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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (28. July) is the feast day of: 1) Victor I, pope (d. 198). An African by birth, V. succeeded pope St. Eleuther(i)us as bishop of Rome. He is commonly said, in a phrase whose import is so ambiguous that one wonders why it continues to be used, to have been "the first Latin pope". Jerome tells us that V. was the author of some smallish writings on matters of religion. One or more of these concerned the Paschal controversy, in which V. attempted to extend to the entire Church the practice, recently adopted in Rome, of observing Easter on the Sunday immediately following 14. Nisan (Passover); when the churches of Asia Minor persisted in observing Easter on 14. Nisan itself he declared them excommunicate. V. dealt sharply with the heretical priest Florinus, against whom St. Irenaeus of Lyon wrote two treatises, and with the wealthy adoptionist Theodotus the leather-seller. V. is the first pope known to have had dealings with the imperial household: through his relationship with Commodus' mistress Marcia (a Christian) he is said to saved some co-religionists who had been condemned to the mines of Sardinia. His later reputation as a martyr appears to be unfounded. 2) Nazarius and Celsus (d. before 17. January 395). N. and C. are the names given to two persons whose remains were discovered by St. Ambrose of Milan outside of that city shortly after the death of Theodosius I (whose demise is therefore a reasonable _terminus ante_ for their lifetimes) and who were proclaimed by A. to have been martyrs. According to our sole source for this Invention, Ambrose's biographer Paulinus of Milan, N.'s body was so incorrupt at the time of its discovery that it appeared as though it had just been prepared for burial (a sceptic, then, could argue that N. might even have outlived the aforementioned emperor). N. was translated to the basilica of the Apostles in Milan (later re-named in his honor and now Milan's San Nazaro in Brolo). C., whose Inventio followed shortly upon that of N., stayed in his nearby grave; in the tenth century a monastery dedicated to him was founded at the site. Ambrose sent a relic of N. to St. Paulinus of Nola. To judge from attested late antique dedications, other relics of him traveled widely within the Christian world. According to Paulinus of Milan it had proved impossible to determine when these saints had been martyred or indeed anything at all about their lives. Finding such a deplorable state of ignorance unwelcome, someone in about the middle of the fifth century provided N. and C. with a legendary Passio that subsequently took numerous forms both in Latin (BHL 6039-6050) and in Greek (BHG 1323-1324). In this account, N. was baptized by St. Linus, evangelized in northern Italy (and at Milan met Sts. Gervasius and Protasius), and then journeyed to Trier, having acquired at Cimiez the youth C. as his companion. Arrested at Trier, N. and C. were sent back to Milan and were martyred there. As early martyrs of Milan, N. and C. are named in the Ambrosian Canon of the Mass. Some dedications to one or both of these saints: Three illustrated pages on Milan's Basilica Apostolorum / San Nazaro in Brolo: http://www.liceoberchet.it/netday/luoghi/nazaro.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_San_Nazaro_Maggiore http://tinyurl.com/3729bn Three illustrated, English-language pages on the late antique structure that in the ninth century had become that Ravenna's church dedicated to N. (some may know it better by another name): http://tinyurl.com/67ekha http://tinyurl.com/6h5j6l http://tinyurl.com/5ebszu An illustrated, Italian-language account of the originally late tenth- or eleventh-century chiesa di San Celso at Comerio (VA) in Lombardy, an Italian national monument, starts about a quarter of the way down this page: http://www.comune.comerio.va.it/naturaarte.asp Two illustrated, English-language pages on the originally eleventh-/fourteenth-century basilique Saint-Nazaire et Saint-Celse at Carcassonne (Aude), that city's cathedral until very early in the nineteenth century: http://www.languedoc-france.info/030301_carcassonne.htm http://tinyurl.com/5dj59n A page on this church's nineteenth-century restoration by Viollet-le-Duc: http://www.carcassonne.culture.fr/en/rt402.htm Further views: http://tinyurl.com/557b2c http://tinyurl.com/5hm3k7 Two illustrated, Italian-language pages on the originally mid-eleventh- to fifteenth-century abbazia dei Santi Nazario e Celso at San Nazzaro Sesia (NO) in Piedmont: http://tinyurl.com/37gnxna http://tinyurl.com/2u2a42x A multi-page, illustrated, Italian-language site on this abbey begins here (the menu is near the top, beneath the heading "Abbazia Benedettina dei Santi Nazario e Celso (Sec. X)": http://www.comune.sannazzarosesia.no.it/Abbazia The originally later eleventh-century crypt of the now mostly early modern cathedral of Sts. Nazarius, Celsus, and Victor in Trivento (CB) in Molise has been known in recent centuries as the cripta di San Casto. An illustrated, Italian-language discussion, with good views of its later medieval frescoes, is here: http://www.francovalente.it/?p=731 Other views of the crypt: http://tinyurl.com/2aegdar http://tinyurl.com/25u29ln http://tinyurl.com/277zgax http://tinyurl.com/2ff7g32 Still more views are here (click on "La cripta " and use the arrows to proceed): http://www.prolocotrivento.it/galleria.aspx?sez=6&lingua=1 An illustrated page on Milan's originally late eleventh-century chiesa di San Celso: http://tinyurl.com/6mdr9t Two illustrated, Italian-language pages on the originally eleventh- or twelfth-century chiesa dei Santi Nazario e Celso at Montechiaro d'Asti (AL), once a dependency of the abbey of Fruttuaria: http://www.valleversa.it/roma/nazario.htm http://tinyurl.com/28d8tmw Other views: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pacocanker/224580642/ http://farm1.static.flickr.com/116/284900645_449138e31d_o.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3210/2604236548_0e3eb0ed17_b.jpg http://tinyurl.com/2v3t9kk An expandable view of the entire portal is here: http://www.lacabalesta.it/galleria/montechiaro.html An illustrated, Italian-language account of the seemingly originally earlier twelfth-century chiesa dei SS. Nazario e Celso in the _frazione_ of Ovrano in Acqui Terme (AL) in Piedmont begins about a third of the way down this page: http://www.webalice.it/inforestauro/svito_stile.htm Two illustrated, Italian-language pages on the originally twelfth- or thirteenth-century chiesa (or oratorio) dei Santi Nazzaro e Celso at Sologno, a _frazione_ of Caltignaga (NO) in Piedmont (externally, a candidate for the "saints of the day" ugliest church award, small church division): http://tinyurl.com/2bnzndo http://tinyurl.com/26mfpft Another view: http://tinyurl.com/26h6k9m Some portrayals of these saints: An expandable view of the martyrdom of N. and C. as depicted in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the _Legenda aurea_ (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 86r): http://tinyurl.com/27p35bt The martyrdom of N. as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century (ca. 1326-1350) collection of French-language saint's Lives (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 185, fol. 235v): http://tinyurl.com/2ahlfhw The baptism of N. as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century copy (1348) of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 177r): http://tinyurl.com/mpav34 The martyrdom of N. and C., together with Sts. Gervasius and Protasius, as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) of the narthex in the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Deèani monastery near Peæ in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija: http://tinyurl.com/yedgwfv N. and C. as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) of the nave in the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Deèani monastery near Peæ in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija: N.: http://tinyurl.com/24c6amw C.: http://tinyurl.com/27qn2cg N. and C. as depicted as in the late fourteenth-century frescoes (later 1380s?) of the church of the Holy Ascension at the Ravanica monastery near Æuprija in central Serbia: N.: http://tinyurl.com/25eohaa C.: http://tinyurl.com/2bbye47 N. (with a donor) and C. as depicted by Giovanni de Campo in the later fifteenth-century (1461) apse frescoes in the chiesa dei Santi Nazzaro e Celso at Sologno, a _frazione_ of Caltignaga (NO) in Piedmont: N.: http://tinyurl.com/3alvev4 C.: http://tinyurl.com/38wgtce N. (at left; at right, St. Bernardino of Siena) as depicted by associates of Giovanni de Campo in the same church: http://tinyurl.com/36qnwj5 N. on horseback as depicted in a fresco from 1480 in the abbazia dei Santi Nazario e Celso at San Nazzaro Sesia (NO) in Piedmont: http://tinyurl.com/2crtbfz 3) Samson of Dol (d. ca. 565). S. is unusual among Breton saints in having a Vita (BHL 7478; the first of several) that is thought to have been composed within a couple of generations of his death. He appears to have been Welsh and to have been entrusted as a child to St. Illtud, who educated him at his monastery at today's Llantwit Major in Glamorganshire. After having been ordained priest he moved on to a monastery on the isle of Caldey, where in time he became abbot. Later he crossed the channel to the north coast of Brittany and founded there, perhaps in 548, the monastery of Dol near the border with Normandy. S. became a popular saint in Brittany, Wales, and Cornwall. An English translation of his _Vita prima_ is here: http://www.lamp.ac.uk/celtic/elibrary/translations/samson.htm The former cathedral at Dol-de-Bretagne (Ille-et-Vilaine) is dedicated to S. An illustrated, French-language blog post on it will be found here (about a fifth of the way down the page): http://tinyurl.com/5gjlol Some views: Exterior: http://tinyurl.com/6day84 http://tinyurl.com/6l6buw west portal: http://le.plume.free.fr/img/IMG_4136_porte_dol.jpg Interior: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yannl/2483924649/ http://tinyurl.com/5gb5lg Window depicting S.'s crossing of the Channel: http://tinyurl.com/5e2dcs S.'s spring on the site: http://tinyurl.com/5h5fbl A view of the much rebuilt thirteenth-century St Sampson's church, Cricklade (Wilts): http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/268619 Accounts and views of the early sixteenth-century St Samson's church at Golant (Cornwall), restored/rebuilt in 1842: http://www.golant.net/9128/index.html http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3VEC http://tinyurl.com/5bjq3a http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3VF6 http://www.golant.net/mediac/400_0/media/nave.jpg Older bench end (now used decoratively) depicting S.: http://tinyurl.com/2u32zp2 Other bench ends (on pulpit): http://www.tara.tcd.ie/handle/2262/15835 http://www.tara.tcd.ie/handle/2262/15835 4) Liutius of Aquara (d. after 1037). What little is known of the life of today's less well known saint of the Regno comes from the chroniclers of Montecassino. He is said to have been born at today's Aquara (SA) in southern Campania, of which he is now the patron saint, and to have entered religion at the nearby monastery of St. Peter, a dependency of Montecassino. L. (in Italian, Lucido) was in residence at Montecassino late in 985, when he is named by Leo of Ostia as a leading figure among those who left the abbey rather than remain under its new abbot Manso, elected at the behest of his relatives in the princely house of Capua. He then (again according to Leo) lived for some time as an hermit in the cave near Salerno where later (1011) St. Alferius founded what became the monastery of the Most Holy Trinity at today's Cava de' Tirreni and where L. was treated with honor and respect by the then prince of Salerno (Guaimar IV). After a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, L. returned to Montecassino in about the year 1000. Soon he founded a nearby oratory dedicated to the BVM. Later, thanks to the generosity of the next prince of Salerno (Guaimar V), he turned this into a very well furnished priory of about thirty monks, Santa Maria dell'Albaneta, expanding the chapel into a proper church and seeing to it that it received painted decoration unfortunately not further described in our sources. There L. lived very simply, grinding his own meal and singing the psalms of David, until his death on 5. or 6. December of a year in the abbacy of Richerius (1038-55). With his burial at Albaneta L. passes out of history until 1458, when townspeople of Aquara traveled to his by then decayed monastery, removed what was said to have been L.'s body from its resting place there, transported it all the way back to the Cilento, and interred it in their since much rebuilt church dedicated to St. Nicholas of Bari (i.e. N. of Myra). A cult was instituted in his honor and he was represented by a wooden and copper bust still housed in St. Nicholas: http://tinyurl.com/25zuals In 1649 L.'s remains were placed in a silver reliquary statue. This was stolen in 1895 but the relics themselves were found not long afterward and were subsequently placed in a new statue of the same material. The latter was stolen in 1975; when a second replacement statue (the one now in use) was made, L.'s relics were still missing. But in 1999 L.'s head was recovered by the authorities and solemnly returned to his church of St. Nicholas on 28. July of that year. Since at least 1890 (ten years after papal confirmation of his cult), this has been L.'s formally sanctioned feast day, celebrated with a special Office. L. has yet to grace the pages of the RM. 5) Botvid (d. ca. 1120). We know about B. (in Latin, Botvidus, Botwidus, Botwinus) from an originally twelfth-century Vita (BHL 1432) transmitted in lightly revised from in a manuscript of the later thirteenth century. According to this account, B. was a well-off resident of Södermanland who while on a trading trip to England was there converted to Christianity. Back in Sweden, he evangelized among his neighbors. Still according to the Vita, B. was murdered by a Wendic slave whom he had baptized and whom he was planning to return to his (the slave's) homeland; the miracles reported at his grave over the next nine years led to the conversion of the local pagan population to Christianity. In 1129 a burial church was dedicated to him on family land by bishops St. Henry of Uppsala and Gerder of Strängnäs. Here's an unfortunately defaced mid-fifteenth-century portrait of B. in Överselö kyrka in Strängnäs kommun (Södermanlands län): http://tinyurl.com/nlfpls B. is said to have been slain with an axe while fishing (in the Vita, fishing is, not altogether surprisingly, a metaphor for evangelization). B. (at right; at left, St. Eskil) as portrayed in a fifteenth-century altarpiece from Hammarby (Södermanlands län), now in the Statens historiska museum in Stockholm: http://tinyurl.com/23fjcyu B. as depicted in a later (last quarter) fifteenth-century vault painting in Börje kyrka, Börje Tiby (Uppsala län): http://tinyurl.com/2dtb9ku B. (at left; St. Eskil at right) as portrayed in the very early sixteenth-century altarpiece in nearby Ytterselö kyrka in Strängnäs kommun (Södermanlands län): http://tinyurl.com/mcmt2e Detail (B.): http://tinyurl.com/lb2cad B. is the saintly eponym of Botkyrka kommun in Stockholms län. Best, John Dillon (last year's post revised) ********************************************************************** 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