medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Thursday, January 20, 2005, at 7:11 pm, Phyllis wrote:
> Today (21. January) is the feast day of:
> Epiphanius of Pavia (d. 496) Epiphanius was a native of Pavia, where
> he was elected bishop in 467. He rebuilt the city after it was
> destroyed by the Gothic king Odoacer. E. was famous for holiness and
> eloquence; he mediated peace, helped famine-sufferers, and in general
> seems to have done a very good job in a very awkward period of
> Italy's history.
Epiphanius' Life (BHL 2570) is clearly hagiographical. But it was
written by a younger colleague, Ennodius, who had been born in Pavia and
whose writings show familiarity with his subject's ecclesiastical and
political milieu. For this reason, it is generally considered rather
more reliable than certain other late antique hagiographical lives
(e.g., Paulinus of Nola's earlier Life of the much earlier Felix,
written well over a century after F.'s death by an immigrant whose own
experience of Campania was only very recent). A useful source for the
history of its time and place, it is also the product of a skilled
rhetorician and a good read in the original Latin. Christian Rohr
(Salzburg) has a handy bibliography on it here:
http://www.sbg.ac.at/ges/people/rohr/ennodius/biblvepe.htm
with bibliography of collected editions of Ennodius' works here:
http://www.sbg.ac.at/ges/people/rohr/ennodius/biblede.htm
In 962/63, it is said, bishop Othwin of Hildesheim and the priest
Thangward secretly removed Epiphanius' relics from their resting place
in Pavia and brought them to Hildesheim. These (well, most of them --
vide infra) are now preserved in the twelfth-century shrine of St.
Epiphanius under the high altar of Hildesheim's cathedral. A page of
views of this structure, including several of the shrine, is here:
http://www.raymond-faure.com/seite-hildesheim-dom.html
One of the treasures of the Hildesheim Cathedral's collection of bronze
work is a thirteenth-century baptismal font bearing, inter alia, an
image of Epiphanius. A page of view of the bronzes, including several
of the font, is here:
http://www.raymond-faure.com/seite-hildesheim-dom-bronze.html
There is a recent German-language treatment of E. in his Hildesheimer
context:
Bernhard Gallistl, _Epiphanius von Pavia. Schutzheiliger des Bistums
Hildesheim_ (Hildesheim: Bernward Mediengesellschaft mbH; Gutersloh:
Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 2000: ISBN 3-89534-386-2 or 3-89366-504-8).
Perhaps an Ottonian-learned subscriber to this list could say something
about this book's merits.
In January 1866, at the request of the diocese of Pavia, a rib said to
be E.'s (NB: his are not the only relics kept in that shrine in
Hildesheim) was returned to his native and episcopal city and placed in
one of its numerous medieval churches, the "gothic" San Francesco
Grande, shown here:
http://www.alberghidellarte.it/sito_img/itine/pavia_01.jpg
http://www.provincia.pv.it/cultura2/sfrancesco.htm
Later, a piece of this rib was also deposited in one of the city's
famous "romanesque" churches, San Michele, shown here:
http://www.apt.pavia.it/immagini/Pavia-S.Michele.jpg
http://mafalda.unipv.it/info/miche.html
and shown and described here (Italian-language):
http://www.comune.pv.it/certosadipavia/altri3.htm
http://www.limen.org/BBCC/tutela/Conservazione%20delle%20citt%E0/Lombardia/Pavia/Chiese/S.Michele/Chiesa%20di%20S%20Michele.htm
TinyURL for this last: http://tinyurl.com/64unq
If you go, say hello to Ennodius: his tombstone is here as well.
Best,
John Dillon
PS: For what little this is worth, Odoacer's tribal or ethnic
affiliations appear to be multiple. According to Ralph Mathisen
(Illinois), s.v. "Odovacar", in Christopher Kleinhenz, ed., _Medieval
Italy: An Encylopedia_ (NY: Routledge, 2004), vol. 2, p. 794, O. "was of
diverse barbarian parentage: his father seems to have been a Hun and his
mother perhaps a Scirian, although he also referred to as a Goth or a
Rugian." Herul, which is how I had learned to think of him, is
apparently right out.
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