medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (11.January) is the feast day of:
Leucius (?). Today's less well known saint of the Regno is the
legendary protobishop of Brindisi (BR) on Apulia's Adriatic coast.
L. is sometimes referred to in English as Lucius the Confessor. His
cult is attested to by the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology and by
Gregory the Great and he is the subject of an early medieval Vita (BHL
4894) widely distributed in the Beneventan cultural area but seemingly
unknown to Paul the Deacon when he was writing his _De episcopis
Mettensibus_ (after 765). This Vita has later revisions from Brindisi
(BHL 4895; 9th[?]-cent.) and from Trani (BHL 4897; 11th[?]-cent.). L.
is the first bishop of Brindisi whose name is known. None of these
accounts offers any reliable information about him.
L. (or parts of L.) underwent various translations from the seventh
century to the eleventh. Apart from bits that went to Rome and
vicinity at the request of Gregory the Great, he was in Brindisi until
sometime after the Lombard sack of 674, when he was translated to Trani
and housed under the city's then cathedral in the late antique hypogeum
that bears his name today. In probably the eighth century he was
removed to Benevento; in the ninth an arm was returned to Brindisi. In
the eleventh century, it seems, the diocese of Trani got half of L.'s
body (or of what was then left of it) back from Benevento in return for
a monetary payment.
A monastery dedicated to L. on the Via Flaminia outside of Rome is
attested from the late sixth century; its church was still in use in the
middle of the ninth century. L.'s cult is widespread in formerly Lombard
areas of the Italian south and centre. A plan of Trani cathedral's
hypogeum of St. Leucius (5th-7th cent.; beneath the two crypts) is here:
http://www.enec.it/Cripte/Trani/Planimetria.htm
Two views of it are here:
http://www.trani.biz/foto/HPIM0159%20copy.jpg
http://www.trani.biz/foto/HPIM0161%20copy.jpg
Canosa di Puglia (BAT) boasts the remains of a Byzantine basilica that
was renamed in L.'s honor after that town's capture by the Lombards in
the late seventh century; see (about halfway down the page):
http://www.canusium.it/Pages/Luoghi/Medioevale/Medioevale.htm#leucio
and, for further detail,:
http://www.canosadipuglia.org/sanleucio.htm
http://www.fotopuglia.it/foto.asp?ID=61
http://www.fotopuglia.it/foto.asp?ID=59
http://www.gabec.it/zoom.asp?fotografia=12
Veroli (FR), in southern Lazio, has a church dedicated to L. in 1079 (since
rebuilt):
http://www.prolocoveroli.it/iti.2.2.html
http://www.bedini.org/images/veroli2.jpg
http://www.bedini.org/images/veroli3.jpg
The cathedral of Atessa (CH) in southern Abruzzo is dedicated to L.,
who according to local legend slew a dragon that was terrorizing the
population. A fossilized rib bone of some large prehistoric mammal is
still on display in the cathedral in testimony of this feat. The
building itself has a fourteenth-century facade (with later
modifications):
http://www.ilportaledelsud.org/atessa.htm
http://utenti.lycos.it/sabridip/hpbimg/sanleucio.jpg
Aside from its reliquary of L.,
http://www.brindisiweb.com/arcidiocesi/santi/reliq_sleucio.jpg
Brindisi itself has little medieval to show of its sainted protobishop.
Its eigtheenth century cathedral, dedicated to St. John the Baptist,
sports atop its facade statues dating from 1957 depicting the local
patron saints. L. is on the far left (the others are the soldier saint
Theodore, Lawrence of Brindisi, and Pius X):
http://www.brindisiweb.com/monumenti/foto/duomo4.jpg
http://www.brindisiweb.com/storia/foto/corpus.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post, revised)
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