medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (27. September) is the feast day of:
Deodatus (??), venerated at Sora. Today's perfectly obscure saint from
the Regno is in fact venerated rather well upstream from Sora (FR) in
Lazio, but in the same diocese, at San Giovanni Valle Roveto, a
_frazione_ of today's San Vincenzo Valle Roveto (AQ) in Abruzzo located
in Italy's central Appennines near the headwaters of the river Liri.
The question marks in the parenthesis after D.'s name could easily be
multiplied. Not only are his approximate dates unknown but so also are
virtually everything else about him apart from his name, his veneration
at this locale, and evidence (noted below) indicating that his cult
there is at least late medieval in origin.
In 1617 the bishop of Sora, Girolamo Giovannelli, discovered in the
church of San Giovanni in the aforementioned Valle Roveto community of
the same name an altar inscribed in "Gothic letters" to a Deodatus and
bearing in relief a depiction of the dedicatee (since dated to the
fourteenth century). The latter, Giovannelli learned, was from time
immemorial (_a tempore immemorabili_) celebrated annually on 27.
September with a mass from the common of confessors with the collect for
an abbot. The altar, which according to Giovannelli had not been been
mentioned in accounts of previous episcopal visitations, had a
_fenestella_ cut into it, indicating that the body of a saint might be
present. The altar was removed and, sure enough, human remains were
found in a largely disintegrated burial case tucked away down below. A
formal recognition followed and Giovannelli had a new chapel constructed
in the church (now San Giovanni Vecchio) to house a new altar that he
then had built for D. On 4. June 1618 Giovannelli, who had procured a
papal indulgence for those present at this event, translated D. (now
enclosed within a suitably dressed effigy) to his new resting place
above this altar. At the same time, he saw to it that the portion of
the old altar bearing D.'s inscription and relief was mounted there in a
visible location.
D.'s display coffin and effigy are still present at San Giovanni Valle
Roveto; a view of them is here:
http://tinyurl.com/85bwu
and a page on the church, including an unfortunately not-yet-expandable
thumbnail of the relief from D.'s old altar, is here:
http://www.sezione8.terremarsicane.it/chiesemonu/sang.htm
The "Santi Beati" website carries an unattributed account of D. that
identifies him with the abbot of Montecassino whom prince Sicard of
Benevento deposed in 834 in order to get his hands on the abbey's
treasury and who died imprisoned in Benevento on 9. October of the same
year:
http://www.santiebeati.it/search/jump.cgi?ID=91167
Both this identification and the assertion that Montecassino's abbot
St. Bertarius (d. 883) hid D.'s body at San Giovanni Valle Roveto in
order to protect it from Muslim raiders are undocumented speculation.
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post, lightly revised)
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