JiscMail Logo
Email discussion lists for the UK Education and Research communities

Help for MEDIEVAL-RELIGION Archives


MEDIEVAL-RELIGION Archives

MEDIEVAL-RELIGION Archives


MEDIEVAL-RELIGION@JISCMAIL.AC.UK


View:

Message:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Topic:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Author:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

Font:

Proportional Font

LISTSERV Archives

LISTSERV Archives

MEDIEVAL-RELIGION Home

MEDIEVAL-RELIGION Home

MEDIEVAL-RELIGION  August 2007

MEDIEVAL-RELIGION August 2007

Options

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Log In

Log In

Get Password

Get Password

Subject:

saints of the day 1. August

From:

John Dillon <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Wed, 1 Aug 2007 23:25:56 -0500

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (121 lines)

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Today (1. August) is the feast day of:

1)  St. Peter in Chains.  A translation from the Italian 'San Pietro in
Vincoli', this feast celebrates the dedication of the Roman church of
that name, founded in the first half of the fifth century to house the
chains with which St. Peter had been secured when he was imprisoned in
Jerusalem (Acts 12: 6-7).  At first called the _titulus Eudoxiae_
(perh. after Eudoxia, the wide of Valentinian III, thought by some to
have helped pay for it), it was dedicated by Sixtus III both to Peter
and to Paul and for centuries was also known as the _titulus
Apostolorum_.  Its present designation (also late antique in origin)
when expressed in Latin usually occurs as _(Ecclesia) Sancti Petri ad
vincula_; hence also the customary Latin name of the feast, _Sancti
Petri ad vincula_.  The poet Arator gave a public reading of his _De
actibus Apostolorum_ here on four consecutive days in 544.

The church was restored by Adrian I (772-95) and rebuilt under Sixtus
IV (1471-84) and Julius II (1503).  At some point the chains thought to
have held Peter when he was imprisoned at Rome prior to his execution
were brought from the so-called Mamertine Prison (not attested as an
ancient designation) and were added to those said to be from
Jerusalem.  According to legend, they fused of their own accord.  They
are now on display in the confessio before the high altar:
http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/749/293013.JPG
By the later Middle Ages St. Peter in Chains had become today's
principal feast in the Roman church.  It was removed from the general
Roman Calendar in 1969.

Rome's church of San Pietro in Vincoli houses a funerary monument well
known to some on this list:
http://www.comitatinazionali.it/upload/immagini/BREGNO_02.jpg
Oh, were you perhaps expecting this one?:
http://tinyurl.com/2gbljy
The first is of the philosopher and ecclesiastical administrator
Nicholas of Cusa (d. 1464), appointed cardinal priest of this church by
Nicholas V.  The second is of course the tomb intended for Julius II with
its statue of Moses by Michelangelo:
http://www.wga.hu/art/m/michelan/1sculptu/giulio_2/moses.jpg

There are other dedications in Italy to St. Peter in Chains.  Here are
some views of Pisa's late eleventh-/early twelfth-century church of San
Pietro in Vinculis (a.k.a. San Pierino):
http://tinyurl.com/jp72o
http://www.stilepisano.it/immagini8/index1.htm
and of the church of San Pietro in Vincoli (1363; later modifications)
at Limone Piemonte (CN) in Piedmont:
http://tinyurl.com/he2pj
http://www.hulsen.net/images/Piemonte-Limone001.JPG
Peter in Chains is Piemonte Limone's patron saint.

2)  The Seven Holy Maccabees (and their Mother).  One of the oldest
feasts of the Roman sanctoral calendar, this celebration was once
subsumed into that of St. Peter in Chains and in the Roman church 
is now trumped by that of a modern saint of the Regno, Alphonso
Liguori (1696-1787).  It honors the seven brothers (and their mother)
of 2 Macc. 7, gruesomely put to death in the second century BC by
Antiochus IV Epiphanes and widely revered in the early church as
martyrs for Judeo-Christian faith and thus as Christians before the
letter.  The feast appears in eastern and in western calendars from the
fifth century onward.  Their chief early cult center was at Antioch,
the presumed venue of their martyrdom.  In the sixth century remains
said to be theirs were translated to Rome and housed in the church of
St. Peter in Chains, which had been dedicated on their day.  Their
present location is in a crypt behind and below the shrine containing
Peter's chains (on which, see above).

The feast's popularity in the West in the early Middle Ages is attested
to by its listings in the Gelasian Sacramentary and in the Marble
Calendar of Naples.  In the latter (which does not mention Peter in
Chains) it occurs as that of the Passion of the Maccabees and of St.
Felicity, thus giving the mother a name (taken, it would seem, from the
Felicity of 23. November, also the mother of seven sainted sons).
 A translation of a letter from Bernard of Clairvaux explaining why this
feast should be kept is here:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bernard/letters.xlvii.html

Medievally, the Maccabees were considered types of Christian warriors
defending the faith against infidels (e.g., in the tenth century,
Hungarians; in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries, Muslims in
the Holy Land).  Here they are in the remains of the probably 
mid-twelfth-century mosaic floor of the Basilica di San Colombano at
Bobbio:
http://www.sankt-andreas.de/kirchenfuehrer/english.php/1
An Italian-language account of the mosaic is here:
http://www.studiogiove.org/Mosaico_di_Bobbio.html
And here are two thirteenth-century manuscript
illuminations illustrating 1. and 2. Macc. with military figures:
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/rouse/italy2.htm

A women's monastery dedicated to the Seven Holy Maccabees was founded
at Cologne (Köln) in the twelfth century.  See:
http://tinyurl.com/h8btc
Its relics of the Maccabees were translated in 1808 to the same city's
Dominican church of Sankt Andreas, where they remain today in a reliquary
made for them in 1520s.  A detailed German-language account of this work
of art is here:
http://www.sankt-andreas.de/kirche/machabaerschrein.php/1
Brief, not very well illustrated accounts in the same tongue occur here:
http://www.sankt-andreas.de/kirchenfuehrer/deutsch.php/1
http://www.sankt-andreas.de/kirche/machabaeerfenster.php/1
A brief account in English (no illustrations) is no. 20 here:
http://www.sankt-andreas.de/kirchenfuehrer/english.php/1

Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post revised and newly illustrated)

**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html

Top of Message | Previous Page | Permalink

JiscMail Tools


RSS Feeds and Sharing


Advanced Options


Archives

March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003
December 2002
November 2002
October 2002
September 2002
August 2002
July 2002
June 2002
May 2002
April 2002
March 2002
February 2002
January 2002
December 2001
November 2001
October 2001
September 2001
August 2001
July 2001
June 2001
May 2001
April 2001
March 2001
February 2001
January 2001
December 2000
November 2000
October 2000
September 2000
August 2000
July 2000
June 2000
May 2000
April 2000
March 2000
February 2000
January 2000
December 1999
November 1999
October 1999
September 1999
August 1999
July 1999
June 1999
May 1999
April 1999
March 1999
February 1999
January 1999
December 1998
November 1998
October 1998
September 1998
August 1998
July 1998
June 1998
May 1998
April 1998
March 1998
February 1998
January 1998
December 1997
November 1997
October 1997
September 1997
August 1997
July 1997
June 1997
May 1997
April 1997
March 1997
February 1997
January 1997
December 1996
November 1996
October 1996
September 1996
August 1996
July 1996
June 1996
May 1996
April 1996


JiscMail is a Jisc service.

View our service policies at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/ and Jisc's privacy policy at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/website/privacy-notice

For help and support help@jisc.ac.uk

Secured by F-Secure Anti-Virus CataList Email List Search Powered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager