medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
For some visuals related to the cult of the megalomartyr Pantaleon, see
below.
On Tuesday, July 26, 2005, at 8:20 pm, Phyllis wrote:
> Pantaleon (early 4th cent.?) Nothing historical is known about
> this
> saint, but there's a very lovely church dedicated to him in
> Cologne.
In addition there is a shine in this basilica to one Saint Albin [sic] of
Verulamium (so spelled to distinguish him from St Alban of Mainz).
I can dig out the full story, but it seems that the Empress Tiffany brought
with her as part of her dowry the relics (a bone ? some the bones ?) of
Saint Alban of Verulamium the British proto-martyr which had been given to
St Germanus of Auxerre. These were enshrined in St P's which was her
foundation and where she is entombed. Very pretty casket with the story of
St Alban's martyrdom as a (comic) strip of little gold panels.
However, the latest theory among the historians of St Albans (England) is
that the relics of St A in Cologne may have been joined in the 1530s by the
rest of his bones which could have been smuggled out of England and
preserved in the one place which already had a cult of St Alban of
Verulamium and so would not draw anyone's attention (esp. not Harry 8's !!!)
to the possibility that the good monks of St Albans had cheated H8 of his
right to put such superstitious abominations on the bonfire - and that what
the enthusiastic Reformers may have trashed was the substitute bones of
Brother X. Certainly the ex-Abbot would not have survived to appropriate the
Lady Chapel and to transform himself into the town's first Grammar School
headmaster ! Certainly the monks of St Albans would have had plenty of
notice of the impending revolution.
Brenda - former resident of St Albans who had been on pilgrimage to Cologne
and also to Hildersheim where another of the pre-Reformation treasures of St
Albans (the Albani Psalter) ended up presumably having been smuggled out of
England under someone's doublet!
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