medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (29. April) is also the feast day of:
Severus of Naples (d. 409). Bishop of the Parthenopean city from 363 to
409, today's less well known saint of the Regno enjoyed the friendship
of Ambrose of Milan and the esteem of Q. Aurelius Symmachus. The early
catalogue of Naples' bishops credits him with the erection of four
basilicas, one of which is today's rebuilt San Giorgio Maggiore. He is
now also usually credited with the construction of western
Christianity's oldest surviving baptistry, Naples' San Giovanni in Fonte
(for fairly obvious reasons, this is by no means the only baptistery so
named), though in the later Middle Ages the credit went instead to
Constantine the Great. This monument adjoins the early Christian
basilica of Santa Restituta (part of the late medieval and modern
cathedral of Naples) and is well worth a visit. The perhaps not
entirely fluent English-language version of the cathedral's website has
a section on the baptistery here:
http://www.duomodinapoli.com/
(click on "Baptistery" in the menu on the top).
Clicking on the arrows in the right-hand frame will take you through a
slide show including views of the baptistery's restored mosaics.
Severus also constructed a burial church at Naples' catacombs and housed
here the relics of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius sent to him by Ambrose;
frescoed remains of their arcosolia (and those of other saints mentioned in
early Neapolitan records) were discovered in 1865 under the early modern
church of San Severo alla Sanita'. Three expandable but not awfully
revealing views of the Catacomba di San Severo will be found on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/eo2hp
S. too was buried here and here he remained until some unknown time
before the ninth century, when his remains were transferred to San
Giorgio Maggiore, which latter for a while was also known as San Severo.
In the ninth century he was reinterred in the basilica of San Salvatore
(also known as the Stephania), along with Santa Restituta one of the
predecessors of today's cathedral. In 1310 he underwent a further
translation, this time to the high altar of the present cathedral; the
latter was then still under construction and would not be dedicated
until 1314. At this time S.'s cult was renewed and he became one of the
few early saints of Naples proper to be accorded great prominence in the
later Middle Ages. (One has to be reminded sometimes that neither of
the city's two most famous saints, Januarius and Severinus, was in life
actually _of_ Naples.)
S.'s later medieval feast day was 30. April. It was changed to today
after the discovery in 1742 of the Marble Calendar of Naples with its
ninth-century record of S.'s commemoration on 29. April.
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post, revised)
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