medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (17. May) is the feast day of:
Restituta of Teniza or of Carthage (d. 304). One of the martyrs of
Abitene recently highlighted by His Holinesss Benedict XVI for the
pronouncement said to have been made by another of their number, _Sine
dominico non possumus_ ("We cannot live without Sunday / the
Eucharist"), Restituta became a saint of the Regno in the early Middle
Ages with an important cult in the area of the Bay of Naples. Her
remains are said to have arrived at Ischia in the fifth century and to
have been translated in the ninth to Naples, where an early fourth-
century basilica was renamed in her honor. In the early fourteenth
century this basilica was incorporated into the city's then newly built
cathedral as a large chapel; in the seventeenth century it was rebuilt
and redecorated. In this plan of the cathedral, it is the structure
shown at front left:
http://www.icapeceminutolo.it/duomo1.html
Here's a view of it:
http://www.interviu.it/cards/maggio1/na36.jpg
An Italian-language account is here:
http://www.lastoriadinapoli.it/luoghi_chiese_restituta.asp
An English-language guide is here (click on "Holy Restituta" in the
menu bar at top):
http://www.duomodinapoli.it/
Clicking through the arrows under the plan at right will take one on a
Flash Player tour.
The Basilica / Cappella di Santa Restituta's side aisles have been
converted into individual smaller chapels. One of these side chapels,
that of Santa Maria del Principio, is distinguished by a mosaic (signed
by Lello of Orvieto and dated 1322) whose central figure of the Virgin
enthroned is flanked by Januarius (Gennaro) on the left and by R. on
the right:
http://tinyurl.com/hs3pt
http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/b5eba864.html
Better views in color are included in the Flash Player tour noted above.
R.'s Passio (BHL 7190) is attributed to the tenth-century Neapolitan
hagiographer Peter the Subdeacon. This records how she miraculously
escaped execution at sea by her African persecutors and died peacefully
at sea; the vessel containing her corpse was then guided angelically to
Ischia, where R. was buried and her cult instituted. Recently re-edited
by Edoardo D'Angelo, it will be found at pp. 183-99 of his Pietro
Suddiacono napoletano, _L'opera agiografica_ (Tavarnuzze [FI]: SISMEL;
Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2002).
R.'s cult spread widely in the Beneventan cultural area. One instance
is the late 11th-century chapel dedicated to her at the abbey of San
Vincenzo al Volturno, remains of which may be seen here:
http://www.sanvincenzoalvolturno.it/pg/sez3_b_ii.htm
Whether the Restituta honored at Cagliari (also commemorated today) is
in origin the same saint is unclear. That city's Crypt of Saint
Restituta contains Christian funerary inscriptions from late antiquity
and seems (though the original inscription is lost) to have housed
relics of a saint R. since perhaps the sixth century. Its marble cult
statue dedicated to her is also late antique. This R. may have been a
local saint not identified with R. of Teniza, etc. until the eleventh-
century arrival of Benedictines from Montecassino (though if she is the
Restituta of the _Vita antiqua_ of Eusebius of Vercelli [BHL 2748-49;
variously dated from the late fourth to the seventh century], then she
too is said to have been of African origin). Three
photograph-accompanied Italian-language accounts of the site are here
(the second at the bottom of its webpage):
http://web.tiscali.it/gcc/Restituta.htm
http://www.ilportalesardo.it/archeo/cacitta_4.htm
http://tinyurl.com/8f9lj
Views of the statue (said to be of Coptic manufacture) are here:
http://www.cagliaridascoprire.it/archeologia/img/statua_restituta.jpg
TinyURL for this: http://tinyurl.com/deds4
and here (several views):
http://www.fotodisardegna.it/cagliari/cripta/cripta.htm
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post, revised)
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