medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
It seems quite possible that Mary of Modena's relics were those of a very
obscure St. Restitutus. After all, it seems that which relics you collect
depends ultimately on availability, and most people who buy bits of saints
have to make do with somebody pretty obscure---the various eras when the
popes have stripped the catacombs bare of all bones they could find and
shipped them far and wide spring to mind. And one wouldn't expect a
pre-1000 saint to have been formally canonized; the process didn't begin to
develop until the tenth century, and very few of the early saints have ever
been subjected to a later canonization process (that's why Ireland, for
example, is absolutely full of saints by all reckoning, but only three
have been officially canonized (*not* including Patrick, Brigid,
ColumCille, etc., etc.)).
I found a third Restitutus candidate, besides R. of Carthage and R. of
Rome. There was a Restitutus martyred at Antioch in c. 305 as part of a
group of sixteen Syrians.
Phyllis
Dr. Phyllis G. Jestice
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