medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

On Tuesday, August 2, 2005, at 9:51 pm, Phyllis wrote:

> Today (3. August) is the feast day of:

> Augustine of Lucera (blessed) (d. 1323)  The Dalmatian Augustine 
> Gazotich became a Dominican who preached successfully in Italy and 
> Bosnia before being sent to Hungary.  The papal legate there made 
> A. 
> bishop of Zagreb (Croatia).  A. was a zealous reformer, following 
> up 
> synods with frequent visitations of his see, encouraging study, 
> and 
> protesting the iniquities of the governor of Dalmatia.  He was 
> reputed to have the gift of healing (when he was consecrated, the 
> hands that anointed him were cured of rheumatism, among other 
> feats). 
> A. rebuked the people who came for cures; he planted a lime tree, 
> saying its leaves would work better than his hands.  Sure enough, 
> the 
> tree became famous for working miracles, too.  After 14 years in 
> Zagreb, A. was transferred to the bishopric of Lucera.  His cult 
> was 
> confirmed in 1702. 

A thirteenth-century Dalmatian could have been either a Latin or a 
Croat or both, depending on ancestry and upbringing.  A., whose surname 
is often spelled Kazotic(h) and whose mother's name is said to have 
been Radoslava, was a Croat.  He has been said, on what authority I 
don't know, to have been the first of that nation (his native _polity_ 
was the kingdom of Hungary) to have studied at the Sorbonne; see:
http://www.studiacroatica.com/revistas/124/1240501.htm

A.'s translation to the see of Lucera occurred in 1322; apparently, he 
had incurred the displeasure of Charles I of Hungary (a.k.a. Charles 
Robert or Carobert) but not to such an extent that he was unwelcome in 
the lands of the latter's uncle, Robert of (mostly mainland) Sicily.  
Indeed, the diocese of Lucera was a trouble spot in the kingdom and a 
place of particular royal interest, as it had been ever since 1300, 
when Robert's father, Charles II, violently changed the latter's 
character from overwhelmingly Muslim to overwhelmingly Christian by 
selling into slavery its Muslim inhabitants (other than those few who 
either escaped or were permitted to convert).  An attempt to maintain 
the area's economic viability by importing settlers from elsewhere in 
the kingdom and from Provence only increased local tensions, especially 
as the rural districts around the city proper appear to have harbored 
relapsed crypto-Muslims for some years afterward.  Dominicans had 
been prominent among the friars who engaged in proselytizing and 
enforced conversion of Jews and Muslims in northern Apulia from the 
1290s onward, A.'s immediate predecessor at Lucera (or, to give it is 
official name from 1300 to the early fifteenth century, Civitas Sanctae 
Mariae) was a Dominican, and in 1322 a Dominican bishop from outside 
the kingdom could be seen as appropriate for a largely immigrant 
Christian community in this seemingly still troubled part of the royal 
demesne.            

The Thurston-Attwater revision of _Butler's _Lives of the Saints_ 
(1926ff.) presents A.'s chief task upon appointment at Lucera as having 
been "to eradicate the semi-Mohammedanism and the complete corruption 
of morals which the Saracens had left behind them; the remainder of the 
Moslems had been more or less converted in a body in 1300." (ed. cit., 
vol. 8, p. 37).  The "Hungarian Saints" site
http://www.katolikus.hu/hun-saints/
drawing upon a 1995 version of Thurston-Attwater, revises this slightly 
to:
"to eradicate the religious and moral corruption which the Saracens had 
left behind them; the remainder of the Moslems had been more or less 
converted in a body in 1300."
Phyllis, you have the latest revision of Butler.  Does this still 
impute _moral_ corruption to Islam?

In any event, during his brief episcopacy at Lucera A. seems to have 
more than satisfied royal expectations; prodigies occurring during the 
time of his funeral and continuing thereafter confirmed his sanctity to 
the Crown, if not perhaps to any crypto-Muslims still remaining in the 
vicinity (it's probably no accident that the first of these post-mortem 
miracles to have been cited was the miraculous escape from accidental 
death of the the captain of the city, i.e., the senior Crown-appointed 
local official).  In October 1325 Charles, duke of Calabria (Robert's 
son and heir apparent), the royal governor of Lucera during A.'s 
incumbency, petitioned John XXII to commence procedures leading to A.'s 
canonization.

A. was buried in Lucera's church of San Domenico.  In 1812 his remains 
were transferred to the city's cathedral, begun in 1300, consecrated in 
1302, and shown here:

Exterior views:
http://www.stupormundi.it/images/luoghi/Cattedrale_Lucera2.jpg
http://www.fotopuglia.it/foto.asp?ID=428
http://fujiso3.hp.infoseek.co.jp/hna6hp/pna559.html
http://fujiso3.hp.infoseek.co.jp/hna6hp/pna304.html
http://www.arturocovitti.it/Ing_DuomoLucera.htm
http://www.arturocovitti.it/Ing_DuomoLuceraDet.htm

Interior view:
http://www.masseriacanestrello.it/foto_paesaggi/lucera%20cattedrale%
20int.jpg
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/cbrpn

The cathedral now houses both a silver head reliquary said to contain 
part of A.'s cranium and a glass-encased effigy reliquary containing 
most of his remains.  Both are shown on this page (a news account of 
A.'s feast from 2004):
http://www.luceraweb.net/Giornale.asp?ID=5106


In addition to its cathedral, Lucera still has another "gothic" church 
from this period, San Francesco (restored, 1936-42):

Brief history (Italian-language):
http://www.pugliaturistica.com/lucerachiesadisanfra.htm

Exterior views:
http://fujiso3.hp.infoseek.co.jp/hna6hp/pna558.html
http://www.luceraweb.net/public/uploaded/2005/24032005_1812_02.jpg
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/cvmbm 

Interior views:
http://www.stupormundi.it/images/luoghi/Altare_S_Francesco.JPG
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/dhodv
http://web.tiscali.it/juveclublucera/images/san_francesco.jpg
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/7obbd
http://www.padremaestro.isnet.it/images/AltareR.jpg
http://www.info-lab.it/hirpus/sanfrancesco.jpg
The glass-encased effigy reliquary beneath the altar here is that of 
Lucera's saint Francesco Antonio Fasani (Francis Anthony of Lucera; 
1681-1742).

Best,
John Dillon

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