medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (3. June) is the feast day of:
1) Lucillian and companions (d. ca. 273, supposedly). L.'s cult is attested to by his martyrion in Constantinople next to the basilica of St. Michael, documented in tenth-century synaxaries, as well as by entries in various Eastern calendars, etc.. It is supposed, because of the coincidence of dates, that the Lucianus whose passion is entered in the early ninth-century Marble Calendar of Naples as commemorated on this day is the same saint recorded under a slightly different name (presumably originating from a malformed or misinterpreted abbreviation) and not the martyr Lucian of Antioch, the teacher of Eusebius.
L. has a legendary Passio (BHG 998y) that makes him a pagan priest of Nicomedia (today's Izmit in Turkey) who became a secret Christian and who for two years managed not to perform sacrifices until a Jew turned him in, in the reign of Aurelian. L. was arrested along with seventy others who were hiding with him. After an interrogation that did not go well, he and four youths (Claudius, Hypatius, Paulus, and Dionysius) were sentenced to be burned alive. As soon as they had together mounted the flaming pyre a sudden downpour extinguished the fire. Though sudden downpours are not unusual in the Mediterranean, the official in charge ascribed this one to magic operated by L. All four were sent to Chalcedon and finally to Constantinople, where L. was crucified and his companions beheaded.
2) Oliva, venerated at Anagni (d. 6th or 7th cent., supposedly). O. is venerated not only at Anagni (FR) in southern Lazio but also at Castro dei Volsci (FR), Trivigliano (FR), Cori (LT), and, slightly further to the south in what was once territory of the Regno, at Pontecorvo (FR) on the left bank of the Liri. Our first notice of her is of Anacletus II's dedication of an altar to her next to her remains at Anagni in 1133. The church, dedicated to O., in which both the altar (now vanished) and the remains were housed was demolished in the later sixteenth century, after which the remains were translated to Anagni's cathedral, where they still repose. Churches to O. at Castro dei Volsci and at Trivigliano are said to go back to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries respectively.
At Cori, O.'s present church consists of two adjacent buildings, one of the fifteenth century (1460-85, when it served an house of Augustinian Hermits) and the other earlier. In the first of the views here both structures can be seen to the left of the belltower:
http://www.romeartlover.it/Gregcor2.jpg
http://www.parcolepini.it/salvalartecori/DSCN8722.jpg
While that ensemble might qualify Cori's Santa Oliva as a finalist in the 'saints of the day" Ugliest Church contest, attached to the newer building is a very pleasant cloister dating from 1480. This, and the rebuilding of the church, were projects of a native of Cori and general of the Augustinians, Ambrogio Massari, "il Coriolano" (d. 1485). A view of the cloister:
http://www.nuovipanorami.it/italia/lazio/cori/chiostrooliva.jpg
Three views of capitals in the cloister are here, at bottom:
http://www.nuovipanorami.it/italia/lazio/cori/cori.html
A better view of the capital with the rams' heads:
http://www.storiarte.altervista.org/
The older part of the church was built over the remains of a Roman temple (Cori has preserved several of these) that now serve as the crypt. There's a view and a Danish-language discussion here (scroll down to SANT OLIVA KIRKEN):
http://www.cori.dk/rundtur_i_cori.htm
O.'s dating is said to be from her Office at Anagni. I have now idea how old that is.
3) Genesius of Clermont (d. shortly after 660). G. (in French, Genet) was archdeacon and then bishop of Clermont in Auvergne (now Clermont-Ferrand) and the teacher and early advisor of his successor St. Praejectus (St Projet). The latter's contemporary Vita (BHL 6916) speaks highly of him, as does also that of a slightly later successor, St. Bonitus (BHL 1418). G. has his own very late Vita (BHL 3311) that makes him a member of a senatorial family and has him compelled by Rome to accept election as bishop when he would rather have withdrawn and become a hermit. G. is said to have used his own money to found a church at Clermont dedicated to St. Symphorian.
4) Conus of Diano (d. early 13th cent.). Today's less well known saint of the Regno is the Benedictine monk Conus, patron of Teggiano (SA) in the Vallo di Diano. According to his brief Vita (BHL 1943; published in the _Acta Sanctorum_ "ex vetusta membrana Dianensi"), C. was born to a noble family in the _terra Diani_, that is, in the small city of Diano (Teggiano's medieval name and its modern one until 1862) and its outlying possessions. A prenatal omen implied his sanctity. When C. was barely eight years old, he began by divine influence to engage in forms of self-denial and self-mortification. Unbeknownst to his parents, he soon entered the Benedictine abbey of Santa Maria at nearby Cadossa.
There C. eagerly accepted instruction in grammar and in logic and at the same time overcame his abbot's doubts about his fitness for monastic life. One day he was observed by his parents, who were on the premises in order to get wood. C. evaded them by hiding in a burning oven. When found by the abbot, who had gone searching for him, he emerged completely unscathed. One other day, while the monks were dining, a voice from above called to C., announcing that he would be called by God that night. During that night he did indeed pass away; on the following day the monks buried him. Later, the "Italicum regnum" having been convulsed by war, the monks abandoned the abbey and fled in fear to safer places.
Still according to the Vita, in 1261 people of Padula (another town in the Vallo di Diano) tried to sneak away with C.'s body. But people of Diano also went to Cadossa, drove off their rivals, and upon entering the abbey were greeted by a great fragrance emanating from C.'s tomb. When the tomb was opened, C.'s body was discovered to be incorrupt. C. was brought back to Diano and buried in the town's principal church.
Guesswork has given C. a traditional birthdate in the late twelfth century. The absence of adult miracles has caused him to be represented as youthful. The Vita probably dates from the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. It was polished up humanistically for a printed version in 1595 and has served as the base for various early modern and modern Lives of C. The latter have added such entertaining miracles as C.'s preventing Santa Maria Maggiore's belltower from collapsing in 1300 and his heroic defense of Diano's castle when in 1497 king Federigo was cannonading it in order to compel the capitulation of its rebel lord, Antonello Sanseverino, prince of Salerno and, in modern times, a local hero for the Dianesi. C. has been credited with saving Diano/Teggiano several times since. His cult was confirmed in 1871. Emigrants have brought it to other parts of the world, perhaps most notably to Uruguay, where C. is the patron of the city of Florida.
In the later Middle Ages Diano was in effect the southern capital of the extensive territory controlled by the Sanseverino counts of Marsico. A guided tour (in Italian) of medieval Diano/Teggiano is here:
http://www.prolocoteggiano.it/proloco/storia/
and that tour's page on Santa Maria Maggiore is here:
http://www.prolocoteggiano.it/proloco/storia/14.htm
(note that this church is now a cathedral: the diocese, today united with that of Policastro to the southwest, was erected in 1850).
A slightly larger version of the last page's photograph of the pulpit (dated 1271) by Melchiorre da Montalbano is here:
http://www.teggianoantiquaria.it/luogo/internochiesa.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
(Conus of Diano lightly revised from last year's post)
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