medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (27. May) is the feast day of:
Restituta of Sora (or of Rome; d. 272, supposedly). According to both
the 9th-/10th-century version of her Passio (BHL 7192) and its early
12th-century revision ascribed to Gregory of Terracina (BHL 7193), R.
was a Roman girl of Christian faith, fearful for her future because of
ongoing persecution in what is said to have been the reign of Aurelian.
She was commanded by Jesus Christ to proceed from Rome to Sora, a town
now in southern Lazio but formerly in Campania, thus making R. at least
a quondam saint of the Regno. Once she had overcome her reluctance to
travel alone to a destination she knew not how to find and was about to
set forth, her faith was rewarded in the form of angelic transport to
her destination. At Sora R. stayed with a woman whose son Cyril,
hopelessly afflicted with a painful and disfiguring disease of the skin,
was soon completely cured through her prayers. Cyril converted to
Christianity, others followed suit, official persecution ensued, and R.
(according to these accounts, the evangelist of Sora), Cyril, and
thirty-seven others were executed by decapitation outside the city walls.
The Gregorian version is printed in the _Acta Sanctorum_, where it is
followed by a narrative hymn recounting the same matter so closely that the
two together form a sort of _opus geminum_. The earlier version was
published in the _Bibliotheca Casinensis_, vol. 3, Florilegium pp. 12-16,
and is reprinted from there by Giovanni Nino Verrando in his "Agiografia
sorana: Passione di s. Restituta," in Luigi Gulia and Antonio Quacquarelli,
eds., _Antichita' paleocristiane e altomedievali del Sorano. Atti del
Convegno di Studi, Sora 1-2 dicembre 1984_ (Sora: Centro di studi sorani
"V. Patriarca", 1985), 77-98, at pp. 94-98.
R.'s veneration seems to have extended from Sora eastwards and
northwards into today's Abruzzo as well as south along the Liri to San
Germano at the foot of Montecassino. Little churches in this area have
surviving medieval representations of a Restituta now celebrated as the
R. of 17. May but in origin probably the R. of today. The fresco of R.
in the arcosolium under the church of Santa Restituta of Rosce di San
Vincenzo valle Roveto (AQ), also referred to as Santa Restituta di
Morrea Inferiore, is said to be of the ninth century. A thumbnail view
of that is here:
http://www.sezione8.terremarsicane.it/miniature7/nuovo-54.JPG
Whereas R.'s fresco in the church of Santa Restituta at Oricola (AQ) is as
recent as the thirteenth century. A view of it lurks in the thumbnails
here:
http://www.sezione8.terremarsicane.it/miniature7/nuovo-54.JPG
For some reason, the Terre Marsicane site has not been able to fulfil
its intention of offering larger versions of these views.
The primary locus of R.'s cult remains the church of Santa Restituta at
Sora (FR), rebuilt after Frederick II destroyed the town in 1229.
exterior views, front:
http://www.menteantica.it/soranatale/sora1pic.jpg
http://www.sistemi.it/sora/tur/galleriasorana/pages/santarestituta1.htm
exterior view, front and side (from above):
http://www.comune.sora.fr.it/img_home/b.jpg
exterior view, rear:
http://faculty.ccri.edu/mmansella/Photo_album/6.html
belltower:
http://www.menteantica.it/soranatale/scorciosrestituta.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
(older posts, revised)
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