medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (21. June) is the feast day of:
1) Eusebius of Samosata (d. 380). E. was a bishop of Samosata (today's much smaller Samsat in Turkey's Adiyman province). He was instrumental in St. Basil's being nominated bishop of Caesarea and supported Nicene orthodoxy against Arians. In 374 the emperor Valens had E. exiled to Thrace. In 378, after the death of Valens at Adrianople, he returned to his diocese in upper Syria. Said to have been struck fatally on the head by a tile thrown by a woman of Arian persuasion, E. is considered a martyr.
2) Alban of Mainz (d. ca. 405, supposedly). A saint of this name has been venerated at Mainz and vicinity since at least 758. At Charlemagne's behest archbishop Riculf began in 767 the construction on a hill outside of Mainz of a basilica dedicated to A., next to which he established what became Mainz' medievally famous abbey of St. Alban. In the ninth century Rabanus Maurus entered A. in his Martyrology, treating him as a martyr of Mainz, giving him a legendary elogium based on the Passio of St. Theonestus and companions (BHL 8110), and entering him for today. Local tradition of long standing makes A. a cephalophore. In the early 1060s Goswin of Mainz composed a Passio of A. (BHL 200) notable for its topographic and temporal confusion.
As today is also the _dies natalis_ of St. Alban of England in the earliest version of his Passio, the suspicion exists that today's A. is merely A. of England outfitted at Mainz with a new identity. Since A. of England had been venerated in Francia since the fifth century, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether certain foundations dedicated to an A. originally honored the English saint or instead the one of Mainz. For example, the original dedicatee of the monastery of church of St. Alban at Basel, illustrated here (view expandable)
http://tinyurl.com/2kc44w
is unknown.
3) Méen (d. earlier 7th cent.). M. (also Mewan, Mevennus) has a legendary Vita (BHL 5944) of the tenth or eleventh century that makes him a Welshman active in Cornwall and then in Brittany along with his relative St. Samson of Dol and has him found the monastery at Gaël (Ile-et-Vilaine) that came to bear his name. From the eleventh century onward M. appears on this day in Cornish and in Breton calendars. He was invoked frequently by those seeking cures for diseases of the skin. Numerous holy wells and fountains are named for him.
In the twelfth century M.'s abbey at Gaël became known as Saint-Méen-le-Grand. Here's a view of its eleventh- to fifteenth-century abbatiale:
http://tinyurl.com/ynrvow
And here are couple of views of the church of St Mewan at St Austell (Cornwall), said to date from the thirteenth century:
http://tinyurl.com/22goo6
http://tinyurl.com/yul8th
4) Engelmund (d. early eighth cent.). E. may have been a colleague of St. Willibrord in the Netherlands, where he is particularly associated with today's Velzen (Noord-Holland) and where it was claimed that a ninth-century bishop of Utrecht had found his tomb. His relics (most of which are now at Haarlem) became the focal point of pilgrimages. E. was invoked by those afflicted with dental illnesses, presumably on account of his name (etymologized as Angel-Mouth). Here's an illustrated, English-language page on his originally twelfth-century church at Velzen:
http://noordhollandchurches.tripod.com/velsenzuidherv.html
5) Leutfrid (d. 738). According to his not awfully reliable ninth-century Vita (BHL 4899), L. (Leutfredus, Leufroy) was born into a noble family of Evreux, studied locally and at Chartres, became a recluse in the diocese of Rouen, moved to the latter town and became a monk, and later left to found the monastery of La-Croix-Saint-Ouen, where the Vita was written. Today is his _dies natalis_. The Vita reports lifetime and posthumous miracles. According to a later Translatio (BHL 4900), L. was formally elevated at the monastery church in 851 by a bishop of Evreux. In the tenth century his tomb was so popular that L.'s name replaced that of St. Ouen (Audoenus) in references to the monastery, whose later town is today's La-Croix-Saint-Leufroy (Eure).
Here are two old views of the now demolished église St-Leufroy at Paris:
http://grande-boucherie.chez-alice.fr/Saint-leufroy.htm
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b77440621
And here's an illustrated page on L.'s originally twelfth-century church at Thiverny (Oise):
http://tinyurl.com/2hr27j
Best,
John Dillon
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