medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (11.January) is the feast day of:
Leucius (?). Today's less well known saint of the Regno is the legendary protobishop of Brindisi (BR) on Apulia's Adriatic coast.
L., sometimes referred to in English as Lucius the Confessor, is the first bishop of Brindisi whose name is known. His cult is attested to by Gregory the Great and by an entry in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology. L. is the subject of an early medieval Vita (BHL 4894) widely distributed in the Beneventan cultural area but seemingly unknown to Paul the Deacon when he was writing his _De episcopis Mettensibus_ (after 765). This Vita has later revisions from Brindisi (BHL 4895; 9th[?]-cent.) and from Trani (BHL 4897; 11th[?]-cent.). None of these accounts offers any reliable information about the historical L.
Remains believed to be those of L. underwent various translations from the seventh century to the eleventh. Apart from bits that went to Rome and vicinity at the request of Gregory the Great, they were in Brindisi until sometime after the Lombard sack of 674, when they was translated to Trani and housed under the city's then cathedral in the late antique hypogeum that bears L.'s name today. In probably the eighth century they were removed to Benevento; in the ninth an arm was returned to Brindisi. In the eleventh century, it seems, the diocese of Trani got half of L.'s body (or of what was then left of it) back from Benevento in return for a monetary payment.
A monastery dedicated to L. on the Via Flaminia outside of Rome is attested from the late sixth century; its church was still in use in the middle of the ninth century.
L.'s cult is widespread in formerly Lombard areas of the Italian south and centre. A plan of Trani cathedral's fifth- to seventh-century hypogeum of St. Leucius (beneath the two crypts) is here:
http://www.enec.it/Cripte/Trani/Planimetria.htm
Two views:
http://www.trani.biz/foto/HPIM0159%20copy.jpg
http://www.trani.biz/foto/HPIM0161%20copy.jpg
Canosa di Puglia (BAT) boasts the remains of a Byzantine basilica that was renamed in L.'s honor after that town's capture by the Lombards in the late seventh century; see (about halfway down the page):
http://www.canusium.it/Pages/Luoghi/Medioevale/Medioevale.htm#leucio
and, for further detail,:
http://tinyurl.com/27p3ge
http://www.canosadipuglia.org/sanleucio.htm
http://tinyurl.com/3xwldu
http://www.fotopuglia.it/foto.asp?ID=61
http://www.fotopuglia.it/foto.asp?ID=59
An aerial view of the basilica surrounded by olive groves:
http://www.francesca-radcliffe.com/images/puglia/FR05_07.jpg
A closer aerial view:
http://tinyurl.com/2vpn7b
Veroli (FR), in southern Lazio, has a church dedicated to L. in 1079 (since rebuilt):
http://www.prolocoveroli.it/iti.2.2.html
http://www.bedini.org/images/veroli2.jpg
http://www.bedini.org/images/veroli3.jpg
The cathedral of Atessa (CH) in southern Abruzzo is dedicated to L., who according to local legend slew a dragon that was terrorizing the population. A fossilized rib bone of some large prehistoric mammal is still on display in the cathedral in testimony of this feat. The building itself has a fourteenth-century facade (with later modifications):
http://www.ilportaledelsud.org/atessa.htm
http://utenti.lycos.it/sabridip/hpbimg/sanleucio.jpg
In Campania, both San Leucio del Sannio (BN) and the silk-manufacturing town of Caserta - San Leucio (CE) took their name from churches of medieval origin dedicated to L. (locally also called San Lècio).
Aside from its arm reliquary of L.:
http://www.brindisiweb.com/arcidiocesi/santi/reliq_sleucio.jpg
and from this representation of L. on the thirteenth-century, partly silver reliquary coffin of St. Theodore of Amasea:
http://tinyurl.com/2388a4
Brindisi itself has little medieval to show of its sainted protobishop. Its eighteenth-century cathedral, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, sports atop its facade statues dating from 1957 depicting the local patron saints. L. is on the far left (the others are the soldier saint Theodore, Lawrence of Brindisi, and Pius X):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/it/3/36/HPIM0490.JPG
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post revised)
**********************************************************************
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
|