medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear John:
Minerve gets a mention in P. Sebillot, _Traditions et
Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_, Paris, 1882, p. 333:
"En beaucoup de pays de France, des divinites paiennes ont ete
transformees en saints, et assez souvent le nom lui-meme est conserve:
Minerve est devenue sainte Minerve, vierge et martyre, dans un pays appele
le Minervois (Aude, cf. Babou, _Les paiens innocents_)." I do not have
access to the Babou title, which may have more detail on this figure. Both
Mackillop (_Dictionary of Celtic Mythology_, Oxford, 1998, p.293) and
Merceron (_Dictionnaire des saints imaginaires et Facetieux_, Paris, 2002,
p. 912) note that the cult of Minerva became widely conflated with the cult of
the British healing goddess Sulis, notably at Bath (Aquae Sulis) but on
the continent, too. It may therefore be that her survival in saintly guise
is connected with her status as a 'sainte des eaux guerisseuses'.
Cheers,
Martin
Dr Martin Howley, Humanities Librarian, Tel: (709) 737-8514
QE II Library, Memorial Univ of Newfoundland FAX: (709) 737-2153
St John's, NL, Canada A1B 3Y1 E-mail:[log in to unmask]
On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, John B. Dillon wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> At 09:48 AM 3/30/2004 -0500, chris wrote:
> >Ste. Athena/Minerva?
>
> La meme. Of course, she's not a _Christian_ saint. But see this coin of
> the unfortunate Geta:
> http://www.cgb.fr/monnaies/rome/r08/monnaies-455.html
>
> Not to be confused, of course, with "Santa Minerva" in the modern city of
> Roma (short form of "Santa Maria sopra Minerva").
>
> There's also this curious entry in the "Onomastico" section of the Santi
> Beati site:
> http://www.santiebeati.it/nomi/Detailed/3060.html
> "Minerva
> Etimologia: Deriva dall'etrusco Menerfa e significa
> "intelligenza, saggezza".
> L'onomastico viene, per antica tradizione, festeggiato il 23
> agosto in ricordo del martirio di Santa Minerva."
>
> Can anyone shed light on this "ancient tradition" of a Santa Minerva,
> martyr, celebrated on 23 August? There's nothing on her elsewhere in the
> Santi Beati site or, as far as I can discover, in the _Bibliotheca Sanctorum_.
**********************************************************************
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
|