medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (8. August) is the feast day of:
Cyriacus, Largus, and Smaragdus (?). C., L., and S. are martyrs of the
Via Ostiensis, recorded for today by the _Depositio Martyrum_ of 354
and by the (pseudo-) Hieronymian Martyrology. C. was early confused
with the C. of 16. March, seemingly a Greek saint. When he, L., and
S. became characters in the fictitious _Passio sancti Marcelli_ (BHL
5234, 5235; C. as a deacon, L. and S. as his housemates in life and
companions in death), their martyrdom, supposedly occurring under
Maximian during the Great Persecution, was in this story said to have
taken place on that earlier date. But the author of the Passio, aware
too of their celebration on this day in August, implicitly converted
the latter into a translation feast commemorating what the Passio
describes as their solemn reburial by pope St. Marcellus I. In Ado and
in Usuard their martyrdom is recorded on both days. Prior to its
revision of 2001 the RM had opted for the March date made traditional
by the Passio.
C. is also known as Cyriac of Rome, especially when it distinguishing
him from one or more of the numerous other saints of this name. Thanks
to an episode the Passio, he became known as someone to invoke in cases
of demonic possession. Venerated singly, C. enjoyed considerable
popularity in northern Europe from the Ottonian period onward and wound
up as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers of the later Middle Ages.
Germany is especially known for devotion to C. In the tenth century a
relic of him was brought to today's Gernrode (Kreis Quedlinburg) in
Sachsen-Anhalt and there deposited in a newly built monastic church for
women that had been dedicated to St. Mary and St. Peter. In time the
church became known instead as that of C. (who, after all, was present -
- at least in part -- in the confessio). Herewith views of Gernrode's
Stiftskirche St. Cyriakus (west portions rebuilt in the twelfth
century):
http://www.harz-paradies.de/pics/GernrodeSt.CyriakusMotorradGro%DF.gif
http://tinyurl.com/fu7x9
http://tinyurl.com/zehft
http://tinyurl.com/hrbcq
http://tinyurl.com/zjdsf
http://tinyurl.com/ht9mg
http://tinyurl.com/zyl3z
http://tinyurl.com/hkymy
This church contains an Holy Sepulcher (later eleventh-/early twelfth-
century), described here:
http://tinyurl.com/oc6ro
and shown here:
http://dl.ccc.cccd.edu/classes/internet/art100/images/S0096319.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/g7j9a
http://tinyurl.com/galfv
http://tinyurl.com/h7dh7
http://tinyurl.com/fyrf3
http://tinyurl.com/or8mc
http://tinyurl.com/o5ch3
There is also a baptismal font of the mid-twelfth century:
http://tinyurl.com/jsryz
Other dedications to C.:
1. Pfarrkirche St. Cyriakus (twelfth-/thirteenth-century; rebuilt,
seventeenth century), Marburg-Bauerbach, Hessen:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Bauerbach_church.jpg
2. Paroissiale (ancienne abbatiale) St-Cyriaque (twelfth-/eighteenth-
century), Altorf (Bas-Rhin), Alsace:
http://perso.orange.fr/jean-marie.poncelet/altorf.htm
3. St. Cyriakus Propstei-Kirche (1250-1490; later additions and
modifications), Duderstadt, Niedersachsen:
Account:
http://www.st-cyriakus.city-map.de/3.html
Views (second set expandable):
http://tinyurl.com/nemhh
http://tinyurl.com/o9g93
4. St. Cyriakus Kirche (mostly fifteenth-century), Weeze (Kreis Kleve),
Nordrhein-Westfalen:
http://tinyurl.com/kn639
***
Today is also the feast of Dominic of Caleruega (d. 1221), also known
(after the Spanish cathedral church of which he was a canon) as D. of
Osma. The founder of the Order of Preachers, he was canonized in
1234. Herewith two views of his tomb in Bologna's San Domenico:
http://tinyurl.com/mno98
http://tinyurl.com/j9arl
Now located behind the tomb is D.'s head reliquary executed in 1383 by
the Bolognese goldsmith Jacopo Roseto. A website devoted to this
treasure is here (the links at left lead to sub-pages, most of which
are illustrated):
http://www.op.org/curia/reliquiario/
And a detail view of the central portion is here:
http://tinyurl.com/s87ya
***
Best,
John Dillon
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