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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Herewith a link to an earlier (2010) 'Saints of the day' for 3. December (including St. Cassian of Tangier; St. Lucius of Chur; St. Birinus; St. Galganus): http://tinyurl.com/d4nge5z Further to Lucius of Chur: A revised notice of this saint: Lucius of Chur (?). The patron saint of the once very large diocese of Chur and of the city of the same name in Switzerland's canton Graubünden, Luicius (also Luzius, Luzi) first comes to light in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. Between 780 and 818 he received a largely legendary Vita (BHL 5024); in 800 relics believed to be his were translated from Chur's late antique church dedicated to St. Andrew into its recently expanded cathedral church now named for Lucius and outfitted with what is believed to be the oldest surviving ring-crypt north of the Alps. In 831 a church dedicated to Lucius is recorded for the the area now known as the St. Luzisteig between Chur and Liechtenstein. Along with Florin (17. November), Lucius is one of Liechtenstein's patron saints. According to the Vita, the apostle Paul sent St. Timothy to Gaul to convert gentiles there. Timothy arrived in the port of Bordeaux and had great success in that city. Looking around for further idolatrous peoples to convert, he was informed that far-off Britain, ruled by a king Lucius, was inhabited by fierce idol-worshipers who had no knowledge of Christ. Timothy proceeded to Britain and announced his mission to Lucius. Once Lucius had been persuaded in a vision that Timothy was divinely sent he accepted Christianity and was baptized by Timothy. Lucius' family and other notables were converted as well; [pagan] temples were torn down and [Christian] churches were erected. Lucius then gave up his throne and went to Augsburg as a missionary. While he was making converts there he was informed that people were still sacrificing to idols in the province of Raetia (i.e. the Roman province and later Carolingian county based on Chur; Augsburg, though at one time the capital of Raetia secunda, is in this narrative not part of Raetia). Having proceeded thither, Lucius made converts in Chur and elsewhere, was thrown into a well by enraged idolaters (who would have stoned him as well had they not been attacked by members of his Christian flock, whereupon Lucius emerged from the well and made peace among the parties), performed many healing miracles, and died a confessor. Thus far Lucius' Vita. The British element in this story is usually explained as building upon a tradition that Lucius came from the Pritanni, a people of the nearby Prättigau. But it should also be noted that the oldest witness to the Vita is in the same eighth- and ninth-century collection of saint's Lives from St. Gallen (cod. 567) that is our only witness to the early Vita of pope St. Gregory the Great written by a monk of Whitby (BHL 3637). Given this Roman and insular background, it is just possible that Lucius' Vita was written by someone who was aware of the legendary British king Lucius whom the _Liber Pontificalis_ and Bede in his _Historia Ecclesiastica_ make the author of a letter to pope St. Eleuther(i)us (ca. 175-189) asking to be made Christian and who then adapted that tradition for a Vita of this Swiss saint. Here's a view of the opening of the Vita (_Conversio seu Vita beatissimi Lucii confessoris_) as transmitted in cod. Sangallensis 567, pp. 137-52. http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/csg/0567/135/medium The Vita was edited from this ms. by Alois Lütolf in his _Die Glaubensboten der Schweiz vor St. Gallus_ (Lucern : Räber, 1871), pp. 115-121. Relics of Lucius (perhaps not those in the tomb but only contact relics at an altar in his church in Chur) were reported stolen in 823. From the tenth century onward he has been the patron saint of both the diocese and the city of Chur (the diocese now celebrates him on 2. December); later invention made him a martyr and Chur's first bishop. In 1108 bodily remains proclaimed to be Lucius' were the subject of an Inventio in same church, which latter after ceasing to be the cathedral was given in the 1140s to the Premonstratensians. These in turn accorded Lucius a formal Elevatio in 1252, when his relics were placed in the gilded shrine shown here (it's now part of the cathedral treasure in Chur, which latter since 2002 has been housed in the Rätisches Museum in the same city): http://tinyurl.com/c427ld2 http://exlaodicea.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/luciuscover.jpg A somewhat clearer view in grayscale: http://www.konradsblatt-online.de/dynamic/liste/grossbilder/f_12_lucius.jpg A German-language account of today's much rebuilt Kirche St. Luzi in Chur is here: http://www.grigionicultura.ch/de_DE/address/kirche_st_luzi.24552 Exterior and interior views (in the first view, St. Luzi, enveloped by the diocesan seminary, is the church on the viewer's right): http://www.priesterseminar-chur.ch/index.php?&na=6,0,0,0,d,0,0,0,s http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/7960049.jpg http://tinyurl.com/cvpqukd http://tinyurl.com/cz4wscj http://tinyurl.com/d6brys7 http://tinyurl.com/chws93o http://tinyurl.com/ysasuk http://tinyurl.com/chws93o Views of the annular crypt (the last showing L.'s modern altar there [with relics believed to be his]): http://www.worldisround.com/pphotos/20/522/220.jpg http://tinyurl.com/cx2oovx http://tinyurl.com/bryeqrj http://tinyurl.com/d5xld8y Other dedications to Lucius: An illustrated, German-language page on the originally eighth- and fourteenth(?)-century Kapelle St. Lucio in Pala, a section of San Vittore (Graubünden): http://www.grigionicultura.ch/de_DE/address/kapelle_s_lucio.24579 A German-language account of the Late Gothic "Steigkirche" St. Luzius in Maienfeld (Graubünden) is here: http://www.gasthof-luzisteig.ch/geschichte.html Other views: http://tinyurl.com/cnpjprq http://tinyurl.com/3y8s85 A portrayal of this Lucius: Lucius as portrayed in an earlier fourteenth-century wooden statue (ca. 1320) from Cazis priory (formerly Cazis abbey; Augustinian from 1156 to ca. 1565-1570) at Cazis (Graubünden): http://www.chkath.ch/en/Saints/Missionaries/St-Lucius/ A portrayal of the Lucius of medieval British tradition: Lucius as depicted between two other kings in John Thornton's early fifteenth-century East Window (1405-1408) of York Minster followed by a detail view of Lucius' head in that composition (photographs by Gordon Plumb): http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3103896475/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3103899093/ Further to Galganus: In that earlier post's notice of this saint, the second of the rather numerous links to illustrated sites on the hermitage and the abbey at Chiusdino no longer functions. In the same notice, the link to a view of Galganus as portrayed in a fourteenth-century reliquary of Sienese manufacture exhibited in Prato in 2010 no longer functions. Use this instead: http://www.confraternita-sangalgano.it/index.php/dal-nostro-bollettino/71-reliquiario-di-san-galgano-a-prato Best, 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