medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (19. January) is the feast day of:
1) Pontian of Spoleto (??). According to his oldest Passio (BHL 6891; many witnesses, the earliest being from the first half of the tenth century and another being in the closely contemporary Martyrology of Ado), P. was a Christian layman who endured many tortures at Spoleto during a persecution under an emperor Antoninus, was decapitated on 14. January, and was laid to rest on 18. January. Since the early Middle Ages he has been commemorated either today (so the historical martyrologies from Bede onward) or on 14. January (as he still is at Spoleto). The archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia regards him as the protomartyr and patron of the city of Spoleto.
P.'s originally twelfth-century extramural church at Spoleto abuts an early Christian cemetery. Some views:
http://www.artstudio.it/spoleto/en_211.html
http://www.sanponziano.it/chiesa_frame.htm
2) Bassian of Lodi (d. 409, perhaps). The existence of a late fourth-century bishop of Lodi named Bassianus is clear from the correspondence of Ambrose of Milan, from stray records of contemporary northern Italian church councils, and from Paulinus of Milan's Life of Ambrose. Not so clear are the details of this person's life. Apart from what one learns from the aforementioned sources we have only a later twelfth-century Life of B. from Lodi (BHL 1040; an early modern derivative differs in some particulars). This brief document, which aims at elegance and often achieves it, is thought to be a revision of a tenth-century (ca.) original. Whether that in turn drew upon reliable earlier information now lost (the Life as we have it does draw on Ambrose and on Paulinus of Milan) is really anyone's guess, as is therefore the accuracy of the Life's dating of B.'s death (at fourscore years and ten) to the eighth year of Honorius and Theodosius.
According to the Life, B. was a Sicilian from a wealthy family who was sent to Rome for literary (i.e., higher) education and who by divine grace obtained a Christian teacher. B. converted to Christianity, was active in the Roman church, and while still a young man fled from Rome to Ravenna in order to escape agents sent by his father, who wished him to renounce his faith and return to to Sicily. Having arrived at Ravenna he performed a public miracle that led to the conversion of the local prefect and hence to that of many others as well. Here B. was ordained priest and spent many years before the church of Lodi through divine intervention chose him to replace its recently deceased bishop. B.'s exemplary performance in this office saw his operation of several miracles; he also obtained the grace of predicting both Ambrose's death and his own.
Lodi's cathedral has been dedicated to B. since at least the tenth century. When the Milanese destroyed Lodi in 1158 they spared the then cathedral church, located in what came to be known, once the city was refounded in a new location, as Lodi Vecchio ("Old Lodi"). This structure, which in the thirteenth century received a new facade and other modifications, is shown here:
http://www.lodi.lombardiainrete.it/lodivecchio.asp
The new cathedral in the new city was already under construction in 1159. B.'s relics were translated here in 1163. A few views follow:
http://tinyurl.com/4gglx
http://tinyurl.com/45zzc
http://tinyurl.com/4yx3h
http://tinyurl.com/5ux7f
Prior to this, however, refugees from Lodi had erected at Pizzighettone in today's Cremona province a church dedicated to B. Said to date to 1158 but obviously since rebuilt, that too is still in existence. Some views follow:
http://www.fotosearch.com/AGE054/c55-286587/
http://www.pizzighettone.com/pizzighettone/11876.htm
http://tinyurl.com/2g5ccy
Best,
John Dillon
(Bassian revised and abbreviated from last year's post)
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