medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (27. November) is also the feast day of:
Apollinaris, abbot of Montecassino (d. 828). Today's less well known
saint from the Regno is one of Montecassino's early heroes. Desiderius
II (the future pope Victor III) begins his _Dialogi de miraculis sancti
Benedicti_ with accounts of two miracles associated with A.: 1) his
crossing the river Liri on foot without so much as getting his sandals
wet and 2) his revealing to abbot Bassacius in a nocturnal vision that
Benedict had obtained divine protection for the abbey, threatened by
attack from Muslim raiders (in 846). In the latter story a sudden
heavy rain arose once the abbot, having received his vision, had gone
to sleep: this downpour caused the Liri to go into flood, thus
preventing the raiders from crossing the river and reaching the abbey.
Expanded versions of these miracle accounts will be found in Leo
Marsicanus' summary of A.'s abbacy (_Chronica monasterii Casinensis_,
ed. Hartmut Hoffmann, 1. 18 ad fin. - 22) and in Peter the Deacon's
rather more inventive Life of A. (_Ortus et vita iuustorum cenobii
Casinensis_, ed. R. H. Rodgers, cap. XXVI).
Desiderius had A.'s remains exhumed and reinterred in the chapel of St.
John the Baptist in the abbey church; he also had inscribed on A.'s
tomb verses of his own composition (PL, vol. 149, cols. 1017-18) that
add no lustre to his artistic reputation:
http://tinyurl.com/c7yb6
Fans of those early Benedictine saints, Placid and Maur, will observe
that in citing parallels for A.'s miraculous crossing of the Liri
Desiderius here adduces not only St. Peter but also the incident
recounted by Gregory the Great at _Dialogi_ 5. 2. In the latter,
though, it is Maur who walks across the lake to save Placid and bring
him back to shore. When Desiderius, addressing A. in this durable and
visible memorial, says that "You thus imitated Peter and also Placid"
(_Petrum, Placidum quoque sic imitatus_), he is presumably engaging in
poetic license. For the alliteration, not _metri gratia_. Or would it
have been beyond him to scan _Maurum_ as a trisyllable?
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post, revised)
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