perhaps a native of Rome (the _Liber Pontificalis_ says he was), L. succeeded St. Cornelius in June of 253. The ongoing persecution of the emperor Trebonianus Gallus forced him into an exile that was sufficiently severe for St. Cyprian of Carthage, in one of his letters to L., to call him a martyr. L. returned to the Eternal City upon the accession of the emperor Valerian in August of the same year. He seems to have followed his predecessor's policy of readmitting, after a penance, Christians who had apostasized during the recent persecution. Despite the assertion of the _Liber Pontificalis_ that L. suffered martyrdom by beheading, both the nature of his entry in the _Depositio episcoporum_ of the Chronographer of 354 (where he heads the list) and the fact that the edicts underlying the Valerianic persecution postdate L.'s passing by several years conduce to the belief that this pope died a confessor.
L. was buried in the crypt of the popes in the Cemetery of Callistus. The portion of the brief identifying inscription at his resting place bearing his name (Loukis, in Greek as were all the burial inscriptions at this site) was found during de Rossi's excavation of this chamber in the later nineteenth century. An illustrated, English-language page on the site is here:
http://www.catacombe.roma.it/en/cripta.html
In 821 Paschal I translated L. to his newly renovated Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. His relics are still there except for his head, which is said to have been translated to Denmark in about 1100 and placed in Roskilde's then wooden cathedral. L., who was believed to have died a martyr, became the diocese of Roskilde's patron saint and when the present (ex-)cathedral, the Roskilde Domkirke, was built starting in the late twelfth century it was dedicated to him. Here's L. as depicted on what said to be the cathedral's oldest surviving seal:
http://tinyurl.com/ywznsh
An illustrated, English-language page on the Roskilde Domkirke:
http://tinyurl.com/yruhok
An illustrated, Danish-language page on the same church:
http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roskilde_Domkirke
What is believed to be L.'s head now reposes in this early twentieth-century (1910) reliquary bust in Roskilde's Roman Catholic cathedral of St. Ansgar:
http://www.sanktansgarkirke.dk/index.php?id=88
http://santiebeati.it/immagini/Original/43900/43900A.JPG
Until the rearrangement of the Roman Calendar promulgated in 1969 L.'s feast day fell on 4. March, the day on which he occurs in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology. The present date of his commemoration is that of his laying to rest as given in the aforementioned early fourth-century _Depositio episcoporum_.
2) Adrian (d. 309). A. is a martyr of Caesarea in Palestine. According to Eusebius (_History of the Martyrs of Palestine_, 11. 29-31), he and St. Eubulus (7. March) had come from Manganea to aid their fellow Christians. Caesarea's last victims of the Great Persecution, they were sentenced to suffer _ad bestias_. A., whose _dies natalis_ is today, was thrown to a lion and later put to death with a sword (whether untouched by the lion or horribly mutilated, Eusebius fails to say). Still according to Eusebius, E. was martyred two days later.
Both A. and E. are listed for today in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology. The RM now commemorates E. on his _dies natalis_.
3) Ciaran the elder (d. ca. 530?). C. (also Kieran). In legend (which is really all we have), C. either was already active as a missionary in Ireland before the arrival of St. Patrick or else was one of the twelve bishops whom P. consecrated in Ireland to assist him in his work. He is said to have been born in Ossory and to have retired to a hermitage, where he lived in the company of a boar, a fox, a badger, a wolf, a hind, and a fawn. This Peaceable Kingdom furnished the _dramatis personae_ for various instructive stories transmitted in C.'s Vitae. In time, C. attracted human followers to his retreat, which then developed into the monastery of Saighir (Seir Kieran).
Some views of the remains of the round tower at Seir Keiran (Offaly) are here:
http://www.roundtowers.org/seir_kieran/index.html
4) Piran (d. 6th cent., supposedly). P. (also Peran, Perran) is the patron saint of Cornwall. His cult is first attested from 960. The Domesday Book records a large minster dedicated to him at Perranzabuloe in Penhallow, staffed by canons. This came into the possession of Exeter Cathedral, for whom P.'s surviving Vita seems to have been written in the thirteenth century. His relics at Perranzabuloe were the object of pilgrimage as late as 1558. Since the Vita was calqued on that of Ciaran the elder (no. 3, above), we really know very little about the historical P.
Some views of P.'s originally ca. 1100 church at Perranzabuloe will be found on this page:
http://www.penhallow.net/village.html
An earlier oratory to P. was uncovered here in the late eighteenth century but has since disappeared. This Celtic cross remains to testify to the site's antiquity (unless, of course, the cross has been moved from somewhere else):
http://www.penhallow.net/vp5.JPG
Another Cornish dedication to P. is the modern church of St(s. Michael and) Piran at Perranuthnoe, with various carved stones from a twelfth-century predecessor:
http://www.cornwall-online.co.uk/churches/perranuthnoe.jpg
http://www.pznow.co.uk/locplace1/perranuthnoe.html
Best,
John Dillon
(Adrian, Ciaran, and Piran lightly revised from last year's post)
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