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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (11. May) is the feast day of: 1) Maiolus of Hadrumetum (d. late 2d cent.?). The early fifth-century Calendar of Carthage and the early medieval (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology enter under today a martyr named Maiolus whom the editors of the RM apparently identify with the Mavilus of Hadrumetum (the Roman-period predecessor of today's Sousse in Tunisia) said by Tertullian (_Ad Scapulam_, 3. 5[6]) to have been condemned to the beasts by a governor of Africa Proconsularis in 212. Recent scholarship finds it more probable that the latter M. perished under a governor who served either in 184-188 or in 191-193. See Anthony Birley, "Caecilius Capella: Persecutor of Christians, Defender of Byzantium", _Greek, Roman & Byzantine Studies_ 32 (1991), 81-98. 2) Anthimus of Rome (d. ca. 304, supposedly). According to his legendary Passio (BHL 561-563), A. was a priest who during the Diocletianic persecution was thrown into the Tiber with a heavy stone tied to his neck and who was rescued from drowning by an angel. A proconsul named Priscus then had him decapitated. A. was buried at an oratory that he had frequented. All this happened in the vicinity of the twenty-second milestone from Rome along the Via Salaria. Thus far A.'s Passio, which also provides mini-Passiones for a number of saints of the Sabina, the hilly rural district east of the Roman campagna perhaps best known in the context of this list for its being the home of the great abbey of Farfa. Opinion is divided as to whether A. is one of these local saints or instead the bishop of Nicomedia (24. April) attracted into the story by virtue of a local cult celebrating the translation of his relics and/or the erection of a church dedicated to him at the Roman market town of Cures (two syllables; near today's Passo Corese in Lazio's Rieti province). Dedicated to A. is the formerly Benedictine abbey of Sant'Antimo near Montalcino in southern Tuscany. Already in existence in 814, it was greatly enriched early in the twelfth century, entering upon a fairly brief "golden age" in which a huge abbey church was built right next to its much smaller Carolingian predecessor. An English-language account of its history is here: http://www.montalcino.net/sant_antimo.htm and collections of views are are here (in the menu at right click on "maxifoto"): http://www.antimo.it/pagine/08_FOTOGRAFIE.html and here (not expandable): http://tinyurl.com/q35db For those who wish to spend more time learning about the place (now serviced by Premonstratensians), illustrated, English-language historical and artistic tours of the abbey begin here: http://www.antimo.it/pagine_en/00FRAME.html 3) Mamertus (d. ca. 477). The brother of the Gallo-Roman philosopher and rhetor Claudianus Mamertus and a friend of St. Sidonius Apollinaris, M. became bishop of Vienne in about 461. He has no Vita. Much of what we hear of him has to do with his extra-canonical consecration of a bishop of Die in 463 and the steps that were taken by pope St. Hilarus to rectify that situation. In 473 M. oversaw the translation into a newly built suburban basilica of relics believed to be those of St. Ferreolus of Vienne, then recently rediscovered. In the following year he organized in his diocese the first Rogation processions to be institutionalized as annual events. M. was buried in the predecessor of Vienne's church of Saint-Pierre. In the seventh century M.'s remains were translated to a predecessor of Orléans' cathedral of Sainte-Croix, where a chapel was dedicated to him and where he became one of the local saints. M. entered the historical martyrologies with an entry under today by Florus of Lyon. Here he is, at left and wearing the violet of Rogationtide, with pope St. Gregory I in a fourteenth-century copy (1348) of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 122v): http://tinyurl.com/rcofzw The images are versions of the illustrator's generic bishop and generic sainted pope. 4) Gengulf (d. later 8th cent.). According to his widely disseminated, perhaps tenth-century Passio (BHL 3328), G. (also Gangulf, Gengoul, Gengoulf, Gengoult, Gengon, etc.) was a count of Langres in the time of Pepin the Short who had the misfortune to be assassinated at one of his estates by a cleric who was his wife's lover. Venerated as a martyr, this patron saint of unhappily married men has a verse Passio (BHL 3329) by the also tenth-century Hrotsvit of Gandersheim. G. is said to have been buried at Varennes and to have been translated later to Langres. Many places claim relics of him. G. as depicted in the earlier twelfth-century Stuttgarter Passionale from Hirsau (Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart, Cod. Bibl. 2° 58, fol. 50r): http://tinyurl.com/o8zkz8 G. as depicted in a later fifteenth-century breviary for the Use of Langres (Langres, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 4, fol. 148r): http://tinyurl.com/28pb6tv Exterior views of the former Chorherrenstiftskirche St. Gangolf in Bamberg (bases of the towers perh. eleventh-century; most of the towers and the nave early fourteenth-century): http://tinyurl.com/q9hj5k http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Xe5FY-Qr61wQvwX8Ym1P2g A few views of the originally thirteenth-/sixteenth-century collégiale Saint-Gengoult at Toul (Meurthe-et-Moselle): http://tinyurl.com/qlrnq5 http://tinyurl.com/ywrbj2 http://tinyurl.com/2g8t4y http://tinyurl.com/2nxc2l Ground plan: http://tinyurl.com/pnfhgx Interior (from ca. 1900): http://tinyurl.com/22s98b Interior (recent): http://tinyurl.com/r9szkq Cloister: http://tinyurl.com/pwv9bk A few views of the originally fourteenth-century Reformed church of Eelde-Paterswolde in Tynaarlo in the Dutch province of Drenthe (Groningen's airport is at Eelde), dedicated medievally to the BVM and to G.: http://www.historischekerken.nl/Drenthe/Eelde.html http://tinyurl.com/2vc69w Many expandable views here: http://home.kpn.nl/odrk9/eelde_overzichtspagina.htm The originally fourteenth-century chapelle Saint-Gengoulf at Zimming (Moselle), restored in 1938: http://tinyurl.com/owjvk2 http://cornessa.free.fr/legendes/gangoulf/gangoulf_autel.jpg The chapelle Saint-Gengoulph (1540; restored, 2007) at Varennes-sur-Amance (Haute-Marne): http://tinyurl.com/qfgwlz Both of those chapels are built near springs associated with G.'s cult. For more on the cult, etc. (by no means entirely medieval), see the website devoted to G. at: http://www.gengulphus.org/index.php/home 5) Maiolus of Cluny (d. 994). M. (in modern French: Maïeul, Mayeul) was the fourth abbot of Cluny. Previously archdeacon of Mâcon, from 954 he was the coadjutor of Cluny's by then blind abbot Aymard, whom he succeeded in perhaps 963. Both the abbey and its larger community flourished under his rule. M. traveled widely, reforming Benedictine houses in today's France, Germany, and Italy. In 972 he was seized by Muslims from Africa who had settled in Provence, was wounded while defending one of his traveling companions, and was briefly held until he was ransomed at great expense (a letter from M. appealing to Cluny for his ransom and describing his captors survives). Today is M.'s _dies natalis_. His cult was immediate. The first of M.'s numerous Vitae (BHL 5177-5185) was written by Cluniac monks by the end of the tenth century and went through several revisions. Another was written in 1033 by M.'s immediate successor, St. Odilo of Cluny. M. as depicted in two illuminations in the later fifteenth-century Messes de Saint-Mayeul de Cluny (1465-1466; Chambéry, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 7, fols. 1r and 15r): http://tinyurl.com/27ags4d http://tinyurl.com/26vzv8g In 999 a monastery and its church in Pavia dedicated to the BVM became a Cluniac priory with a dedication to M. The same city's formerly Cluniac basilica di San Salvatore has a set of earlier sixteenth-century frescoes of scenes from M.'s life. Herewith some views: http://tinyurl.com/oucxge http://tinyurl.com/q7stnf http://tinyurl.com/or58yv http://tinyurl.com/r2vhlu 6) Walter of L'Esterp (d. 1070). According to his Vita by Marbod of Rennes (BHL 8802), W. (Gautier, Gauthier) was the son of respected parents in Aquitaine and was of noble descent through his mother, the chaste and pious Walburga, whom he while yet in the womb miraculously saved from drowning when she was traveling to a place where she would give birth to him. After a good education he became a canon at what appears to have been the church of Le Dorat in the Limousin. Discord there caused him to return home but after a few years he was made abbot of Saint-Pierre de L'Esterp at today's Lesterps (Charente), a post he held for thirty-eight years. Personally ascetic and generous in giving alms, W. gained a reputation as a man of particular holiness. Pope Victor II is said to have given him the right both to excommunicate and to release repentant sinners from that penalty. Blind for the last seven years of his life, W. bore this affliction with characteristic patience. Today is his _dies natalis_. He was famous for miracles, especially those of the healing kind. A page of views of the originally eleventh- and twelfth-century abbatiale Saint-Pierre at Lesterps: http://www.romanes.com/Lesterps/ Some views of the originally twelfth-century collégiale Saint-Pierre at Le Dorat (Haute-Vienne): http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Pierre_de_Le_Dorat http://apiic.nexenservices.com/chantier/site2/visite.php Best, John Dillon (last year's post revised and with the addition of Maiolus of Hadrumetum) ********************************************************************** 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