medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (4. February) is the feast day of:
1) Eutychius of Rome (?). E. is a Roman martyr of the Via Appia. According to his epitaph by pope St. Damasus I (_Epigrammata Damasiana_, ed. Ferrua, no. 21), whose rendering in stone is now displayed in San Sebastiano fuori le Mura, he was tortured by denial of sleep for twelve days, by starvation, and by being cast into a pit. Damasus, whose account of E. has been thought suspiciously reminiscent of the reported torture of St. Lucian of Antioch, claims to have been told in a vision where to find E.'s remains. Since 1577 relics identified as those of E. have reposed with those of Damasus under the high altar of Rome's San Lorenzo in Damaso.
A text of Damasus' epitaph for E. will be found in the second section here (starts on p. 2):
http://tinyurl.com/ytr9gu
NB: The dates given on that page for E. are those frequently assigned to pope St. Eutychian (with whom the apparently quite distinct E. has sometimes been identified).
2) Rabanus Maurus (d. 856). R (or H. if you prefer the spelling 'Hrabanus') was born in Mainz. Early in life he became a monk at Fulda, whence in 802 he was sent to Tours for further study under Alcuin. After a year he returned to Fulda, where he eventually became head of the monastic school and then, in 822, abbot. In the early 840s he resigned that office following an imperial regime change and left Fulda. In 847, having been reconciled to the rule of Louis the German, he was named archbishop of Mainz.
The learned R. is best known for his writings, especially the early collection of figure poems _De laudibus Sanctae Crucis_, commentaries on many books of the Bible, the encyclopedic _De rerum naturis_, and one form of the hymn _Veni creator spiritus_. Among his many other works is a martyrology.
Here's a page of expandable images from the Vatican Library's famous manuscript of the _De laudibus Sanctae Crucis_ (BAV, Vat. lat. 124):
http://www.almaleh.com/raban.htm
Other views are here:
http://tinyurl.com/bkt65
That manuscript's presentation portrait of R. (the recipient is pope Gregory IV):
http://www.almaleh.com/images/rabanmaur.jpg
Another presentation portrait of R. (the recipient here is archbishop Otgar of Mainz), in Vienna, ÖNB, Codex Vindobonensis 652:
http://tinyurl.com/22fj9y
A Tree of Jesse from a much later manuscript of the _De laudibus Sanctae Crucis_ (Douai, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 340, fol. 11):
http://tinyurl.com/2b9ewc
Some views of ornamental initials from a twelfth- or thirteenth-century manuscript of R.'s _Expositio libri Numerorum_
(University of Oregon Libraries, Burgess Collection, ms. 9):
http://libweb.uoregon.edu/ec/exhibits/burgess/ms9i.html
One of the treasures of the cathedral museum in Mainz is this later thirteenth-century portrait bust of R. as archbishop:
http://images.bistummainz.de/1/15/2/11386991212430992.jpg
3) Himerius of Bosto (d. early 11th cent.?). H. is the local saint of Bosto, a section of Varese (VA) in Lombardy, where since the late Middle Ages a church has been named for him (the formal dedication was to St. Michael) and where tradition makes him the companion in martyrdom of St. Gemulus, the saint of the monastery of Ganna in today's Valganna (VA). According to the latter's legendary foundation account, G. and an unnamed companion (in the view of Bosto, H.) were pilgrims from across the Alps who while traveling to Rome were murdered by bandits. Some, working backward from what's known about the monastery in its early years, have dated this episode to early in the eleventh century. H.'s veneration at Bosto is first documented from 1417.
In 1572, during a rebuilding of H.'s church, a crudely carved sarcophagus containing skeletal remains of more than one person was unearthed, was not recognized as particularly important, and was reburied. In 1928, during other work on the church, it was re-discovered. This find fulfilled the hopes of those who had thought that H.'s relics might someday come to light there; possibly among the hopers was the then pope, Pius XI (Achille Ratti), who in 1900 as a scholar at the Ambrosian Library in Milan had published a study of two versions of G.'s legend. Here's a view of the sarcophagus not long after its twentieth-century unearthing:
http://tinyurl.com/cuo8rv
Varese lies within the territory of the diocese of Milan, which latter in 1929 received as its bishop Ildefonso Schuster, born in Rome of Bavarian parents. Cardinal Schuster, who was of the view that H. and G. had been German, had the skull fragments in the sarcophagus sent to Germany for "scientific" testing to see whether any could be shown to have German features. In 1935 one set of remains was given a formal ecclesiastical recognition and was proclaimed to be that of H. It was returned to the sarcophagus, which latter was then sealed and converted into the church's new altar, consecrated by cardinal Schuster.
Here's a view of a predella panel depicting H. from an altarpiece by Francesco de (or de') Tatti that is said to have been commissioned for H.'s church at Bosto in 1519:
http://tinyurl.com/bqu8ur
An illustrated, Italian language account of that altarpiece is here:
http://tinyurl.com/2ndujk
It's not every saint of the day who has an olive oil named for her or for him. For the past few years the parish in Bosto has produced, from olives picked from public parks and gardens in the area, an extra-virgin Olio Oliva di S. Imerio, bottles of which are shown here (the proceeds from their sale support local charities):
http://tinyurl.com/b3hl97
4) Gilbert of Sempringham (d. 1189). The monastic founder G. was the son of a Norman knight in Lincolnshire; his mother was Anglo-Saxon and is thought to have once been propertied. Unable by reason of some physical defect to follow his father's profession of arms, G. was trained for the church both locally and in France. Before he became a priest his father gave him two Lincolnshire churches, one being that of Sempringham. G. took up residence there, established a school, and tried to reform his previously laxly run parish. At some point before 1123 he entered the service of the bishop of Lincoln, in whose household he served -- after ordination to the priesthood -- as chaplain. In 1131 G. returned to Sempringham, where he was spiritual advisor to some local anchoresses and where he soon organized lay sisters and lay brothers to attend to their temporal needs. In 1139 the bishop placed under G.'s care a newly formed second community of women at nearby Haverholme.
In 1148, having visited Cîteaux in the previous year, G. began to develop his communities into an Order, with the nuns following a version of the Benedictine Rule, with the lay brothers following a version of Cistercian practice, and with the lay sisters living according a new rule devised by G. In the 1150s G. introduced canons into his communities; these followed a version of the Augustinian Rule. He established several double houses as well as two separate canonries. Royal support and papal privileges in the later 1160s secured the place of the nascent Gilbertine Order.
Gilbert was buried in Sempringham Priory in a wall dividing the nuns' part of the church from that of the canons, thus allowing both sexes access to his remains (which latter, thanks to reported lifetime miracles and to G.'s personal rectitude, were already considered holy). Post-mortem miracles were numerous. G. was canonized in 1200 by Innocent III; his process was the first to be carried out according to Innocent's new rules.
The second image on this page is a partial view of the site of Sempringham Priory:
http://tinyurl.com/yh5suae
And here's an illustrated, late nineteenth-century account of Watton Priory, a Gilbertine house in East Yorkshire founded ca. 1150, excavated intermittently from 1893 to 1898, and, thanks to the Nun of Watton, familiar by name at least to many on this list:
http://tinyurl.com/yfg5qll
5) Jeanne of Valois (d. 1505). J. (also Jeanne de France) was a daughter of Louis XI of France and Charlotte of Savoy. Her father married her as a child to the duke of Orléans. When the latter succeeded to the throne of France in 1498 as Louis XII he got pope Alexander VI to grant him an annulment, claiming that J. was afflicted with physical deformities that prevented them from consummating their union. Louis was then free to marry his predecessor's widow, thereby keeping Brittany in the kingdom, and J. (now the duchess of Berry) was free to live a life of piety in her castle at Bourges. There together with her confessor, Bl. Gilbert Nicholas OFM, she founded the Order of the Ten Virtues of the Virgin Mary ("Les Annonciades").
J.'s cult seems to have arisen shortly after her death. She was beatified in 1772 and was canonized in 1950. An English-language version of her and Gilbert Nicholas' _Rule of the Ten Evangelical Virtues of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary_ is here:
http://padrimariani.org/assets/pdf/en/Ruleofthe10Virtues.pdf
There's a portrait of J. here (but no credits):
http://www.historiesajten.se/visainfo.asp?id=495
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post lightly revised)
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