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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (6. March) is the feast day of: 1) Fridolin (d. late 6th cent.?). F. is the legendary founder of the monastery of Säckingen on an island in the Rhine at today's Bad Säckingen (Kreis Waldshut) in Baden-Württemberg. His lightly regarded Vita by one Balther, a monk of Säckingen (BHL 3170; written ca. 1000), makes him an Irish missionary and a contemporary of Clovis, king of the Franks. Since there is reason to think that the monastery may have been founded from Luxeuil, it is possible that F. was indeed Irish. F.'s cult is first attested from the ninth century; from the central Middle Ages onward it has been widespread both along the upper Rhine and in the Swiss canton of Glarus. F.'s tomb at Säckingen was opened in 1357 for an examination of his remains. These (less pieces since distributed elsewhere) remain in the former monastery church, now Bad Säckingen's parish church of St. Fridolin (the Fridolinsmünster). Views of this edifice are here (four pages): http://www.saeckinger-geschichte.de/munster.htm and here: http://www.boldts.net/album/D-ch-BadSaeckingen.shtml The restored original of the statue in the lower view now looks like this: http://www.saeckinger-geschichte.de/images/frid_ur.jpg The skeleton next to F. represents Ursus, a Glarner whom F. legendarily raised from the dead. U. is a frequently recurring figure in F.'s iconography. You casn see more of him in two of the views here: http://www.saeckinger-geschichte.de/fridolin2.htm F. is the patron saint of Bad Säckingen and of Canton Glarus. Here he is in a modern version of the latter's arms: http://tinyurl.com/2kxayn 2) Julian of Toledo (d. 690). J. was born into a Christian family that had recently been Jewish. A student of Eugenius II at the cathedral school of Toledo, he succeed E. first as abbot of Agali and later (in 680) as archbishop of Toledo. His surviving writings include an exegetical commentary on the Old Testament and on the New, other theological works (including at least one, on Messianic prophecies, intended for the conversion of Jews), a Latin grammar, and a Life of king Wamba (in whose poisoning J. has been thought to be complicit). An announcement of a recent English-language translation of this last is here: http://cuapress.cua.edu/books/viewbook.cfm?Book=PISW 3) Chrodegang of Metz (d. 766). C. studied at the monastery of St.-Trond and then served at the Frankish court under Charles Martel and later under Carloman. The latter made him bishop of Metz in 741 or 742. A notable ecclesiastical reformer, C. wrote a rule for canons that later underwent several revisions and was influential outside of Francia as well as within it. Among his monastic foundations are Gorze in Lorraine and Lorsch in today's Hessen. For the former he procured the relics of the Roman martyr St. Gorgonius (later translated to Minden an der Weser) and for the latter those of the Milanese martyrs St. Felix and Nabor (later translated to Köln). Whereas the abbey at Gorze was called that of St. Gorgonius, its surviving twelfth-/thirteenth-century church (with later additions) is dedicated to St. Stephen. Herewith some views of this St.-Etienne, restored in the nineteenth century. Two pages of views start here: http://tinyurl.com/2pgqvj And here's a somewhat better view of the portal sculptures: http://tinyurl.com/yp2ba7 Here's an English-language website on the remains of the abbey at Lorsch (Kreis Bergstraße): http://www.kloster-lorsch.de/lingua/englisch.html Some views in color of the atrium (the so-called King's Hall) of the abbey church are here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Lorsch 4) Colette of Corbie (d. 1447). A reformer of the Poor Clares, C. was the daughter of poor, elderly parents of Corbie in Picardy. Like the similarly elderly and childless parents of St. Nicholas of Tolentino they prayed to St. Nicholas of Bari for a child and when successful named their issue after this patron of children (Colette, in Latin Coletta, is an abbreviation of Nicolette/Nicoletta). C. had a very religious upbringing. At the age of eighteen, her parents already dead, she entered a Beguine community at Corbie. Finding the life there insufficiently austere, she by turns entered a local house of Benedictine nuns and then a convent of Poor Clares at Senlis, offering herself as a servant and not taking religious vows. Still dissatisfied, C. returned to Corbie and took up life as a recluse. In 1406, prompted by visions and at about the age of twenty-five, C. persuaded the Avignon antipope Benedict XIII (Pedro de Luna) to permit her to reform the Poor Clares in his jurisdiction and to establish new convents. During the remainder of her time on earth she founded some seventeen of these, mostly in francophone territories. Her Colettine Poor Clares went barefoot, embraced total poverty, and performed perpetual fasting and abstinence. C., who when she was not organizing her reform spent her time in prayer and meditation, continued to receive visions and to repel the assaults of the devil. Miracles were reported both in her lifetime and afterward, especially during an attack of pestilence in 1469 at Gand/G(h)ent, where was buried, and at other locations. In 1604 Clement VIII granted an Office for C. to her community at Gand/G(h)ent; this was later extended to all the Spanish Netherlands. C. was beatified in 1740 and canonized in 1807. Her remains now repose in a chasse at the Monastère Sainte-Claire at Poligny (Jura), founded by C. in 1415. Here's a view of her chapel there: http://www.ville-poligny.fr/article.php3?id_article=49 Best, John Dillon (Fridolin, Julian, and Chrodegang 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