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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (22. November) is the feast day of: 1) Philemon and Apphia; in some churches, also Onesimus (d. 1st cent.). P., a leader of the church at Colossae in Phrygia, is the addressee of St. Paul's Epistle to Philemon. In that letter, Apphia (also Appia) also receives warm greetings; she is generally understood to have been P.'s wife. Legendarily, both were martyred either at Colossae or, identifying P. with the disciple of that name said by Dorotheus of Tyre to have been bishop of Gaza, in the latter city. In Orthodox churches the feast also commemorates as a saint P.'s escaped slave Onesimus whom St. Paul (Philemon 1:8-16) wishes P. to take back not as a slave but rather as a brother. Orthodox churches celebrate O. separately as well, on 15. February, in keeping with their tradition that O. became one of the Seventy Disciples, evangelized with Paul in Italy, and was martyred at what's now Pozzuoli by being clubbed to death. P., identified as a saint, as depicted in a twelfth-century Greek-language Epistles with a catena commentary (Paris, BNF, ms. Coislin 30, fol. 151v): http://tinyurl.com/y9hmac5 St. Paul at left, with O. (wearing a Phrygian cap symbolizing manumission) and P. at right, neither nimbed, in a fourteenth- and again in a fifteenth-century copy of Guiard des Moulins, _Bible historiale_ (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 152, fol 493r; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 4, fol. 233r): http://tinyurl.com/yca5zs2 http://tinyurl.com/yzb7a4p 2) Cecilia of Rome (?). C. is a poorly documented but much celebrated martyr of the Via Appia, absent from the _Depositio martyrum_ of the Chronographer of 354 but attested liturgically from the sixth century onward, when her legend was already in existence in some form. This makes her a virgin betrothed to a pagan husband, Valerian, who preserved her virginity and who, after his conversion to Christianity, actively proselytized along with C. and suffered martyrdom along with her. This story, a typical late antique confection uniting several catacomb worthies in a single narrative, is transmitted by a Passio (BHL 1495) whose earliest witness is thought to be of the eighth or ninth century. Re-told by not a few others, it includes among its _personae_ pope St. Urban I and the Roman martyrs Tiburtius and Maximus. A resting place in a part of the cemetery of Callistus first used towards the end of the second century was believed in the early Middle Ages to have been C.'s. It was rediscovered by de Rossi in the nineteenth century. Here's a view of it: http://www.catacombe.roma.it/it/cecilia.html Paschal I (817-24) translated remains said to be C.'s from what the _Liber Pontificalis_ identifies as a different cemetery on the Via Appia (that of Praetextatus) to Rome's titular church of Cecilia, documented from 499 onward, which latter he also rebuilt. We know it now as Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. Here's an English-language account of this church: http://tinyurl.com/22fpws An Italian-language account is here, at about 3/4 of the way down the page: http://tinyurl.com/2p3yv7 An exterior view, showing the church's twelfth-century belltower: http://tinyurl.com/37man4 Later rebuilding has preserved important remnants of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere's medieval decor. Some views: Cosmatesque floor in the crypt (otherwise mostly early twentieth-century): http://tinyurl.com/36zs3b http://tinyurl.com/2e4nho Cosmatesque paschal candlestick: http://tinyurl.com/y97b93 Fresco of the Last Judgment (by Pietro Cavallini; later thirteenth-century): Illustrated, Italian-language account: http://www.sestoacuto.it/biblio/cavallini/doc/07.htm http://www.sestoacuto.it/biblio/cavallini/doc/08.htm View: http://www.sestoacuto.it/biblio/cavallini/img/opere/cecil-xxl.jpg Views (details): http://www.storiadellarte.com/biografie/cavallini/giudizio2.htm http://tinyurl.com/2gza4j http://www.storiadellarte.com/biografie/cavallini/giudizio.htm http://tinyurl.com/2o9kb3 http://tinyurl.com/yyqw57 Ciborium (by Arnolfo di Cambio; 1293): http://tinyurl.com/yjfq5vb http://tinyurl.com/t3nyg http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/17079343.jpg Detail (C.): http://tinyurl.com/yj2epfw More views here: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/a/arnolfo/3/index.html The early ninth-century apse mosaic (the first image is expandable): http://tinyurl.com/2j9f9f http://tinyurl.com/ycwtqau From left to right, the figures are of: Paschal I, C., St. Paul, Christ, St. Peter, St. Valerian, St. Agnes (C.'s fellow virgin from the Canon of the Roman mass). Here's a detail view of C. and Paul: http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Fotos/Caecilia5.jpg Other portrayals of C.: a) C. in the sixth-century mosaics on the triumphal arch of the Basilica Euphrasiana at Poreč in Croatia: http://nickerson.icomos.org/porec/u/ue.jpg b) C. at center in the twelfth-century tympanum (ca. 1160) over the north door of Köln's St. Cäcilienkirche: http://tinyurl.com/yd9r9mr c) C. as depicted in a later thirteenth-century (ca. 1260) Cistercian psalter (Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 54, fol. 12r): http://tinyurl.com/255mxrx d) An expandable view of C.'s martyrdom as depicted in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the _Legenda aurea_ (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 161r): http://tinyurl.com/2bsymn6 e) The altar frontal of Saint Cecilia and Eight Stories from her Passio (shortly after 1304) in Florence's Galleria degli Uffizi: http://tinyurl.com/2ske5w A larger view of the object: http://tinyurl.com/39ojmo f) C.'s martyrdom as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century illustrated collection of French-language saint's lives (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 183, fol. 96v): http://tinyurl.com/2ahqh7e g) C. (at right,; at left, V.) 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. 309r): http://tinyurl.com/2ckfcs4 h) C. (at right; at left, St. George) as depicted in the later fourteenth-century (1350s) east window of Gloucester Cathedral (photograph courtesy of Gordon Plumb): http://tinyurl.com/249akc4 i) V. and C. being crowned by angels as depicted in a late fourteenth-century missal for the Use of Saint-Didier at Avignon (Avignon, Bibliothèque-Médiathèque Municipale Ceccano, ms. 138, fol. 278r): http://tinyurl.com/27frmd7 j) V. and C. being crowned by an angel as depicted in a later fifteenth-century copy (ca. 1470) of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay Mâcon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 3, fol. 149v): http://tinyurl.com/2vws89f k) V. and C. (lower register, at left) being crowned by an angel as depicted in an even later fifteenth-century copy (ca. 1480-1490) of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 245, fol. 179v): http://tinyurl.com/2drxlm8 l) C. (at right) as depicted on the St. Bartholomew Altar (ca. 1503) in the Alte Pinakothek in München: http://tinyurl.com/274g7y Other dedications to C.: a) The eleventh-century apse of the église Sainte-Cécile at Montaigu-de-Quercy (Tarn-et-Garonne): http://www.40000clochers.com/Photos/800/98491.jpg b) The originally twelfth-century St. Cäcilien in Köln: Brief account in German (one view): http://www.romanische-kirchen-koeln.de/caecilien.html A more generously illustrated English-language account: http://tinyurl.com/6hf3e4 Plan: http://tinyurl.com/5nfnz7 Other views: http://tinyurl.com/6xzhd5 http://tinyurl.com/6ktkks http://tinyurl.com/yh92cs7 c) The originally twelfth-century iglesia de Santa Cecilia at Aguilar de Campóo (Palencia): http://tinyurl.com/yzr5q9m http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/3100680.jpg http://tinyurl.com/yctz457 http://tinyurl.com/yaffmcy d) The originally late twelfth-century iglesia (or ermita) de Santa Cecilia at Vallespinoso de Aguilar (Palencia): http://www.pbase.com/tomas8/ermita_de_santa_cecilia http://flickr.com/photos/canduela/sets/72157600288297864/ http://tinyurl.com/y9n2g4l http://tinyurl.com/ya33skb http://tinyurl.com/yz7ku4s Top row here (first six images): http://tinyurl.com/6yvpku e) The originally early twelfth- to thirteenth-century chiesa di Santa Cecilia in Pisa (belltower dated to 1236), badly damaged in World War II and subsequently restored. An illustrated, Italian-language account (many expandable views at bottom of the page): http://tinyurl.com/ygowf4g Other views: http://tinyurl.com/ycbhlex http://tinyurl.com/ya4qozp f) The cathédrale Sainte-Cécile at Albi (Tarn), begun in 1282 and completed in 1540. A brief, illustrated English-language account: http://tinyurl.com/22lmqs One in French (also illustrated): http://tinyurl.com/yssrnq Aerial view: http://www.valac.nl/IMAGES/Vallee-du-Tarn-fotoos/albi.jpg Three pages of views: http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/photos.cfm?ID=s0004481 More views: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dorsetbays/420922940/ http://www.jorgetutor.com/francia/midi_pyrenees/albi/albi.htm g) The originally fourteenth-century église paroissiale Sainte-Cécile at Loupian (Hérault), built next to the remains of a paleochristian church and baptistery: Illustrated, French-language accounts (the first is towards the bottom of its page): http://villaloupian.free.fr/Village_de_Loupian.htm http://www.loupian.fr/Eglise_Sainte_Cecile.htm Exterior views: http://www.ot-sete.fr/images/00085745.jpg http://tinyurl.com/2yffv5 http://tinyurl.com/2cvqcz http://tinyurl.com/3dd38t h) The originally fourteenth-century St Cecilia's at Little Hadham (Herts): http://www.iananddot.org/chphoto/lhadham.htm i) The originally late medieval Cäcilienkirche at Uhingen (Lkr. Göppingen) in Baden-Württemberg (choir dated to 1519): http://tinyurl.com/29r7646 http://mytown.de/poi-images/06/12/05/D/package1/6417.jpg http://tinyurl.com/25gb5pt http://tinyurl.com/27o3oyw http://tinyurl.com/2daqaze http://tinyurl.com/248pkmc http://tinyurl.com/23v9fp8 http://tinyurl.com/23tdfla Just for fun (_not_ dedicated to C. but originally later medieval), the rebuilt "temple" at Santa Cecilia Acatitlán: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cecilia_Acatitlan 3) Ananias of Arbela (d. 345 or 346). A. is also known as Ananias the Persian, though at the time in question Arbela (modern Irbil in Iraq) was the capital of Persia's client kingdom of Adiabene, many of whose Christians will have been descended from members of the area's large Jewish population. He is named in Syriac and Greek sources as a martyr during the persecution of Shapur II. In one account A. is said to have been found dying after having been tortured and to then have had a vision of angels taking to him up to heaven along a shining ladder. A fitting climax after his sufferings. A.'s martyrdom as depicted in the late tenth- or very early eleventh-century so-called Menologion of Basil II (Città del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Vat. gr. 1613): http://tinyurl.com/2fc63sr 4) Benignus of Milan (d. later 5th cent.). B. is the traditional twentieth bishop of Milan. The catalogues of Milan's bishops say he ruled for eight years. St. Ennodius of Pavia's epitaph for him (_Carmina_, 2. 86) refers to his having attended a council; this may have been the synod of Rome held in November 465. Ennodius praises B.'s heart, his wisdom, and, ringing the changes on B.'s name, his kindness. Today is B.'s _dies natalis_ and his day of commemoration in the RM. As today is also the feast of St. Cecilia (present in the Ambrosian Canon of the Mass as she is in the Roman), his feast at Milan has been kept on other days. Medievally, B. usually was celebrated there on 21. or 23. November; more recently, 20. November has been his day in the Ambrosian City. 5) Pragmatius (d. before 533). P. (in French, Pragmace), the only Gallic bishop known to have born this name, is presumed to be the bishop so named who corresponded with St. Sidonius Apollinaris (_Epistulae,_ 6. 2; possibly 5. 10 as well). The latter died in the late fifth century (perhaps in 488). P. subscribed the acts of the council of Epaon in 517; a successor subscribed those of the second council of Orléans in 533. He was buried in the now vanished church of St. Stephen at the great cemetery situated to the east of Gallo-Roman Autun. The same city's monastery church of St. Andochius (in French, Andoche) once preserved as a relic an arm bone said to have been P.'s. P. is entered under today in breviaries for the Use of Autun. 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