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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (18. December) is the feast day of: 1) Namphano, Miggin (formerly emended to Mygdon), Sana(m)ë, and Lucitas (?). We know of the existence of these martyrs of North Africa from a letter of Maximus of Madaura to St. Augustine of Hippo, preserved in the latter's correspondence (_Ep._ 16). Maximus styles N. _archimartyr_, a term that Delehaye quite reasonably took to mean "pre-eminent martyr" and that others of a more literal or wish-fulfilling bent interpret as "first martyr" (usually without informing their readers that any other meaning is even possible). According to Maximus, all four were venerated by Christians of Madaura (the ancient predecessor of Mdaourouch in Algeria). It is not known whether any were a companion in martyrdom of any of the others. The place or places of their martyrdom is/are likewise unknown. N. (also Namfanon and Namphanio) appears in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology under today's date at about the middle of a very long list of African martyrs. There's no surviving indication that the others enjoyed any veneration medievally. Expandable views of the remains of late antique buildings at the site of Madaura (or Madauros) are here, the last showing what's left of a Christian basilica: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/algeria/madauros-scenes.html 2) Gatian (d. late 3d or early 4th cent., supposedly). G. (Gatianus, Catianus; in French, Gatien) is the legendary protobishop of Tours. According to Gregory of Tours' _Historia Francorum_, he was one of a group of missionaries sent from Rome in 250 to evangelize Gaul and was bishop of Tours for fifty years. G. has several quite fictional medieval Vitae (BHL 3267-69) as well as at least one miracle collection (BHL 3270). In time he came to be associated with St. Dionysius (Denys) and was re-dated to the first century as one of the legendary apostolic founders of the church of France. Depictions of G. (thirteenth-/early sixteenth-century) in manuscripts of the Bibliothèque municipale at Tours: http://tinyurl.com/2thlfp Tours' late twelfth-/early sixteenth-century cathedral of Saint-Gatien was rededicated to G. in the fourteenth century. The previous dedicatee was St. Maurice. Herewith a plan and a few views. Plan: http://tinyurl.com/y4bosx Views (multiple): http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/photos.cfm?ID=s0011458 http://www.kathedralen.net/tours/tours00.html http://homepage.mac.com/lavigne1/PhotoAlbum30.html http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/tours-cathedral.htm West front: http://tinyurl.com/yehbcd http://tinyurl.com/yblhxz Nave: http://www.uquebec.ca/musique/orgues/france/tourssg3.jpg http://www.uquebec.ca/musique/orgues/france/tourssg2.jpg Chevet: http://tinyurl.com/troc8 http://tinyurl.com/ye69hl Stained glass: Louis IX at Sens with the Crown of Thorns: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/loui/hob_37.173.3.htm Rose window: http://www.flickr.com/photos/baloulumix/2361676913/sizes/o/ Various: http://tinyurl.com/4njfgz http://tinyurl.com/3pblpa 3) Wynnebald (d. 761). W. (also Winnebald; in German, Wunibald) was an Anglo-Saxon noble of Wessex, the brother of Sts. Willibald and Walburg(a) and the son of St. Richard of England (not that that was his real name, of course). From 720 to 723 he accompanied "Richard" and Willibald on a pilgrimage intended to include the Holy Land. But only Willibald got that far: the father died at Lucca and W. fell ill in Rome, staying there when his brother continued on in 723. With the exception of one trip home W. remained at Rome, studying theology, until 739, when he joined St. Boniface at what is now Ohrdruf (Kr. Gotha) in Thüringen. W. served as a missionary in Thüringen and Bavaria until Boniface called him to Mainz in 747. W. was an effective preacher but preferred solitude to town life. In 751 he founded a double monastery at today's Markt Heidenheim (Lkr. Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen) in Bavaria. He died there on this day and was succeeded by his sister. By the time of his Vita by the Anglo-Saxon nun Hugeburc (Huneburc) of Heidenheim (BHL 1297; between 778 and 781) several miracles were credited to him. His apparently incorrupt relics and those of Walburg(a) were translated, probably about a century later, to nearby Eichstätt, where Willibald had been the first bishop. Here's W. as depicted in Eichstätt's Pontifical of bishop Gundekar II (1057–1075): http://tinyurl.com/4jrzcf In the early seventeenth century relics of all three were translated from Eichstätt to Scheer (Lkr. Sigmaringen) in Baden-Württemberg, where they are still kept in the originally fourteenth-century church of St. Nikolaus. Here's a view of W.'s later thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century reliquary bust: http://tinyurl.com/52lf4g Best, John Dillon (Gatian 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