medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (18. October) is the feast day of:
Proculus, Eutyches, and Acutius (d. 305, supposedly). Today's less well
known saints of the Regno, said to have been a deacon and two laymen
of ancient Puteoli, today's Pozzuoli (NA) in Campania, are among the
canonical comrades in martyrdom of St. Januarius venerated at Naples.
In the developed Januarian story all the martyrs are caught up in the Great
Persecution and are sentenced to exposure to wild beasts in the
amphitheatre of Pozzuoli. This sentence is however not carried out and
they are instead decapitated at the Forum Vulcani, at or near the Solfatara
in the Phlegraean Fields. In a synopsis relayed by Bede (followed by Ado
and by Usuard) as well as in a more detailed translation account (BHL 4116),
people of Puteoli bring their remains (much later, evidently) to the town's
basilica of St. Stephen. Their feast day commemorates this translation.
Later translation accounts (BHL 4137, 4133) have Naples' eighth-century
bishop Stephen II translating the remains of Eutyches and Acutius to
that city and the Lombards making off with those of Proculus and taking
them to Benevento. A supposedly ninth-century translation account has
the relics of all three removed to Reichenau. In the later eighteenth
century, when these accounts had come to light and relics said to be
theirs were found at Reichenau, Pozzuoli received half of the remains of
each saint that were then at Naples (including those of P., who had
somehow managed to find his way here from Benevento) and the other half
were reinterred under the main altar of Naples' cathedral (where in a
few years they were joined by the putative relics of Naples' St.
Agrippinus). An inspection of the Campanian relics in 1964 resulted in
a declaration that these were lacking the bones belonging to the set at
Reichenau.
Quite inadequate reproductions of the splendidly colorful depictions of
P., E., and A. in the catacombs of San Gennaro at Naples are here:
http://www.sansossio.it/
Excellent ones will be found in Umberto M. Fasola, _Le catacombe di S.
Gennaro a Capodimonte_ (Roma: Editalia, 1975).
Here's a view of the Flavian Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli:
http://tinyurl.com/ymzdaw
Other views:
http://140.164.3.3/CampiFlegrei/pozzuoli/anfiteatro.html
More views (all expandable), and some of the Solfatara as well, are here:
http://www.geocities.com/kpkilburn/pozzuolicumasolfatara.htm
In the sixth century inhabited Puteoli/Pozzuoli had shrunk to its fortified
acropolis, today's Rione Terra. The town's paleochristian cathedral of
St. Stephen was abandoned and an ancient temple (today's so-called
Tempio di Augusto) became the new cathedral, dedicated to P. This
remained free-standing until 1643, when it was incorporated into the then
newly built cattedrale di San Procolo. This late fifteenth-century drawing by
the architect Giuliano da Sangallo is said to be the only view we have of it
prior to that incorporation:
http://tinyurl.com/2krn63
In 1963 the cathedral suffered a disastrous fire and in the following year
remains of the ancient temple and medieval cathedral were revealed when
the fabric surrounding them was removed:
http://www.costruzioni.net/articoli/pozzuoli/9.jpg
http://www.costruzioni.net/articoli/pozzuoli/8.jpg
http://140.164.3.3/CampiFlegrei/pozzuoli/pozzuoli4/tempiort.gif
http://tinyurl.com/2jbbzk
In this aerial view they're just a little above center:
http://www.costruzioni.net/articoli/pozzuoli/6.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post revised)
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