medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On 10. August, Marjorie quoted Katherine Rabenstein as follows:
"When Formiae was razed by the Saracens in 842, the body of Elmo was translated to Gaeta (Benedictines, Bentley, Sheppard, White)."
And on 1 June, Phyllis said (Saints of the day 2. June): "[Erasmus'] relics were taken to Gaeta when Formia was destroyed in a ninth-century Muslim raid."
But in 1995, Patricia Skinner said, speaking of the family that ran the duchy of Gaeta in the mid-tenth century:
"That the Docibilans should claim control, and successfully, over this church [St. Erasmus in Formia] is not surprising, since St Erasmus was seen as the protector of Formia, and would later be translated and adopted as the patron saint of Gaeta as well."
(_Family Power in Southern Italy: The Duchy of Gaeta and its Neighbours, 850-1139_ [Cambridge U. P., 1995], p. 89).
The view that Erasmus' translation from Formiae (the predecessor of today's Formia) took place in the ninth century in consequence of a Muslim raid that destroyed Formia(e), uncritically trotted out as fact by Rabenstein and by whoever Phyllis' source may have been, is based on a later Gaetan construction of this event which some in recent times have associated either with the Muslim seizure of Ponza in or about 842 or with the Muslim fleet's return from the sack of Rome in 846, both of which did pose a threat to Formia(e) and other places in the duchy. But there is no contemporary evidence either for a raid on Formia(e) at this time or for E.'s association with Gaeta itself prior to the eleventh century. Consequently, historians such as Skinner have been unwilling to accept the traditional date and circumstances of E.'s translation to Gaeta.
Marjorie also quotes Rabenstein as saying:
"Elmo is the [sic] patron saint of sailors and Gaeta (White)."
Well, we know he's not the only patron saint of sailors. Neither is he the only patron saint of Gaeta. There he shares honors with Marcian of Syracuse (that city's legendary first bishop), whose remains are said (also somewhat dubiously) to have been brought by sailors to Gaeta in consequence of the Muslim invasion of Sicily in 827 (Syracuse was not taken from the Byzantines until 878). At Formia, by the way, he shares honors with John the Baptist.
Best,
John Dillon
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