medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Yesterday (1. August) was also the feast day of:
Justa (?), virgin martyr. This less well known saint from the Regno
is one of a family of saints (Justin, Florentius, Felix, and Giusta)
venerated in parts of Abruzzo since at least the central Middle Ages.
These have a legendary Passio (BHL 4586) making them members of a family
said to be from Siponto in northern Apulia but active in the late third
and/or early fourth century in today's Abruzzo in the area of ancient
Forconium (today's Forcona, though it has also been thought to be
today's Furci in Chieti province). They also have a fourteenth-century
Inventio and Translatio (BHL 4587) to L'Aquila, the thirteenth-century
diocesan successor to Forconium, and appear as well in smaller
liturgical texts of various sorts. These sources present J. as a young
woman who chastely spurns the advances of a Roman magistrate, who then
survives attempted execution first in a fiery furnace and then by
drowning in a river, and who is finally put to death either with arrows
or by a spear. Whereas the whole group was once celebrated on 25. July,
its members have had individual feasts as well; Florentius and Felix,
long regarded as hagiographical inventions, no longer figure in the
Roman Martyrology. J.'s feast is still observed today (the traditional
date) at Tufillo (CH), whereas in and around L'Aquila, where her cult
has been said to go back to at least the ninth century, her
commemoration occurs on 31. March.
Architectural monuments to J.'s cult include her thirteenth-century
church (over a twelfth-century crypt) at Bazzano (AQ), just outside of
L'Aquila:
http://abruzzo2000.com/italian/chgiusta.htm
http://www.morronedelsannio.com/abruzzo/bazzano.htm
http://tinyurl.com/2ekkht
Only slightly later is her church in L'Aquila itself, built (by ca.
1254) in a quarter settled from Bazzano:
http://tinyurl.com/yrvdff
The facade is said to date from 1439.
Also from the thirteenth century (1279 with later reworkings) is the
parish church of Santa Giusta and of the Virgin Mary at Tufillo (CH):
http://www.tufillo.com/parrocchia.html
Literary monuments to J. include two fragmentary hymns from an Office
for her at L'Aquila, printed in the _Acta Sanctorum_ (Aug. tomus primus)
after her Translatio mentioned above (BHL 4587).
Best,
John Dillon
(an older post lightly revised)
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