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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (8. May) is the feast day of: 1) Victor Maurus (d. 303, supposedly). V. is also called Victor of Milan, a better name for him as his cult has always been centered on that city and as the Mauretanian origin used to distinguish him from other saints Victor could easily be legendary, though it is already present in the Ambrosian hymn _Victor, Nabor, Felix, pii_. This makes him a Roman soldier stationed at Milan and martyred for the faith at Lodi. His later Passio (BHL 8580; other versions at 8581 and 8582) adds details that one may read in English translation here: http://www.ucc.ie/milmart/Victor.html V.'s fourth-century martyr's chapel is now the Sacello San Vittore in Ciel d'Oro in Milan's Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio. Views of his representation in its probably fifth-century mosaics will be found on these pages: http://tinyurl.com/2hk7om http://tinyurl.com/2goysl For those with access to JSTOR, much clearer black-and-white renditions of this image will be found in Gillian Mackie, "Symbolism and Purpose in an Early Christian Martyr Chapel: The Case of San Vittore in Ciel d'Oro, Milan ", _Gesta_ 34 (1995), 91-101, at pp. 92 and 94. A partial reproduction in color is here: http://tinyurl.com/2px4r2 Milan's perhaps originally eighth-century former monastery church of San Vittore in Corpo, attested from the late tenth century onward and rebuilt in the sixteenth century, has relics believed to be V.'s whose authenticity was confirmed by the archdiocese in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio has another set, whose authenticity was confirmed by the archdiocese early in the twentieth century. The seventeenth-century church of San Vittore in Isola Bella (VB) in Lago Maggiore has another set. 2) Arsenius the Great (d. ca. 450). A. is one of the major Egyptian Desert Fathers. The offspring of a family of senatorial rank, he exchanged a career at the court at Constantinople for a cell in Egypt. Various sayings of his are preserved in the _Apophthegmata patrum_. A. has a Bios that exists in several versions (BHG 167y, 167z, 167za, 168), of which the oldest is thought to be of the late fifth century, and a well known, imaginative Encomium by St. Theodore the Studite (BHG 169). 3) Boniface IV, pope (d. 615). Today's less well known saint of the Regno came from Marsican territory in today's Abruzzo. The son of a physician, he had been papal dispensator under pope St. Gregory I, whom he imitated by turning his own house into a monastery. He was elected pope in 608. In 609 he dedicated Rome's church of Santa Maria ad Martyres. In 609-610 B. was hospitable to the exiled bishop St. Mellitus of London. The last letter that we have from St. Columban is addressed to B. Written on behalf of the Lombard king Agilulf and his wife Theodolinda, it urges the pope to repair the divided state of the Church in Italy. B.'s response is not preserved. Boniface VIII promoted B.'s cult, elevating his remains to a newly built altar in Old St. Peter's (over which the later pope then placed his own tomb). Some views of Santa Maria ad Martyres: Exterior: http://tinyurl.com/2yvf83 http://tinyurl.com/3l6re9 http://tinyurl.com/2ctht3 Interior: http://tinyurl.com/yqxy2u http://tinyurl.com/yudug2 http://tinyurl.com/yotzg4 Many expandable views: http://tinyurl.com/4ltb4b The legendary tradition of the monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes in Catalunya (a house first documented from 878) associates B. with relics of St. Peter that had been placed for safekeeping at the site. Herewith two pages with expandable views of the remains of the monastery's eleventh- and twelfth-century structures: http://tinyurl.com/2bedf5 http://www.monestirs.cat/monst/aemp/ae42rode.htm 4) Wiro (d. late 7th cent., supposedly). W. is the patron saint of the diocese of Roermond in The Netherlands. Medievally he was also a patron of the diocese of Utrecht. His ninth-century Vita (BHL 8973) makes him an Irish missionary bishop; though discounted by modern scholars, this suspect datum, sometimes altered to make him Anglo-Saxon, is presented as established fact in many English-language "popular" accounts of W. and of his supposed companions, Sts. Plechelm and Otger. The Vita also credits W. with the foundation of a church and a monastery at Odilienberg near Roermond. The monastery, obviously in already in existence at the time of the Vita's writing, later transformed itself into a house of canons regular who moved to Roermond in 1361, taking with them relics believed to be W.'s. At Roermond these relics have had a history of repeated neglect and rediscovery in different churches. Utrecht is said to have W.'s head. The former monastery's eleventh- and twelfth-century church was restored in the later nineteenth century, destroyed by German soldiers in 1945, and rebuilt in the later twentieth century to resemble its predecessor. Two discussions with multiple views: http://limburgchurches.tripod.com/odilienbergwiro.html http://www.kerkgebouwen-in-limburg.nl/view.jsp?content=736 5) Metro (d. 8th or early 9th cent.?). According to Rather of Verona's _Invective_ against M.'s forcible translation (2 versions: BHL 5942, 5943), written in 962, M. was a repentant sinner who a) chained himself to a great stone in front of the cathedral, b) proclaimed that he wished to suffer until his sins were fully expiated and threw the key to his chain into a branch of the Adige that flowed near the spot, and c), exposed to the elements, endured all sorts of hardships for seven years until the key was found in the belly of a fish by two fishermen who brought it to the bishop. The bishop, recognizing God's will, released M. from his chain, had him washed and decently dressed, and admitted him to Communion. M. died soon thereafter; miracles at his grave proclaimed his sanctity. Rather concludes by noting that, though M.'s remains had been found to be missing on 27. January 962, the populace continues to venerate him at his empty tomb. The church of Verona has continued to venerate M., whom since at least the eleventh century it has considered a martyr and whose presumed remains were quickly returned or replaced (they spent the rest of the Middle Ages in the church of San Vitale and are said to be now in Santa Maria del Paradiso). Today's feast follows an early Veronese practice re-established in 1961. From at least the late thirteenth century until the Reformation M. was also venerated at today's Gernrode (Kr. Quedlinburg) in Sachsen-Anhalt, where a celebration of his translation with an Office in a breviary showing similarities to one used at Verona in the eighth century argues for an early transfer of liturgical texts to go with the body of the saint. A high-ranking noble named Gero, the founder of Gernrode, was with Otto I in Italy in 961/62 and it is supposed that it was he who arranged for M.s removal. Views of the Office for M.'s translation, of his entry in in the breviary's calendar, and of his early sixteenth-century tomb at Gernrode will be found towards the bottom of this page: http://www.stift-gernrode.uni-goettingen.de/Feiern.htm Best, John Dillon (Victor Maurus, Arsenius the Great, Boniface IV, and Wiro 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