medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
John, your comments about Baronio taking over the RM triggers a request. I
am utterly in the fog about the many names attached to the various Annales
ecclesiastici volumes. Can you shed some light? Many thanks, Sharon
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Dillon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 11:35 PM
Subject: [M-R] saints of the day 12. September
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (12. September) is the feast day of:
1) Silvinus of Verona (d. ca. 550?). S. was an early bishop of Verona,
preserved in memory through that see's _series episcoporum_ and
celebrated locally on this day since at least the later Middle Ages. He
entered the RM before Baronio took charge of it and continued to be
listed therein until its latest revision of 2001. An _elogium_ for S.
first printed in the sixteenth century from Veronese diocesan sources
tells us that he was especially active in preaching the faith, gaining
in the process a large number of converts, that he gave generously to
the poor, and that he was so given to prayer and fasting that these
seemed to be his regular enjoyments. It also tells us that he was
buried in Verona's church of St. Stephen. Even that last datum is
suspect, as it may depend on nothing more than a confusion of S. with
Verona's St. Salvinus (another early bishop), who is known to have been
buried in what is now Santo Stefano.
Verona's Chiesa di Santo Stefano is a largely twelfth-century church,
with a tenth-century apse and crypt (employing eighth-century columns
and capitals) and with perimeter walls surviving from a fifth- or
sixth-century predecessor of the same dedication. An illustrated,
Italian-language account of it is here:
http://www.verona.com/index.cfm?Page=Guida§ion=luoghi&id=577
A view showing a portion of the early outer walls:
http://tinyurl.com/gwdfr
A view of the ambulatory in the apse:
http://tinyurl.com/lmzfr
2) Guy of Anderlecht (d. early 11th cent.?). In 1112 Odard, bishop of
Cambrai formally elevated within the collegiate church of Sts. Peter and
Paul at Anderlecht in Brabant the remains of G. (also Guido, Guidon, Wido,
Wye, Winand), a local holy person for whom no documentation exists
prior to this event. At some unknown time between then and the writing
in the fourteenth century of our earliest surviving liturgical manuscripts
from Anderlecht a Vita (BHL 8870, 8871) was written for G.
According to this document (which exists in several versions), G. was the
very pious and very charitable son of poor rustics. Wishing to devote his
life to God, he left home and traveled to Laeken (now a part of Brussels),
where he became a model sacristan at a church dedicated to the BVM
and where he spent his free time in prayer and penance. Eager to have
more money to distribute to the needy, G. was persuaded to join a
seafaring merchant venture. But immediately the ship had put out into
the Senne it sank with all its cargo, G.'s valiant efforts to prevent
disaster
notwithstanding. Whereupon G. gave up being a merchant and returned to
his life as a sacristan.
Some time later G. undertook a pilgrimage first to Rome and then to the
Holy Land. Returning to Brabant in a time of pestilence he fell ill at
Anderlecht and died there on this day in some unspecified year. On the
evening before his death a divine light in the form of a dove appeared over
G. and a voice was heard to command that the beloved man of God come
to receive the crown of eternal happiness. The canons of that place took
G.'s body to their church and buried it. Miracles ever since attested to
the
presence there of a saint.
One of these miracles involved the finding, years later, of G.'s apparently
unmarked and since neglected grave. When this happened, Gerard the
bishop of Cambrai (Gerard II, 1076-92) ordered that the saint's remains be
translated to a place of honor within the church. More miracles ensued
and in 1112 the _elevatio_ took place. Thus far the Vita, whose largely
fictional character appears to have eluded not a few modern authors of
notices of G.
G.'s church, on the other hand, is pretty well established. Now the Eglise
Collégiale Saints-Pierre-(et-Paul)-et-Guidon at Anderlecht, it is known
popularly simply as Saint-Guidon and in that form has given its name to
Anderlecht's central station on the Brussels métro. Its later fourteenth-
to
early sixteenth-century superstructure (tower completed in the twentieth
century) rises above a crypt of the late eleventh or early twelfth century.
Some exterior views:
http://tinyurl.com/2ga7p2
http://tinyurl.com/2tal8o
http://tinyurl.com/2c3l2m
http://tinyurl.com/3c53rc
http://tinyurl.com/2sarxr
Some interior views are here. Does anyone on the list have better?
http://tinyurl.com/38exmf
http://tinyurl.com/3ckvl7
Crypt:
http://ccb.nexica.net/GRAF/f_NB_E_DOL_2.jpg
In Brussels (and perhaps in the archdiocese of Malines-Bruxelles generally)
G.'s feast occurs on 11. September. The date of (ca.) 1012 often given for
G.'s death is early modern conjecture.
Best,
John Dillon
(Silvinus of Verona lightly revised from last year's post)
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