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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture On Saturday, July 31, 2010, at 12:26 am, I wrote: > 1) Democritus, Secundus, and Dionysius (d. 1st or 2d cent.). D., S., > and D. are entered martyrs of Synnada in Asia Minor (today's Şuhut in > Turkey) entered under 30. July in the later fourth-century Syriac > Martyrology and under today in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology. That should have read: D., S., and D. are martyrs of Synnada in Asia Minor (today's Şuhut in Turkey) entered under 30. July in the later fourth-century Syriac Martyrology and under today in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology. > 2) Calimerus of Milan (d. later 2d cent., supposedly). C. (also > Calimerius) is an early saint of Milan... > During a recognition > of his remains in the eighth century the tomb containing his remains > was found to be waterlogged. That is now explained by reference to > seepage from one of Milan's numerous underground canals but it gave > rise to a legend, enshrined in the C.'s medieval Passio (BHL 1522) in > the Milanese church's eleventh-century _Datiana historia_, that > preserves his identity as a bishop but gives him a Greek origin and > has him martyred in the second century with his body then being thrown > down a well. That was bit unclear. It should have read: During a recognition of his remains in the eighth century the tomb containing them was found to be waterlogged. That is now explained by reference to seepage from one of Milan's numerous underground canals but it gave rise to a legend, enshrined in the C.'s medieval Passio (BHL 1522) in the Milanese church's eleventh-century _Datiana historia_, that preserved his traditional identity as a bishop but gave him a Greek origin and had him martyred in the second century with his body then being thrown down a well. > 6) Neot (d. before 879). N. (in Latin, Neotus and Neothus) is the > saint of today's St Neot in Cornwall and, by translation, of St Neots > in the former county of Huntingdonshire (now a district of > Cambridgeshire)... > N.'s legendary, pre-Conquest _Vita prima_ (BHL 6052) ... > goes on to narrate the translation ... of > N.'s relics to Neotesberia (later Eynesbury, now St Neots) and the > founding there of a church dedicated to T. where N. continues to > operate miracles and where his Translation is celebrated on 7. December. > Rather: of a church dedicated to N. where he continues to operate miracles... 31. July is also the feast day of: 8) Giovanni Colombini (Bl.; d. 1367). Our information about the life of the founder of the Apostolic Clerics of St. Jerome (better known as the Gesuati or Jesuates) comes chiefly from his own surviving letters and from an apparently still unprinted Vita (BHL 4384) by Bl. Giovanni Tavelli (John of Tossignano; d. 1446), whose own work on the Jesuates' written constitutions was fundamental to this body's transformation from a lay society into a mendicant order. Tavelli's Vita was re-worked in 1449 by the Florentine poet Feo Belcari (who also drew directly on the letters) into a spiritually edifying vernacular Life that has colored subsequent accounts of C. In brief, C. was a wealthy Sienese merchant who in the 1350s began to operate works of charity to the poor from his home. Some years later he separated from his wife, fixed a portion of his property upon her, and, living in poverty, used the remainder to support charitable foundations and his own charitable endeavors; the latter had come to include popular preaching. C. attracted disciples from prominent Sienese families. These also contributed financially to their cause, which by this time extended to burying abandoned corpses and to succoring the dying in public hospitals. In 1359 C. was appointed prior of Siena's hospital of Santa Maria della Scala. Exiled from Siena in about 1361 as a corrupter of youth, C. traveled with a band of followers to other Tuscan cities where they propagated their mission and attracted further adherents. On their return to Siena C. sought papal approval for his congregation, obtaining this only in the year of his death. Today is C.'s _dies natalis_. He entered the RM in the later sixteenth century under Pietro Galesino (Baronio's predecessor as editor). Sano di Pietro's Gesuati Polyptych of 1444, now in the Pinacoteca nazionale in Siena and recently restored, shows a barefoot C. kneeling at the Virgin's right: http://tinyurl.com/2d9tlvy Pietro Perugino and Luca Signorelli's painting of the Crucifixion (betw. 1483 and 1495), now in the Uffizi in Florence, was likewise painted for a Jesuate convent and depicts C., wearing his congregation's habit, between Sts. Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist: http://tinyurl.com/2c6fg5z (The saints at left are Jerome and Francis of Assisi.) Best again, John Dillon ********************************************************************** 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