medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Danielle,
The asceticism of the Desert Fathers serves as a model for what's said about many hermits and/or monastic founders in the central Middle Ages. A particularly influential example is St. Romuald (of Ravenna) as depicted in his Vita by St. Peter Damian. The standard critical edition of that Vita is Giovanni Tabaco, ed., _Vita beati Romualdi_ (Roma: Istituto Storico per il Medio Evo, 1957; = its Fonti per la storia d'Italia, 94). There's an English translation in Thomas Matus, _The Mystery of Romuald and the Five Brothers: Stories from the Benedictines & Camaldolese_ (Trabuco Canyon, CA: Source Books, 1994); another is in Peter-Damian Belisle, ed., _Camaldolese Spirituality, Essential Sources_, announced as forthcoming this year by Paulist Press in its series Classics of Western Spirituality and (but?) published this year by Ercam Editions in Bloomingdale, OH; see WorldCat, record no. 123450280 and this announcement from Ercam Editions:
http://www.camaldolese.org/pages.php?pageid=8
Not influential but perhaps worth a look is St. Albert of Montecorvino, a twelfth-century bishop in northern Apulia. According to the humanist Antonio Geraldini, whose Vita of A. (BHL 231; in the _Acta Sanctorum_ at Aprilis tomus I) calls itself a rewriting of a (now lost) Vita by A.'s immediate successor in the see of Montecorvino, A.'s perpetually ascetic behavior (which of course included fasting) led not only to attenuation of his body but also to physical blindness:
"Et postremo, cum orationibus, jejuniis, assiduo fletu & magna ante Deum meditatione corpus attenuaret; lumen oculorum amisit."
Best,
John Dillon
On Saturday, October 20, 2007, at 12:11 pm, Danielle Goodwin wrote:
> Hi all,
> I'm a new member to the list, as I'm sure is evident, and have yet
>
> to actually post but, have been enjoying the discussion immensely. I'm
>
> currently doing research on the dichotomy of feasting and fasting in
> the
> medieval period and its religious origins and I was wondering if you
> all
> could suggest some saints (or hermits, etc. they don't necessarily
> need
> to have been canonized) that were particular exempla of the ascetic
> lifestyle. I've covered the early period fairly well with the Desert
> Fathers and the late (i.e. St. Catherine of Siena, etc.) but it's the
>
> inter-era that I think is a little thin...no pun intended. If you all
>
> can think of any particularly known for their renunciation of food in
>
> the 800-1300 range (preferably with relatively easy-to-obtain Vita) I
>
> would be most appreciative!javascript:parent.send('smtp')
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>
> Cheers,
> Danielle Goodwin
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