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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (30. May) is the feast day of: 1) Gavinus of Porto Torres (d. 303?). One of the genuine ancient martyrs of Sardinia, Gavinus (Gabinus, Gabinius; Italian: Gavino; Sardinian: Ainu [three syllables]) occurs twice in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, once under today with a fellow sufferer named Crispulus and again under 25. October; in Sardinia the latter is G.'s accepted _dies natalis_ and major feast day. Today is G.'s day of commemoration in Usuard and in the RM. G.'s place of martyrdom is recorded as Turres in Sardinia, i.e. the ancient Turris Libyssonis, medieval Torres, and modern Porto Torres (SS). His Passio (BHL 3291j) is late (early twelfth-century) and unreliable; so too an Inventio (BHL 3291k; thirteenth- or fourteenth-century) that links him to two local saints of 27. October, Protus and Januarius. These texts, which make G. out to have been a Roman soldier martyred during the Diocletianic persecution, refer to, and are surely to be associated with, G.'s ex-cathedral at Torres (once the capital of the homonymous Sardinian judicate), initially built in the eleventh century and expanded to its present length in the twelfth, when it assumed its present profile with an apse on either end. San Gavino is Sardinia's largest "romanesque" church. Its ornamental main portal is fifteenth-century "gothic". Brief accounts of this building are here, in Italian: http://www.ilportalesardo.it/monumenti/ssportotorres.htm http://www.giroscopio.com/itinerari/sardegna3.html#1 http://www.shardanas.net/dettagli_da_visitare.asp?id_record=7 and in English: http://www.stintino.net/Churches.htm Exterior and interior views of various features and details are here (click on "Porto Torres (Ss), S.Gavino do Torres"): http://web.tiscali.it/romanico/flumenar.htm A series of predecessor churches on the same site is said to go back as far as the fifth century. Adjacent to the site is a Roman-period necropolis whose pre-Christian and Christian inscriptions are now housed in the antiquarium at Porto Torres. Here's a view of one portion of the necropolis: http://www.albergotorres.com/immagini/foto_citta2b.jpg Remains said to be those of G., of Protus, and of Januarius are kept in three late antique sarcophagi in the crypt of San Gavino. In this view, G.'s is at left: http://tinyurl.com/46ps6v G. has been and is venerated in several parts of the island (and in Corsica as well). St. Gregory the Great in a letter of 599 refers to an abbess Gavinia at a monastery of saints Gabinus and Luxorius in the diocese of Cagliari. The present parish church of S. Gavino at San Gavino Monreale (VS) dates to the fourteenth century and is noted for its sculptural representations of later medieval judges of Arborea (though, just as in the case of the Swabian royals at Bitonto, which individuals are represented is somewhat controversial). See: http://web.tiscali.it/sangavinos2k/chiese/sgavino.htm http://www.international.rai.it/cristianita/santi/gavino/chiesa.shtml The oldest literary text we now have in Sardinian is Antonio Cano's mid-fifteenth-century _Sa Vitta et sa Morte, et Passione de sanctu Gavinu, Prothu et Januariu_. This has recently been edited by Dino Manca (Cagliari: Centro di Studi Filologici Sardi; CUEC, 2002) with good bibliography on other hagiographic writings on Gavinus. P. G. Spanu, _Martyria Sardiniae: I santuari dei martiri sardi_ (Oristano: S'Alvure, 2000), has a Latin text of G.'s Passio (last critically edited by Giancarlo Zichi [Sassari: Chiarella, 1989]). 2) Dympna (d. 7th cent., supposedly). D. (also Dymphna) has a legendary thirteenth-century Vita (BHL 2352) by Peter, a canon of Cambrai, that follows local tradition in making her the daughter of a Celtic king who fell in lust with her because of her resemblance to her mother. Spurning all opportunities to engage in incest, D. fled with her confessor St. Gerebernus to Gheel in today's Belgium and were there martyred by D.'s father, who had pursued them. In the thirteenth century D.'s relics at Gheel were credited with miraculous cures, also recorded by canon Peter. She is the patron saint of the mentally ill. 3) Hubert of Liège (d. 727 or 728). H. (Hubertus, Hucbertus) was a disciple of the murdered St. Lambert, whom he succeeded ca. 704 as bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht. He is said to have evangelized in southern Brabant and in the Ardennes. In 717 or 718 he translated Lambert's remains from Maastricht to a recentlly built church at Liège/Lüttich, which latter town he shortly made his seat. H. died while on a journey; his body was brought back to Liège and was buried there. In 744 the Austrasian mayor of the palace Carloman accorded his remains, which had been discovered to be incorrupt, an Elevatio at Liège. The first of H.'s numerous Vitae (BHL 3993, etc.) was written shortly thereafter. 3. November has long been the day of H.'s principal feast in Belgium and in other countries. Today, his _dies natalis_, is now his day of commemoration in the RM. Here's a view of Rogier van der Weyden's painting (ca. 1437-1440), now in the National Gallery, London, of the exhumation of H. (whose vestments too were said to have been undecayed): http://tinyurl.com/67fouz In the fourteenth century the legendary episode of a conversion prompted by the sight while hunting of a stag with a cross between its antlers was borrowed from the legend of St. Eustace and applied to H., who henceforth became a patron of hunters. Here's the moment as depicted in the Hours of Catherine of Cleves (ca. 1440; New York, Morgan Library and Museum, M. 917) http://www.int-st-hubertus-orden.de/html/xbekehrung.html The scene is also portrayed above the entrance to the chapel of St. Hubert (1491-96) at the château of Amboise (Indre-et-Loire): http://tinyurl.com/3evjbm 4) Ferdinand III of Castile and León (d. 1252). F. (whose numeration follows the sequence for Castile) was the son of Alfonso IX of León. He succeeded to that throne in 1230, uniting it with that of Castile, which latter he had held since 1217. A leading figure of the Reconquista, F. brought such cities as Jaén, Córdoba, and Sevilla under Christian rule. The recipient of an immediately posthumous cult, he was canonized papally in 1671. Here's F. as depicted in a thirteenth-century miniature in a collection of royal privileges at Santiago de Compostela (Tumbo A): http://tinyurl.com/6j2azd http://tinyurl.com/6j2azd 5) Joan of Arc (d. 1431). J., an adjudged heretic, was burned at the stake in Rouen in 1431. In 1456 pope Calixtus III overturned her conviction. J. was canonized in 1920. Best, John Dillon (Gavinus of Porto Torres, Dympna, and Joan of Arc 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