medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
At 05:38 PM 5/26/2004 -0700, Phyllis wrote:
>Today (27. May) is the feast day of:
>
>Restituta and companions (d. 272) Legend tells that Restituta was a
>Roman patrician (a virgin, doubtless lovely) who fled to Sora in
>Campania to escape persecution. It didn't work; she and several
>companions were martyred there.
According to both the 9th-/10th-century version of the _Passio_ of
Restituta of Sora (BHL 7192) and its early 12th-century revision ascribed
to Gregory of Terracina (BHL 7193), R., though indeed fearful of
persecution and death, was commanded by Jesus Christ to proceed from Rome
to Sora and, once she was about to undertake her journey, was miraculously
transported thither by an angel. At Sora she stayed with a woman whose son
Cyril, hopelessly afflicted with elephantiasis (a rare disease that also
makes an appearance in the Life of saint Antoninus of Sorrento), was soon
completely cured through her prayers. Cyril converted to Christianity,
others followed suit, official persecution ensued, and Restituta (according
to these accounts, the evangelist of Sora), Cyril, and thirty-seven others
were executed by decapitation outside the city walls.
The Gregorian version is printed in the _Acta Sanctorum_, where it is
followed by a narrative hymn recounting the same matter so closely that the
two together form a sort of _opus geminum_. The earlier version was
published in the _Bibliotheca Cassinensis_, vol. 3, Florilegium pp. 12-16,
and is reprinted from there by Giovanni Nino Verrando in his "Agiografia
sorana: Passione di s. Restituta," in Luigi Gulia and Antonio Quacquarelli,
eds., _Antichita' paleocristiane e altomedievali del Sorano. Atti del
Convegno di Studi, Sora 1-2 dicembre 1984_ (Sora: Centro di studi sorani
"V. Patriarca", 1985), 77-98, at pp. 94-98.
Both versions of R.'s _Passio_ are thought to be the work of people trained
at, or even writing at, the abbey of St. Benedict at Montecassino. In view
of that Cassinese context, it is disappointing to find Phyllis' presumed
source, the Benedictine _The Book of Saints_ (compiled by monks of St.
Augustine's abbey, Ramsgate), adopting so cavalier an attitude to such a
basic element of the story as the reason for R.'s going to Sora in the
first place. It makes one think, in fact, that these Benedictine compilers
had not read (or at least had not read with any care or sympathy) the
almost certainly Benedictine texts foundational to our very knowledge of
this saint.
Sora, by the way, though formerly part of Campania has been in southern
Lazio since at least the 1920s.
Best,
John Dillon
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