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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture On Monday, August 16, 2010, at 4:24 pm, I wrote: > 1) Ambrose of Ferentino (d. 304 or 305, supposedly). > An inscription in Ferentino's early twelfth-century cathedral > dedicated to Sts. John and Paul records the translation thither of his > putative remains during the pontificate of Pascal II (1006-1110). An unusually long pontificate, cut short some years before P.'s actual date of death. Read: (1099-1118). 16. August is also the feast day of: Armel (d. later 6th cent.?). Like many of his fellow Breton saints A. (in English also Armagil and Ermyn; in Latin, Armagilus and Arzelus; in Breton, Arthmaël and Arzel; in French also Arzel and Ermel) has a rather late and legendary Vita (two versions: BHL 678 and 679; thought to be not earlier than the thirteenth century). This makes him a native of Great Britain who becomes a priest there and who then travels to Brittany as a missionary, where he is favored by a king of Franks named Philibert (usually taken to be Childebert I [d. 558]), is given two parishes in the district of Rennes, establishes an oratory there, and -- in a clearly symbolic narrative -- liberates the locals from an enormous serpent that he first tames with his stole and then, having climbed a steep mountain, throws dead into some river. Still according to the Vita, A. operates other miracles, baptizes many, forms a religious community, is told by an angel that he will go to Heaven on the second day after the Assumption of the BVM, and, having recited the Divine Office, does indeed die on the predicted day. A. is the name saint and traditional founder of Plouarzel (Finistère) and Ploërmel (Morbihan). His cult was widespread in the later Middle Ages in Brittany and in adjacent parts of France. Henry VII and others around him seem to have brought it to England. For more on A.'s cult in Brittany and in England, see this Friench-language account by André-Yves Bourgès: http://tinyurl.com/2ddoqcx A. as depicted in the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century glass in the Tree of Jesse window in the Church of Our Lady, Merevale (N Warks): http://tinyurl.com/2elsxfa Late medieval pilgrim badges of A. from London findspots and A.'s late fifteenth-century statue in Henry VII's funerary chapel in Westminster Abbey are shown and discussed by Hanneke van Asperen, "Saint Armel of Brittany: The identification of four badges from London", _Peregrinations_, vol. 2., no. 1, pp. 33-40: http://tinyurl.com/5rkjzt A. (at right, taming an unholy beastie) as depicted in the sixteenth-century mural paintings of the église Saint-Denis in Saint-Denis-d'Anjou (Mayenne): http://tinyurl.com/24axf4n Some views of the originally mostly sixteenth-century église paroissiale Saint-Armel at Ploërmel (1511-1602 with a few remnants of a fifteenth-century predecessor): http://tinyurl.com/26xp77b http://tinyurl.com/254jb6b http://tinyurl.com/247zsvx http://tinyurl.com/27dh685 http://tinyurl.com/2dzdehd http://tinyurl.com/23f9zjo This church's Tree of Jesse window (1552): http://tinyurl.com/2dlhfmw Many detail views of the church's carvings and windows start here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16459025@N03/page55/ 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