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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (4. May) is the feast day of: 1) Florian (d. 304, supposedly). F. is a widely venerated saint in Austria and Bavaria. He has a late eighth- or early ninth-century prose Passio that exists in both a longer and a shorter version (BHL 3058, 3054). These make him a Roman soldier (later, officer) martyred for his faith by being drowned in the Enns at Lauriacum in Noricum Ripense, today's Lorch in the city of Enns in Oberösterreich. The very baroque abbey of Sankt Florian (Augustinian canons) at today's Markt St. Florian (also in Oberösterreich) is the descendant of a monastery, said to be first recorded from the eighth century, that arose at the reputed site of F.'s grave. It has been a pilgrimage site ever since. Though it lacks F.'s relics, it does possess a millstone with which F. may have been weighted down when he was thrown into the river: http://cms.ttg.at/sixcms/media.php/3536/muehlstein.jpg The chief bodily relics at Sankt Florian are those of the composer Anton Bruckner: http://cms.ttg.at/sixcms/media.php/3594/9_bruckner_01.jpg English-language translations of BHL 3054 and 3058 as well as other matter on F. will be found at this page of David Woods' "Military Martyrs" site: http://www.ucc.ie/milmart/Florianus.html Thanks to the watery manner of his martyrdom, F. is a protector against fire. Representations of him extinguishing fires are abundant from the early modern period onward. Here's a late medieval one (ca. 1450) from a gradual formerly of Sankt Florian and now in Vienna (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Musiksammlung, Mus. Hs. 15947): http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.history.data.jpg/010602.jpg And here's another, from a pillar in the Stadtpfarrkirche of Rain (Kr. Donau-Ries) in Bavaria. F. is on the right: http://www.rain.de/rundgang/kirche2.jpg But of course F. is not always shown putting out a fire. So, for example, this illumination: http://www.florian2004.at/downloads/Hl_Florian_Buchmalerei.jpg In close-up (with better color and detail): http://www.florian2004.at/downloads/Hl_Florian.jpg Nor does he seem be putting out a fire in this partial view of a wooden statue of him, said to be from the earlier fourteenth century, at the aforementioned abbey of Sankt Florian: http://cms.ttg.at/sixcms/media.php/3536/postkarte_02.jpg Thumbnail views of two originally late medieval dedications to F. in Bavaria: a) the Kirche St. Florian at Pöcking (Kr. Starnberg): http://tinyurl.com/4zabbq b) an illustrated, German-language page on the pilgrimage church of Sankt Florian near Frasdorf (Kr. Rosenheim) and a thumbnail view of the exterior: http://tinyurl.com/cpalsn http://tinyurl.com/652ccb F. is the patron of Oberösterreich and in it of St Florian am Inn, whose originally thirteenth-/fourteenth-century parish church dedicated to F. is shown here: http://tinyurl.com/dcdpqu http://tinyurl.com/d9qcqy 2) Silvanus of Gaza and thirty-nine companions (d. 309 or 310). We know about S. et socc. from Eusebius, _Historia ecclesiastica_, 8. 13 and _De martyris Palaestinae_, 7 and 13. S. was a priest at Gaza who with many of his fellow Christians was caught up in the persecution of Maximian and sent to the copper mines at Phaeno. There he was elected bishop and there he was martyred by decapitation along with thirty-nine companions towards the very end of the persecution. 3) Cyriac of Jerusalem (d. later 4th cent., supposedly). Fifth-century legends of the Finding of the True Cross invented a Jew who revealed the location of the then buried Holy Sepulchre (in which the True Cross was said to have been found). In time, he came to be called Jude (because he was thought of as in some way a reverse of the traitor Judas?). A story circulated that, after assisting St. Helena in her great discovery, he converted to Christianity, took the name Kyriakos, was consecrated bishop of Jerusalem, and was martyred under Julian the Apostate. Numerous Passiones attest to the medieval popularity of this tale. The Acts of various councils give us the names of the bishops of Jerusalem for this period. Strangely enough, C. (also Quiriacus) is not among the pontiffs so identified. In 2001 C. ceased to grace the pages of the RM. But his cult continues at the Italian port city of Ancona (AN) in the Marche. C. is Ancona's legendary protobishop, said in a late and synthesizing Translation (BHL 7025f) to have arrived there after his conversion and to have been martyred at Jerusalem on a return visit, with his relics translated to Ancona by Galla Placidia in 434. Today's home page of the archdiocese of Ancona-Osimo announces the Solennità di S. Ciriaco on this date and carries a portrait of the mitred saint, showing him enthroned and holding a large cross which surely must represent the True one. In that portrait C. supports on his lap Ancona's most visible symbol of its devotion to its patron C.: its cathedral dedicated to him, built in the shape of a Greek cross, completed in 1189, and subsequently modified. An English-language introduction to this structure, which only came to be called after C. in the thirteenth or early fourteenth century, is here: http://tinyurl.com/52xkj2 The archdiocese's illustrated, Italian-language account of the building is here: http://tinyurl.com/9buhf Exterior views: http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/739655.jpg http://www.policentro2000.it/cattedrale_s.ciriaco.JPG http://www.marcomercuri.org/Duomodiancona2.htm http://www.marcomercuri.org/Duomodiancona.htm http://www.globalgeografia.com/album/italia/marche/ancona5.jpg The Italia nell'Arte Medievale page (esp. good for detail views of the sculpture): http://medioevo.org/artemedievale/Pages/Marche/Ancona.html The bottom row on this page has some greatly expandable exterior views: http://tinyurl.com/4zfkad Interior views: http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~truffe/image/ancona2.jpg http://www.clonline.org/image/20anniFrat/ancona/ancona1.jpg We don't get to Ancona very often on this list, so herewith some views, etc. of two Marian dedications, one in Ancona proper and the other slightly down the coast at Portonovo (AN): a) The originally eleventh-/twelfth-century chiesa di Santa Maria della Piazza (reworked, early thirteenth century; restored, 1980): Italian-language accounts with expandable views (bottom of page): http://tinyurl.com/478sr6 http://tinyurl.com/4trrbe NB: The sculptured symbols of the evangelists John and Luke shown on that last page are at the cathedral and not at Santa Maria della Piazza. Exterior views: http://tinyurl.com/3vjzzn http://tinyurl.com/3ns8c6 Expandable detail views of the exterior and views of remains (incl. wall paintings) of the two underlying paleochristian churches are here: http://tinyurl.com/4ejgm5 b) The originally eleventh-century chiesa abbaziale di Santa Maria at Portonovo (restored, 1894ff.; 1988-95): Italian language account: http://tinyurl.com/6qdnxc Views: http://tinyurl.com/5l233e http://www.policentro2000.it/portonovo_chiesa.jpg http://tinyurl.com/6rs3mq http://tinyurl.com/5q3yfu A page from Thais: http://tinyurl.com/6kgzos 4) Ladislaus of Gielnów (Bl.; d. 1505). L. (Władysław ) was born at Gielnów in the diocese of Gniezno in around 144o. After philosophical and theological study at Kraków he entered the Observant Franciscan convent at Warszawa (Warsaw), making his profession there on 1. August 1457. L. was several times his order's provincial for Poland, composed his province's ordinances that were approved at the general chapter in Urbino in 1498 (one of two such meetings in Italy that he is known to have attended), wrote religious works in prose and verse, instituted training for missionaries destined for Lithuania (for which reason he is sometimes called the Apostle of Lithuania), and in 1498 led a movement of mass prayer that was thought instrumental in Poland's defeat of separate incursions by Ottoman Turks and by marauding Tatars. After a series of healing and other miracles L. was accorded a translation by the archbishop of Gniezno in 1572. His cult was confirmed papally in 1750 by Benedict XIV, who three years later included him among the patrons of Poland and Lithuania. Best, John Dillon (last year's post lightly revised and with the addition of Ladislaus of Gielnów) ********************************************************************** 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