medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today, April 11, is the feast of:
Victor, martyr (date unknown) was a catechumen at Braga in Portugal, who, in a pagan festival refused to offer incense and flowers to an idol. He was tortured and decapitated, and was thus baptized in his own blood.
Sofia and Vissia (d. c250, supposedly) Sofia and Vissia, virgin martyrs of whom nothing is known, are venerated at Fermo in the Marche. Whereas their cults are apparently at least as old as the Middle Ages, the evidence for them is wholly early modern (Vissia has an inscription, of an unknown date). They have very similar baroque reliquaries containing cranial fragments and at Fermo they are now celebrated jointly on this day along with two other local saints. In the RM, whose pages they have graced since cardinal Baronio placed them there, each has her own day- Vissia today, Sofia on April 30.
Julius I (d352) became bishop of Rome, his native city, on February 6, 337. For most of his pontificate he was in conflict with Arian and Arian-leaning bishops, primarily in the East. He is credited with the erection of the church that later became Santi Apostoli as well as of two buildings bearing the name of Julius: the basilica Iulii, a ceremonial hall later demolished to create space for the erection of Aula concilii in front of the Lateran palace, and the titulus Iulii, later Santa Maria in Trastevere. During his pontificate, Christmas came to be celebrated in Rome on December 25. Today is his dies natalis. He was buried in the cemetery of Calepodius on the Via Aurelia.
In this view of the twelfth-century apse mosaic of Rome's Santa Maria in Trastevere, Julius is the second pope on St. Peter's left: http://tinyurl.com/2sp4ru
Here's Julius (second from right, receiving a message sent by Athanasius of Alexandria) as depicted in an early copy (c1410-1412) of Marco Polo's Devisement du monde (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 2810, fol. 178r): http://tinyurl.com/yag7luq
Zeno (d. c371) was born in Roman Africa and he had a good classical education and became bishop of Verona in 362. He won his diocese away from Arianism, converted a lot of people to Christianity, encouraged the foundation of nunneries and even built a basilica. About ninety of his sermons are extant. He also wrote on religious subjects, most notably on the virgin birth of Christ. He seemed to be very concerned with "liturgical correctness": inveighed against the abuses (?) of the *agape* and also against the practice of interrupting funeral masses by loud lamentations. Zeno also makes allusions to the practice of giving medals to the newly baptised. He is sometimes depicted in art holding a fish, because, according to Gregory the Great, the church of St. Zeno in Verona was miraculously saved in a flood, so Zeno became a patron to invoke in cases of watery danger. He is Verona’s principal patron saint.
Today is Zeno’s feast day in the general Roman Calendar. In his own diocese he has since 2004 been celebrated liturgically on May 21, the anniversary of his translation in 807 to what is often thought to have been a predecessor of the former abbey church in Verona dedicated to him and is now known as San Zeno Maggiore.
The locally famous "San Zen che ride" ("Smiling Saint Zeno"), a polychrome marble statue from the thirteenth century: http://tinyurl.com/gt3nl
Sabas the Goth (372): When, at the outset of the persecution, magistrates ordered the Christians to eat meat sacrificed to idols, certain pagans, who had Christian relatives whom they wished to save, persuaded the officials to give Christians meat which had not been offered to idols. Sabas loudly denounced this ambiguous proceeding: not only did he himself refuse to eat, but he declared that those who consented to do so had betrayed the faith. This time the magistrates did not martyr him but some Christians were so displeased with his behaviour that he was banished from town. But he soon returned.
Another persecution broke out, and some of the principal inhabitants offered to swear that there were no Christians in town. As they were about to make the oath, Sabas presented himself and said: "I am a Christian!" Upon finding that Sabas was poor the officials of the persecution said: "Such a fellow can do us neither harm nor good." And they let him go.
During another persecution a few years later, Sabas was seized again, refused to eat meat that had been sacrificed to a Gothic deity, miraculously survived a javelin blow, and was racked before being returned to prison. A village woman freed him but instead of trying to escape Sabas stayed on to help her with her housework and was soon re-arrested. He then insulted the leader of the soldiers who then ordered Sabas to be drowned. When some soldiers were leading Sabas to the river, they took pity on him and said that he was free to go. Sabas, however, upbraided the soldiers for not carrying out their orders. The executioners then plunged him in to the river. Today is his dies natalis. Three of St. Basil the Great's letters deal with requested transfers of relics of Sabas to Cappadocia. Orthodox churches celebrate him on April 15.
Damian of Pavia (d697) According to Paul the Deacon, Damian bishop of Pavia was the author of a highly praised doctrinal letter sent to Constantinople by a synod of Milan under its bishop St. Mansuetus in 679 for consideration by the Sixth Ecumenical Council. Paul's attribution of that letter to Damian, who at the time was not yet bishop of Pavia, has been contested but the letter itself survives to show that, regardless of who actually wrote it, Italy still had polished and effective writers even in the later seventh century when the general quality of its surviving literary production is not high. Damian is one of Pavia's sainted early bishops. The Liber de laudibus civitatis Ticinensis (ca. 1330) notes the presence of his remains in the church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian and, seemingly incorrectly, attributes to him the institution of a formal procession of the cathedral canons when they changed from their winter choir to their summer one. He entered the RM under Pietro Galesini (Baronio's predecessor).
Tetricus of Auxerre (d 707) Tetricus was abbot of St-Germain, Auxerre and went on to become bishop there. He won a martyr's cult because his archdeacon stabbed him to death while he was sleeping on a bench.
Erkembode (d742) An Irishman, Erkembode entered the abbey of Sithiu/St.-Bertin at today's Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais) after 707 and became its abbot in 717. He is credited both with completing his house's conversion from Columbanian to Benedictine and with effecting a significant increase in its territorial holdings. In 723 he became the fifth bishop of Thérouanne but continued to hold his abbey in plurality. Today is his dies natalis. His brief Vita by a fourteenth-century historian and abbot of St.-Bertin, Jean LeLong, is refreshingly honest in its avoidance of invention and in its sketch of the importance of his cult for the history of St Omer's church dedicated to the BVM, an abbatial possession where Erkembode was buried.
According to LeLong, who was informed on this point by the tradition of his abbey, Erkembode's cult was immediate. An Elevatio is recorded for the year 1052. Miracles at his tomb stimulated so many donations that in the later twelfth and thirteenth centuries the monks were able to rebuild the church housing it. That church is gone now, having been replaced in later Middle Ages by Saint-Omer's present Cathédrale Notre-Dame. But the latter still keeps his tomb. Offerings are still made there; in his modern construction , he was near paralytic at the time of his death and his intercession is especially sought by those who have difficulty in walking.
Alferius (d1050) was a noble of Salerno. He contracted a serious illness while on a mission to the French court, and vowed to enter the religious life if he were cured. He did indeed recover and became a monk at Cluny. Duke Gisulf of Salerno soon brought him back home to reform monasteries in the duchy. He was unsuccessful and became a hermit. The disciples he attracted were formed into the monastery of La Cava. He is believed to have lived to the age of 120.
Meinhard (blessed) (d1196) was a Dutch canon regular. He went to Livonia as a missionary, where he became a bishop in 1184 (his headquarters were at Ikskile; the see was moved soon after his death to Riga).
Mechtildis/Matilda (c1200) This Scottish woman was a hermit in the wilderness of Lappion.
Henry of Grunenworth (d 1396) Henry was a hermit in Switzerland before moving to the region of Strassburg, where he apparently became a lay brother. He was a mystic, and is supposed to have lived for over 15 years with no source of nourishment except the Eucharist.
Andrew of Montereale (1480) joined the Hermits of St Augustine at the age of fourteen. For fifty years he preached in Italy and in France. It is recorded of him that he never went to see any public show or spectacle, and that he never laughed.
Angelo Carletti of Chivasso (d1495) was born in Piedmont, educated at the University of Bologna (at least early accounts say so; his name isn't on the university's registers), became a senator back home in Chivasso, and settled down to a normal pious secular life. But when his mother died, he gave away his wealth and became an Observant Franciscan. He became a great preacher to the poor of the mountain villages and was known as a very effective preacher among both Muslims and Waldensians. Catherine of Genoa consulted him and Charles I, Duke of Savoy chose him to be his confessor. His manual of moral theology (the Summa Angelica) was so popular that it rated public burning by Luther in 1520.
Happy reading,
Terri Morgan
--
The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. ~Sydney J. Harris
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