medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Today (9. June) is also the feast day of:

Richard of Andria (d. ca. 1199).

It's not every saint of the Regno, less well known or not, whose 
hagiographic dossier includes a memorandum of ocular testimony by a 
member of the kingdom's leading nobility.  This is the _Historia 
inventionis et translationis gloriosi corporis s. Richardi Anglici 
confessoris et episcopi Andriensis_ (BHL 7205, 7206) ostensibly by (but 
in all likelihood written for) Francesco II Del Balzo, Duke of Andria, 
Count of Montescaglioso, member of the Sacro Regio Consilio of the 
mostly mainland kingdom of Sicily.  Dated 15. September 1451, this 
outlines in a first-person narration how the duke had in 1438 been 
informed by a certain Tassus that the remains of Andria's sainted bishop
Richard, lost from sight close to a century earlier during Louis of
Hungary's invasion of the kingdom (Louis' mercenaries sacked Andria in
1350), could be found buried in Andria's cathedral, how he and the then
bishop oversaw the recovery of these relics and their translation to the
main altar, and how cathedral documents had later been discovered 
giving a brief biography of the saint (for whom there was then no 
Office), establishing his _dies natalis_ as 9. June, listing post-
mortem miracles resumed in the duke's account, and indicating that R. 
had been canonized at some obscurely expressed time in the now distant 
past (generally interpreted to indicate the pontificate of Boniface 
VIII).  According to the duke, these documents (the Miracles excepted) 
having later been lost, confirmation of R.'s cult was obtained from 
Eugenius IV (d. 1447).

That R. was a twelfth-century bishop of Andria is certain from other
mentions.  That he was English is not otherwise attested.  No 
independent record exists of either the alleged original canonization 
or the alleged confirmation by Eugenius IV.

In 1438 duke Francesco began a major reconstruction of Andria's twelfth-
century cathedral, built over an earlier (9th- or 10th-century) church; 
an early addition (1440) was a special chapel housing R.'s remains 
(that he didn't stay under the main altar is another indication of his 
then insecure saintly status).  Dedicated to Our Lady of the 
Assumption, this building was redecorated in baroque mode in the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; in the nineteenth century a neo-
classical porch was added.  A restoration in 1965 returned much of the 
interior (but not R.'s chapel) to a "gothic" appearance, highlighted by 
the ogival arches (added in 1494) separating the presbytery from the 
nave:
http://tinyurl.com/cdfws
http://www.andriacity.it/storia/img_city/imgcity32.gif

Here's duke Francesco's portrait bust, variously attributed to Domenico 
Gagini or to Francesco Laurana and now in Andria's Museo Diocesano:
http://www.diocesiandria.it/operearte/bustogrande.jpg

And here's the page that comes from (.jpgs expndable):
http://www.diocesiandria.it/opere.htm

Views of the cathedral's exterior are here:
http://www.itineraweb.com/foto/grandtour/catt_andria2.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/s6m6w
http://www.arturocovitti.it/CattedraleAndria2.htm

Upper parts of the belltower:
http://tinyurl.com/p3z4c
http://www.arturocovitti.it/CattedraleAndria12.htm

Another chapel houses Andria's "Sacra Spina", a single thorn supposedly 
taken from the Crown of Thorns.  Its tip is said briefly to turn red in 
years when the feast of the Annunciation and Good Friday coincide.  
2005 was such a year:
http://digilander.libero.it/davide.arpe/AndriaSpina2005.htm
The thorn's Official Site is here:
http://www.diocesiandria.it/sacraspina/#
This thorn is said to have come to Andria as a gift of Charles II late 
in his reign (1285-1309), very possibly in 1308 when his daughter 
Beatrice of Anjou married Bertrand des Baux / Bertrando del Balzo, lord 
of Andria (yes, these Del Balzo are a branch of the Provencal family 
that takes its name from Les Baux).  Its miraculous reddening is not
recorded prior to the early modern period.

The crypt, a remnant of the predecessor church, is said to house the
tombs of Frederick II's wives Isabella (Yolande) of Brienne and Isabella
(Elizabeth) of England (F.'s residence of Castel del Monte is only some
18 km. distant from Andria).  The only view I could find does not show 
the tombs.  It's the top one on this page:
http://www.bed-and-breakfast.it/pagina.cfm?ID=1935&IDregione=13 

Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post, lightly revised)

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