medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (12. August) is the feast day of:
Euplus (d. ca. 304). E. was a martyr of Catania during the Great
Persecution. We have both Greek and Latin acta for him (BHG 629-30; BHL
2728-31), all forms of which seem ultimately to derive from a common
source in which excerpts of the transcripts of two official hearings
dealing with E. have been fitted into a brief narrative frame,
presumably for liturgical reading. The basic data are that E., who was
in a crowd of suspected Christians awaiting processing by a magistrate,
shouted aloud that he was a Christian and that he wanted to die. He was
also holding in one hand a book containing the gospels. Brought before
the magistrate and quizzed about this, he responded that, yes, what he
was holding was a copy of the gospels (proscribed by one of Diocletian's
edicts). E. was then bound over for trial and sent to jail for the
interim. Appearing again before the magistrate on the following 12.
August (Latin text? Eastern-rite churches have traditionally honored
him on 11. August) and asked if he still possessed the Gospels, E.
responded in the affirmative, adding however that the manner of his
possession was through his having memorized them. This was interpreted
as contumacy, for which E. was then given a beating so severe that it
killed him. Developed versions of the story make E. a deacon and have
him refuse to sacrifice before the idols of the state.
E. (whose name also occurs in Latin as Euplius, in Italian as Euplo and
as Euplio, and in Siculo-Calabrian dialects as Opolo) is listed for
today in the (pseudo-) Hieronymian Martyrology, in the Marble Calendar
of Naples, and in the historical martyrologies. His cult, attested in
Sicily in the sixth century and at Rome beginning in the seventh, was
widespread in southern Europe in the early and central Middle Ages. A
view of his fresco from the monastery of Sv. Leontie (St. Leontius) at
Vodoca in today's Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be found
here (3d row down, image at far right; left click to expand):
http://www.mpc.org.mk/English/sGal.asp?nk=vodo*a&Page=2
The site this comes from is certainly worth a visit:
http://www.mpc.org.mk/English/mpc/Strumica/vodoca.asp
Today E. is a co-patron both of Catania (now Sicily's second largest city)
and of Francavilla di Sicilia (ME; the town mentioned recently in
connection with St. Clement/Chremes of 6. August). He's also patron of
Trevico (AV), the even smaller southeastern Campanian town that has had
his body since, it is said (but this is only a guess), ca. 1040, when,
along with that of Agatha and others, it will have been removed from
Sicily towards the end of the brief East Roman (Byzantine) reoccupation
of the eastern third of the island. Along with the apostles Matthew,
Andrew, and Thomas, with the soldier-saint Theodore, with Marcian of
Syracuse, and with Nicholas of Myra and of Bari, E. is thus an adoptive
saint of the Regno.
Trevico, from perhaps 964 to 1818 the seat of a diocese that then was
incorporated into that of Lacedonia (now part of the diocese of
Ariano-Lacedonia), calls itself the principal protector of E.'s remains.
The qualification "principal" presumably refers to the
sixteenth-century transfer of a smallish relic to Catania as well as to
whatever relic(s) of E. Francavilla di Sicilia may possess. In 2005
the conclusion of the seventeenth centenary of E.'s martyrdom
(celebrated at all three locales) saw festivities at Trevico that
included a solemn recognition of his remains, which latter were
pronounced authentic. See these (of course Italian-language) reports in
the local press:
http://tinyurl.com/hgvfk
http://tinyurl.com/hrtz8
E.'s longtime home is Trevico's ex-cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta.
The present building dates from the early fifteenth century and has been
much rebuilt. The frescoes in its crypt include a portrait of St.
William of Vercelli, the principal patron of Irpinia; significantly,
they seem not to include one of E. Some views of the recently restored
church, now an Italian national monument, are here:
http://www.trevico.net/img/piazze/2.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/e5ypm
ttp://tinyurl.com/l8ctt
http://www.trevico.net/altari_en.html
http://www.trevico.net/cripta_en.html
http://www.trevico.net/dett_abside_en.html
Catania, as is well known, has several churches built over the presumed
locations of sites mentioned in the acta of its more famous martyr, St.
Agatha. Though these churches had medieval predecessors, Catania didn't
get around to doing the same thing for E. until 1548, when it built a
church in his honor over the site of his presumed imprisonment and
martyrdom (and received from Trevico the relic mentioned above). This
church was reduced to rubble above ground by aerial bombardment in 1943;
views of its crypt, constructed in an ancient Christian necropolis, are
here:
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/192/192-01-02-17-2201.jpg
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/192/192-12-58-47-1868.jpg
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/192/192-01-01-12-2943.jpg
http://sicilyweb.com/foto/192/192-12-59-58-1911.jpg
The church and hypogeum are indicated as no. 1 on this interactive map
of downtown Catania's archeological area:
http://tinyurl.com/9ttlq
E. has an obligatory Memorial today in the diocese of Catania and an
optional one in the remainder of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical
region of Sicily.
Best,
John Dillon
PS: I have not yet seen Maria Stelladoro's __Euplo/Euplio martire. Dalla
tradizione greca manoscritta_ (Cinisello Balsamo: Edizioni San Paolo,
2006). Does anyone who has care to offer an opinion of it?
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