medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (3. November) is also the feast day of:
Sylvia of Rome, widow (d. later 6th cent.). The mother of pope St.
Gregory I, S. retired to an oratory near St. Paul's outside the Walls,
where she lived a life of notable austerity. The diocese of Monopoli
(BA) has a web-based liturgical calendar showing but a single
commemoration per day; for today, Monopoli chose to feature Sylvia.
and of:
Berard, bp. of the Marsi (ca. 1079-1130). B. was a son of Berard IV,
count of the Marsi, and thus belonged to a family that had furnished not
only several bishops of the Marsi but also at least two abbots of
Montecassino as well as the famous brothers Atto, bp. of Chieti and
Transmundus, abt. of San Clemente di Casauria and bp. of Valva. He
studied at Montecassino during the abbacy of his kinsman Oderisius I and
was called to Rome by Paschal II, under whom he filled various offices;
one of these, an ecclesiastical governorship with the rank of count, led
to his being briefly held prisoner in a well at Palestrina by a local
lord who felt threatened by him. Paschal made him bishop of the Marsi
(today's diocese of Avezzano) in about 1110; if, as some think, he had
some years earlier been created cardinal deacon of Sant'Angelo in
Pescheria, he gave that up upon assumption of his bishopric. B. was a
notable reformer and at the same time celebrated for his sanctity. He
was canonized in 1802.
B.'s cathedral was the now ruined Santa Sabina in the _civitas
Marsorum/Marsicana_, today's San Benedetto dei Marsi (AQ), shown and
discussed (in Italian) here:
http://www.radicchio.it/sanbenedettodeimarsi/page4.html
and here (with a view of the church prior to the earthquake of 1915):
http://tinyurl.com/cmf5r
Thumbnail of the portal here:
http://www.diocesiavezzano.it/
In 1580 the episcopal seat of the diocese of the Marsi was transferred
provisionally to the newly rebuilt church of Santa Maria delle Grazie at
Pescina (AQ), an arrangement made permanent, with Royal consent, in
1630. B.'s relics were transferred hither in 1631. An Italian-language
page on this church is here:
http://www.sezione10.terremarsicane.it/chiesemonu/cattedralesmdg.htm
and a better exterior photograph is here:
http://www.caroabruzzo.net/images/aquila/foto529.jpg
B.'s relics are in the reliquary bust at the center of the back wall of
this chapel (also the final resting place of other bishops of the Marsi):
http://tinyurl.com/b65mt
This church too was badly damaged by the earthquake of 1915. Restored in
the 1930s, it was damaged again by Allied bombing World War II. Much of
what one sees is therefore restoration work.
Our chief source for this less well known saint of the Regno is his Life
(BHL 1176) by his younger contemporary and friend, John of Segni. For a
discussion of the _Acta Sanctorum_'s edition of this text, its
manuscript sources, and other witnesses as well as a considered study of
B.'s ecclesiastical career, see Sofia Boesch Gajano, "Berardo vescovo
dei Marsi tra agiografia e storia," in Gennaro Luongo, ed., _La Terra
dei Marsi: cristianesimo, cultura, istituzioni. Atti del Convegno di
Avezzano 24-26 settembre 1998_ (Roma: Viella, 2002), pp. 339-64.
Best,
John Dillon
(matter on B. from last year's post, revised)
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