medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Many thanks for the detailed write up, John, and for the web links. I
regularly teach Perpetua and Felicity in my medieval literature and medieval
women's literature surveys, often as the first text, and students are
consistently engaged and intrigued. Paul Halsall's fine Internet Medieval
Sourcebook has an easily accessible (and free!) version online at
<http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/perpetua.html>. A fascinating and
important text.
Best from Anchorage,
Dan
_____________________________________
Daniel T. Kline, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English
U of Alaska Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska 99508
907.786.4364 | [log in to unmask]
The Electronic Canterbury Tales:
http://www.kankedort.net
"Fortunately, I keep my feathers numbered
for just such an emergency."
-----Original Message-----
From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious
culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Dillon
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 8:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [M-R] saints of the day 7. March
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Please pardon the duplication. The previous post had a typo in the Subject
line, which will cause it to be filed out of order in the list's Archives.
Today (7. March) is the feast day of:
1) Perpetua and Felicity (d. 203 ?). P. and F., those now famous martyrs
of Roman Africa, have an early dossier consisting of 1) a Passio that exists
in Latin and in Greek versions (BHL 6633; BHG 1482) whose relation one to
another is still a little controversial and 2) a separate set of Acta that
exist in Latin only but in two versions of which the first has multiple
forms: the A-Acta (form 1: BHL 6634; form 2: BHL 6635) and the B-Acta (BHL
6636). Neither the Passio nor the briefer Acta are precisely dated, though
the Passio, at least, is of the third century.
Because the Passio is longer and, for a variety of reasons, more interesting
than the Acta, scholars have tended to act as though it were for historical
purposes the primary text, more reliable than the Acta in cases of
disagreement but capable of supplementation from that source when it itself
is silent. Thus modern summaries of the events in question follow the
Passio in assigning the martyrdom of P. and F. to the early third century,
late in the reign of Septimius Severus, and sometimes do not even bother to
mention that the Acta instead place these events under Valerian and
Gallienus in the middle of that century. On the other hand, they are
perfectly willing to accept from the Acta the datum that the town -- unnamed
in the Passio -- in which P., F., and the others arrested with them was
Thuburbo Minus (in the view of some, "Thuburbo" -- both Maius and Minus --
should really be spelled "Thuburdo").
Be that as it may, it would appear from these texts that P. and F. and
several male comrades were executed in the amphitheatre of an unnamed city
(presumed to be Carthage) where they were thrown to beasts and the survivors
were finished off by the sword. The Passio highlights P. by including and
by placing in a prominent position what would seem to be an authentic and
fairly lengthy first-person narrative of her travails and and visions. From
P.'s narrative it is clear that she is is relatively well born (probably of
the decurial class). P. never mentions F., who is both a slave and pregnant
until just before her martyrdom, which in the Passio is recounted by the
nameless "editor" who frames accounts by two of the victims within other
matter of his own composition.
These texts constitute perhaps the first instance of a martyr narration
focusing on one or more victims who are women (Blandina of Lyon's martyrdom
is earlier but the letter describing it preserved by Eusebius could be later
than P. and F.'s Passio and Acta). And its first-person account by a woman
victim is extraordinary.
By the 430s, bodies said to be those of P. and F. were venerated at
Carthage's great Basilica Maiorum. We have commemorative sermons on them
from St. Augustine, from an unnamed bishop of Carthage in the early fifth
century, and from St. Quodvultdeus. Though their Passio survives in only a
very few medieval copies, their Acta were extremely popular. Jacopo da
Varazze's account in the _Golden Legend_ is based upon one of the Acta-texts
(which is why in the _Golden Legend_ P. and F. face not the mad cow of the
_Passio_ but, instead and separately, a lion [P.] and a leopard [F.]).
Herewith views (not awfully good) of the sixth-century mosaic portraits of
P. and F. in the Archdiocesan Chapel at Ravenna:
Perpetua:
http://www.catholicculture.org/lit/pictures/3_7_perpetua.jpg
Felicity:
http://www.catholicculture.org/Lit/pictures/3_7_felicity.jpg
And views of the much later ones (ca. 1280) on the triumphal arch of the
Basilica Eufrasiana at Poreč (Parenzo) in Croatia:
Perpetua:
http://nickerson.icomos.org/porec/u/ul.jpg
Felicity:
http://nickerson.icomos.org/porec/u/ub.jpg
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