medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (29. September) is the feast day of:
Grimoald of Pontecorvo (12th cent.). Today's less well known saint
from the Regno was archpriest of Pontecorvo, a town on the central Liri
in today's Frosinone province in southern Lazio. According to a
probably late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century account by an
unidentified bishop of Aquino (BHL 4310), at Christ's bidding John the
Baptist appeared to a peasant of Pontecorvo who was being tempted by
Satan at the river's edge and with a single word -- but with
enough noise of water that others heard this from a considerable
distance -- sent him (Satan) to the bottom of the stream. Whereupon
John turned to the stupefied peasant and instructed him to betake
himself to Grimoald and to convey to him along with the saint's promise
of life among the elect should he continue his customary fasting,
praying, and giving of alms the instruction that he should exhort his
people to construct a church in the saint's honor. Fearing to be taken
for a looney, the peasant did not immediately fulfil this command, so
John appeared to someone in another town and imposed upon him the same
mission to Grimoald. Both the peasant and the second person did
finally carry John's bidding to the archpriest, who in turn did as he
was told. The people of Pontecorvo built the church, whose cornerstone
was laid in 1137 by Guarinus, the bishop of nearby Aquino.
G. will have been archpriest of Pontecorvo's church (since 1725 a
cathedral) of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, first documented from the
middle of the eleventh century. It was erected over the ruins of the
local castle, one of whose towers survives as the cathedral's belfy.
Rebuilt several times, it was almost completely destroyed during the
Allied bombardment of Pontecorvo on 1. November 1943. A thumbnail view
of the cathedral shortly after this event is here:
http://www.prolocopontecorvo.it/images/SAN%20BA2.jpg
and two views of it today, with its reconstructed "romanesque" facade,
are here:
http://www.menteantica.it/pontecorvo/im560002.jpg
http://www.prolocopontecorvo.it/images/f3.jpg
BHL 4310 (a well written and in places mildly entertaining document
crafted by a person of some literary culture) and its accompanying hymn
printed in the _Acta Sanctorum_ are derived from a now lost lectionary
in Beneventan script (so certainly medieval) from Pontecorvo. G.,
whose own cult these texts do not altogether establish, was accepted
into the Roman Martyrology by cardinal Baronio on the basis of
cathedral documents from Aquino that have since disappeared. His
remains are said to have been in S. Bartolomeo Apostolo since 1162;
they were accorded solemn recognition in 1760, in 1862, and in
1952. In 1892 Pontecorvo was granted a new Office of St. Grimoald and
of the Appearance of St. John.
The only medieval church in Pontecorvo to survive World War II is that
of S. Giovannello (the church documented by BHL 4310??); this has been
deconsecrated and is now a ruin.
Best,
John Dillon
(who apologizes to Phyllis for his presumption should G. turn out to
have been one of her saints of the day)
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