medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (22. October) is the feast day of:
Bertharius (d. 883). Today's less well known saint of the Regno was a
southern Lombard and the thirteenth abbot of Montecassino. His name is
a latinization of Lombard 'Berthari'/'Perctarit'. In 877 B. obtained the
abbey's exemption from episcopal supervision. In 883 he and some of his
monks (the rest having already been sent away for their safety) were slain
by Muslim raiders in the abbey's recently walled and fortified lower town,
Eulogimenopolis (Greek for 'Benedict's city'), the future San Germano and
today's Cassino (FR) in southern Lazio.
B. is the author of at least two surviving sermons of some stylistic
note. See the comments of Anselmo Lentini in his edition, "Il sermone
di S. Bertario su S. Scolastica," _Benedictina_ 1 (1947), 197-232. B.'s
poem on the miracles of St. Benedict is edited in the _Monumenta
Germaniae Historica_'s _Poetae latini aevi carolini_, vol. 3, pp.
389-402 with addenda on p. 754. The hymn on St. Benedict beginning
"Sancta lux, fratres", once ascribed to him, is now considered the work
of that most prolific of medieval writers, Anonymous. Herbert Bloch
offers a measured appreciation of B. in his article "Monte Cassino's
Teachers and Library in the High Middle Ages," in _La scuola
nell'occidente latino dell'Alto Medioevo_ (Spoleto: Centro italiano di
studi sull'Alto Medioevo, 1972; the Centro's _Settimane_, no. 19), vol.
2, pp. 563-605, esp. pp. 572-73.
In the absence of any Web-available medieval representations of B.,
herewith two early modern ones, a sixteenth-century painting of the
Madonna with B. holding a model of the town of San Germano:
http://www.cassapadana.it/UpLoadImages/copertina_davanti_icona.jpg
and an eighteenth-century one of B. in glory by Francesco de Mura in
B.'s chapel in the restored abbey church of Montecassino:
http://www.officine.it/montecassino/disegni/foto_htm/capp4d.htm
Here's a distance view of the abbey with the ruins of its medieval fort,
the Rocca Janula, in the middle distance:
http://tinyurl.com/3baekn
The Rocca Janula is one of several fortifications originally built under
abbot Aligernus (r., 949-85) once the monks had reoccupied the abbey
in the tenth century.
Here, though, are some expandable views of a building that, in
somewhat better shape, _was_ present at Cassino in B.'s day:
its Roman amphitheatre:
http://tinyurl.com/2mryk9
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post lightly revised)
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