medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (5. January) is the feast day of:
1) Syncletica (d. 4th or early 5th century). According to her pseudo-Athanasian Bios (BHG 1694), S. was the wealthy and beautiful daughter of a prominent family of Macedonian origin living in Alexandria in Egypt. Rejecting all suitors, she chose to exercise a life of holy virginity. Upon the death of her parents she gave her inheritance to the poor, cut her hair, and -- along with her blind sister -- withdrew to a family tomb outside the city. Here she attracted female adherents and gave spiritual advice. In her later years this Desert Mother suffered patiently from painful illnesses afflicting her voice and her face. S. died at the advanced age of eighty-four. A collection of sayings in the _Apophthegmata Patrum_ is ascribed to her.
2) Deogratias of Carthage (d. 457). D., a Catholic priest of Carthage, was in 454 named its bishop by the Arian king Genseric, who at the time was currying favor in Rome. In the following year, after the assassination of Valentinian III, Genseric's forces sacked the Eternal City and carried many of its inhabitants back to Carthage as slaves. Victor of Vita, whose _Historia persecutionis Africae provinciae_ is our sole narrative source for D., tells us that he distinguished himself by selling off his church's gold and silver in order to ransom some of these captives and by converting two of his churches into hospitals tending to the spiritual as well as physical needs of the sick.
In the early sixth-century calendar of Carthage, D.'s laying to rest is celebrated on this day along with that of bishop Eugenius (481-505). Prior to its revision of 2001 the RM commemorated D. on 22. March.
Expandable views of a number of fifth-century bronze coins from Vandal Africa, including some from the time of Valentinian III, are here:
http://www.beastcoins.com/Vandals/Vandals.htm
3) Edward "the Confessor" (d. 1066). The third pre-Conquest king of England to be named Edward, today's E. is styled "the Confessor" both to distinguish him from his predecessors Edward "the Elder" (d. 924) and St. Edward "the Martyr" (d. 978) and to get around the awkwardness ensuing from the usual practice of beginning to number the Edwards with the king of this name who died in 1307. E.'s childless marriage to a much younger woman is the foundation of the belief that he was piously virginal. His rebuilding of the abbey of St. Peter at Westminster, where he was laid to rest not long after its completion, was lavish. Shortly after his death some cures were attributed to him. Attempts by the abbey to have E. recognized as a saint seem to have begun only in the twelfth century. In 1161 pope Alexander III, acceding to a petition supported by king Henry II and the English hierarchy, had E. canonized as a confessor.
Westminster Abbey had an illustrated page devoted to E. that has been preserved by the Internet Archive:
http://tinyurl.com/ypgfu6
Some visuals from the Bayeux "Tapestry" (actually an embroidery):
E. enthroned (with advisers):
http://www.udel.edu/ArtHistory/CourseGallery/pages/Btking.html
E.'s decease:
http://tinyurl.com/tzofu
Scenes of E. enthroned and E.'s decease framing a representation of his exequies:
http://homepage.mac.com/dmhart/WarArt/BayeuxTapestry/14.JPG
Flat E. receiving visitors in the museum at the Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux, Bayeux (Calvados), Normandy:
http://www.travelin-tigers.com/photos/fr051616.jpg
Other visuals:
Cures at E.'s tomb (Cambridge University Library, Ms. Ee.3.59):
http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Newsletters/nl08/edward.html
The manuscript this comes from (the only known copy of an illustrated Anglo-Norman verse Life of E., written in England probably in the later 1230s or early 1240s):
http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/MSS/Ee.3.59/
Scene from another Ms., U.K. National Archives, Ms. E 36/284 (Abbreviatio of Domesday Book, ca. 1241): Edward the Confessor accuses earl Godwine of the murder of his brother, Alfred Aetheling:
http://tinyurl.com/ya563r
Two views of E.'s shrine in Westminster Abbey:
http://tinyurl.com/yg9po9
http://tinyurl.com/ydrf2q
TAN: St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church, Metairie, LA:
http://tinyurl.com/yxswh6
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's posts lightly revised)
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