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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (24. June) is the feast day of: 1) The Nativity of John the Baptist (d. 1st cent.). Spanning our period, herewith a late antique portrait of J. and a late medieval and Renaissance church dedicated to him: a) An icon (encaustic; sixth-century) of J. the Forerunner from St. Catherine's, Sinai, now in Kiev: http://campus.belmont.edu/honors/SinaiIcons/WIcons07.jpg b) A French-language page, with expandable views, on the fifteenth-/sixteenth-century église Saint-Jean-Baptiste at Saint-Jean-de-Losne (Côte-d'Or) in Bourgogne: http://www.saintjeandelosne.com/affiche.asp?num=21&arbo=1 Other views: http://tinyurl.com/3tkweq http://tinyurl.com/4s2ksa http://tinyurl.com/44sn8p 2) John and Festus (?). J. and F. are poorly attested Roman martyrs mentioned in the legendary Passiones of Marcellus, Bibiana, Pigmenius, and John and Paul and whose first clearly datable testimonia appear in seventh-century sources (the catalogue of lamp oils gathered for queen Theodolinda from the tombs of the martyrs; the itineraries prepared for pilgrims to Rome). At that time they had a martyrium on the Via Salaria vetus in a cemetery identified both as _ad Septem Palumbas_ and _in clivum Cucumeris_): this had a surface-level church called _ad caput s. Iohannis_ because it contained what was said to be J.'s head, whereas F.'s relics were in an underground chamber. 3) Simplicius of Autun (d. late 4th or early 5th cent.). A bishop of Autun of this name is recorded from 374 and again in 418. One of these is today's saint, recorded in Gregory of Tours' _De gloria confessorum_ where we learn that S. was living in complete chastity with his wife when he was elected bishop, that they continued thereafter to live together, and that he evangelized among pagans in his diocese. The very late seventh- or early eighth-century (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology gives today as the commemoration of S.'s laying to rest. 4) Rumold (d. ca. 775). According to his probably late eleventh-century Passio (BHL 7381) by Theodoric of St-Trond, R. (also Rombout) was an Irishman who was ordained priest at Rome and whom divine providence then sent to the vicinity of Mechelen/Malines, where he performed miracles, converted many to Christianity, and founded a monastery before being captured by barbarians and slain at St-Trond (where, says Theodoric, his relics truly are). Later legend made him the son of a Scottish king who before his arrival in Flanders had been an archbishop in Ireland. Modern opinion is divided between R.'s having been an insular missionary or simply a local hermit. When in 1775 the skull said to be his was examined it was found to have sustained what was considered a lethal blow to the cranium. R.'s putative relics were translated at some point in the central Middle Ages to Mechelen/Malines, where they were preserved at a collegiate church dedicated to him. This building, begun in the thirteenth century, became the city's cathedral in 1559. Herewith a few views: http://tinyurl.com/2t5saw http://www.belgiumview.com/belgiumview/tl2/view0001646.php4 And here's an expandable view of a panel painting from the 1490s depicting R. baptizing his successor, St. Libertus: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/coter/baptism.html 5) Theodulf of Lobbes (d. 776). In about the year 750 T. became the fifth abbot-bishop of Lobbes in today's Belgian Hainaut. During his roughly a quarter century in office he greatly increased the abbey's possessions. It was at his behest that Anso of Lobbes (who succeeded him as abbot) wrote his Vitae of his recent predecessors the sainted abbots Ursmar and Ermin. T. was the last abbot of Lobbes to have been _chorepiscopus_ as well. According to Folcwin's tenth-century _Gesta abbatum Laubiensium_, when at some later date the abbey was importuned to transfer to Laon its relics of St. Ermin it elected to send instead the body of abbot-bishop T., who was not yet recognized as a saint. At Laon T. was venerated as St. Ermin but when after a while the pseudo-Ermin had produced few or no miracles he was returned to Lobbes. On the return trip T. performed miracles at Valenciennes and so was finally recognized as a saint under his own name. Today is T.'s _dies natalis_. Though he is entered for this date in some medieval martyrologies, competition from St. John the Baptist caused late medieval Lobbes to celebrate him on 25. June. 6) Theodgar (d. 11th cent.). T. (in Latin, Thugarus; in Danish, Thøger) is the saint of Vestervig Abbey and the fairly legendary apostle of North Jutland. Venerated in the former diocese of Vendsyssel (later, Børglum) from at least the twelfth century onward, he is first attested in the historical record by an incompletely preserved Miracle collection from ca. 1200 (BHL 8069b). A legend making him a missionary from Thüringen who worked in Denmark and who built the first church in a town whose name is not provided occurs in the Vita (BHL 8068) in T.'s probably thirteenth-/fourteenth-century metrical Office. A Vita in a somewhat later Office (BHL 8069) has him go first to England and then to Norway, where he is said to have been chaplain to king (St.) Olaf, and localizes his settlement at Vestervig. T.'s principal feast day is 30. October. This too is first attested from the thirteenth century, when it was kept in the diocese of Ribe (and, presumably, in that of Vendsyssel); by the end of the Middle Ages it was kept in all the dioceses of Denmark. It is a translation feast that seemingly commemorates an Elevatio at Vestervig, where according to a sixteenth-century chronicle T. underwent a translation in 1117. Today is his day of commemoration in the RM and the anniversary of a medieval and early modern popular celebration associating T. with healing springs. The originally thirteenth-century Vestervig kirke in Thisted (Nordjylland) is a former abbey church (Canons Regular) and a former cathedral of the diocese of Vendsyssel. Here's a view: http://tinyurl.com/5wk25s Its late eleventh-/early twelfth-century predecessor (generally called T.'s church) lay some 200 meters to the west. The first view on this page is of that church's foundations: http://tinyurl.com/6a44c8 The other two views on that page are of a holy well on the site associated with T. (there were once many of these in Jutland) and of his depiction, said to be his earliest surviving one, in an early sixteenth-century vault painting in Skive Gamle kirke (Skive Old Church -- but you knew that!!) at Skive (Midtjylland). 7) Bartholomew of Farne (d. 1193). B. was a Yorkshire lad of apparent Scandinavian descent whose parents lived in the vicinity of Whitby. Slow to grasp the onomastic implications of the Norman Conquest (or perhaps deeply unreconciled to the changes that were under way), they named their son Tostig. Later, prompted by not entirely friendly animadversions from members of T.'s peer group, they took to calling him William. W. seems still to have thought of himself as at least partly Scandinavian, for later still, after repeated visions in which Christ, the BVM, St. Peter, and St. John the Evangelist urged him as a young man to reform his dissolute life, he moved to Norway where over the course of three years he was ordained deacon and then priest. When William became Bartholomew is not clear from B.'s near-contemporary Vita (BHL 1015) by G., a monk of Durham. Returning to England, B. served very briefly (_aliquot diebus_) as a priest in Northumbria before becoming a monk of Durham. He been there less than a year when in a vision St. Cuthbert brought him to Inner Farne, showed him his oratory there, and told him that this was his destined abode. B. was allowed to take up residence on the island as an hermit and, with the exception of a brief period when a retired prior also dwelt there, spent the remainder of his life in that place. B. lived very ascetically, fought with demons, experienced visions, fed a small bird from his table, and protected the eiders that nested on the island and whose kind had also been dear to St. Cuthbert. B. was buried at the oratory in the sarcophagus he himself had carved. Miracles were reported at his grave. Like that of his contemporary Godric of Finchale, his memory was preserved initially by Durham Priory. B. has never graced the pages of the RM. Best, John Dillon (John the Baptist, Rumold, Theodulf of Lobbes, and Bartholomew of Farne 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