medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (28. April) is also the feast day of:
Pamphilus (7th century, perhaps). According to apparently factitious local
tradition, today's less well known saint from the Regno was bishop of
Valva (today's diocese of Sulmona and Valva) during a time of dissension
between Catholics and Arians. His seat was in Corfinium (the area's
chief city in Roman times) and he is said to have incurred papal
suspicion for his practice of celebrating Sunday mass at midnight and of
devoting the time at daybreak to providing a large meal for the poor.
An investigation confirmed his doctrinal orthodoxy and his pastoral
practices subsequently received papal approval. After his death his
body was removed to Sulmo (today's Sulmona), where -- according to one
branch of the tradition -- he had also been born.
Corfinium suffered badly from Muslim raids in the ninth century and from
Magyar raids in the tenth; by the eleventh century, its ancient
cathedral church of St. Pelinus had come to occupy a semi-rural
location. Sulmona, on the other hand, was now the diocese's chief city
and it had had a church dedicated to a saint Pamphilus since at least
1042. It would seem that Pamphilus' Vita (BHL 6418; thought to have
been cobbled together from those of other regional saints and perhaps
also from that of St. Aldhelm) was initially created sometime in the
eleventh century, in order to reinforce Sulmona's prominence within the
diocese of Valva. P.'s cult spread widely in the central Middle Ages in
an area ranging from today's Abruzzo down to northern Puglia; Spoltore
(PE), for example, received its church dedicated to him in the year
1070. In 1075 abbot Transmundus of San Clemente a Casauria, who was
also bishop of Valva, undertook to rebuild P.'s church at Sulmona as
well as that of St. Pelinus, maintaining both of them as cathedrals of
the one diocese (as they are today). By the end of the Middle Ages P.'s
cult had also established itself in the Rhine valley, from Basel all the
way to Utrecht.
Sulmona's cathedral of San Panfilo has been rebuilt several times but still
retains some of its medieval character. An aerial view is here:
http://www.pmsulmona.it/sap1.jpg
And views of the facade and of its "gothic" main portal are here:
http://www.caisulmona.it/images/Sulmona/sanpanfilo.htm
There's an English-language account of the building here:
http://www.tuttoabruzzo.it/english/religious_arch_sanpanfilo.html
And a much more detailed account (with good photographs of "romanesque"
elements) in Italian is here:
http://www.liceoscientificosulmona.it/ROMANICO-ABRUZZESE/Schede-edifici/S_PANFILO-A-SULMONA/S_PANFILO.htm
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/cauvt
P.'s resting place in the cathedral, though, is a piece of
seventeenth-century elegance:
http://www.liceoscientificosulmona.it/ROMANICO-ABRUZZESE/Schede-edifici/S_PANFILO-A-SULMONA/image015.jpg
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/a32mb
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post, revised)
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