medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (14. September) is the feast day of:
Crescentius of Rome (d. 303, supposedly). According to his very late
Acta (BHL 1986; probably eleventh-century in origin), C. came from a
noble family of Rome and was baptized as a child along with his convert
parents. Soon they all moved to Perugia, where the father (St.
Euthymius; 29. August) died of natural causes. C. and his mother were
denounced as Christians, arrested, and sent back to Rome for judgment.
On his way into the city C. cured a blind woman at the Milvian Bridge.
On the fourteenth of September, just outside the city and on the Via
Salaria, he was executed by decapitation, being all of eleven years of
age. The woman whom he had cured buried him secretly in the cemetery
of Priscilla.
C. is apparently an early example of the numerous child saints from
Roman catacombs who have by translation become local saints elsewhere.
His cult is essentially Tuscan and, though his Acta come from Perugia,
preeminently Siennese. He seems to have been brought to Sienna in 1058
(the Acta's attempt to make this event much earlier is patent
flummery). By 1215 C. was one of that city's official patrons, along
with Sts. Ansanus and Savinus, as he still is (the usual fourth patron,
St. Victor, appears to have been added only at the end of the
thirteenth century or the beginning of the fourteenth). In Duccio di
Buoninsegna's recently restored great window from 1287-88 for Sienna's
cathedral (now in the Museo dell'Opera della Metropolitana), he is the
third of the patron saints flanking the central panel (the order here
is Bartholomew, Ansanus, Crescentius, Savinus). In the same artist's
great Maestą for the same cathedral (1308-11), he is again third (the
order here is Ansanus, Savinus, Crescentius, Victor).
Views of Duccio's window will be found on these pages:
http://tinyurl.com/ea3jp
http://tinyurl.com/j7t4c
And an illustrated Italian-language discussion of it is here:
http://tinyurl.com/fxjt8
Views of Duccio's Maestą del Duomo di Siena are here:
http://www.casa-in-italia.com/info/Duccio_fr.html
http://tinyurl.com/ekk3e
A detail view, with C. at left, is here:
http://www.wga.hu/art/d/duccio/buoninse/maesta/maest_07.jpg
Some views of C.'s portrait bust by Francesco di Valdambrino (1409;
also in the Museo dell'Opera della Metropolitana):
http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/feb05e5e.html
http://www.romansonline.com/Img/Ev_P_img.asp?Iid=7947
http://tinyurl.com/jz54p
and, in a reversed image:
http://tinyurl.com/hmrjz
In the fifteenth century, C. was was often represented as a
cephalophore. For details of his cult see Franca Ela Consolino, "Un
martire 'romano': Crescenzio", _Bullettino senese di storia patria_ 97
(1990), 34-48.
Best,
John Dillon
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|