medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (30. July) is the feast day of:
Abdon and Sennen (also Abdus, Sennes, other spellings; d. 249 or 250,
supposedly). A. and S. are martyrs of Rome, named in the _Depositio
Martyrum_ and in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology. Reliable details
about their lives and martyrdom are lacking. They were buried in the
catacomb of Pontianus on the Via Portuensis and commemorated in a
basilica there that the author of _Notitia Ecclesiarum urbis Romae_
thought of as large. Linked by legend to the very prominent martyrs
Sixtus (pope St. Sixtus II) and Laurence, they have been fixtures in the
Roman sanctoral calendar since at least the early Middle Ages. The
legend says that they were Persian citizens of Christian faith brought
to Rome as captives by the emperor Decius, exposed ineffectively to wild
beasts in an amphitheater, and finally decapitated by gladiators. A
sixth-century fresco in the catacomb of Pontianus shows A. and S. in
Phrygian caps while Christ awards them a martyr's diadem. Some versions
of the legend make them princes and give them a trial in which they
appear manacled but in sumptuous clothing.
The last we hear of the basilica of A. and S. is a notice in the _Liber
Pontificalis_ stating that Nicholas I (858-67) restored it as well as
that of the Felix of 29. July (also on the Via Portuensis). A church
dedicated to them near the Colosseum (thus adjacent to their presumed
place of martyrdom) was ruinous in the later sixteenth century and
demolished not long after. Relics said to be theirs were deposited in
Rome's basilica of St. Mark in 1474. Long before that, other places
claimed to possess some. Parma's cathedral uses for its main altar a
late twelfth- or thirteenth-century sarcophagus showing ten apostles
and, in place of the other two, the Passion of A. and S., whose relics
-- among those of others -- this piece is said to contain:
http://www.cattedrale.parma.it/img/crono-catt/A5-pag267.jpg
An Italian-language account, with two expandable detail views (neither,
alas, of A. and S.), is here:
http://www.cattedrale.parma.it/page.asp?IDCategoria=501&IDSezione=2447
But the best known extra-Roman locale for the remains of A. and S. is at
the former Benedictine abbey of Sainte-Marie at Arles-sur-Tech (Pyrenees
Orientales) in Roussillon. Here they are said to repose in this late
antique sarcophagus referred to locally as the Sainte Tombe:
http://jeantosti.com/villages/arlestombe.jpg
Water collecting annually in the Sainte Tombe was long considered to be
a miraculous distillation from the saints and was used for cures.
Placed above the sarcophagus now is this funerary plaque of one
Guillaume Gaucelme (1204), who is said to have been cured of a facial
cancer by the application of cloths soaked in this liquid:
http://www.cathares.org/P08-09'-11a-arles-sur-tech.jpg
A scientific explanation of the phenomenon is here (the cover is permeable):
http://www.zetetique.ldh.org/sarc_arles.html
While we're here, it's worth having a look at the abbey's late
thirteenth-century cloister:
http://jeantosti.com/villages/arles.jpg
http://www.cathares.org/P08-09'-16a-arles-sur-tech.jpg
http://www.cathares.org/P08-09'-15a-arles-sur-tech.jpg
and at this cross over the entrance to the church, now a _paroissale_:
http://jeantosti.com/villages/arlestympan.jpg
A. and S. are said to be figured among the busts of saints in the apse
decoration at the once Cluniac priory church of Berze'-la-Ville. But
they don't seem to be among those shown here:
http://www.art-roman.net/berze/berze2.htm
This Neapolitan calendar (not to be confused with the famous
ninth-century marble one, in which A. and S. are indeed listed for
today) adds to its account of our saints a "Recipe of the day":
http://www.ciaonapoli.com/calendar.php?cal_day=30&cal_month=07
Vermicelli with clams, anyone?
Best,
John Dillon
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