medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (15. May) is the feast day of:
1) Eutychius of Ferentum (d. before ca. 590; perh. 303). We first hear of E. (also Euticius, Eutitius; in Italian, Eutizio) in the _Dialogues_ of St. Gregory the Great, who tells us (3. 38) that he was a martyr with a church and that in it he appeared by his tomb to bishop Redemptus of the _Ferentina civitas_ and predicted to him the coming end of the world. Whereas now that Redemptus is venerated as St. Redemptus of Ferentino in southern Lazio (7. April), the prevailing scholarly belief is that he was actually bishop of Ferentum (also Ferentinum) near Viterbo in northern Lazio. At today's nearby Soriano nel Cimino (VT) in the _frazione_ of Sant'Eutizio a succession of churches dedicated to E. has been built over catacombs that were in use in the fourth century and in which was built in the fifth century a shrine over a tomb believed to be that of E. A plan of the catacomb named for E. is here:
http://tinyurl.com/4npzx2
and a sketch of the shrine above it is here:
http://tinyurl.com/5r6mwc
An undated, legendary Passio of E. (BHL 2779-2880) makes him a martyr under an emperor Claudius (also the emperor of the legendary Passio of the Roman saints Marius and Martha [BHL 5543]), gives today as his _dies natalis_, has him buried in a crypt about fifteen miles from Ferentum (which would fit the location at Soriano nel Cimino), and has him re-interred there in a marble sepulchre once the Edicts of Milan had taken hold. In 1496 a marble sarcophagus containing corroded bones was discovered at E.'s church at Soriano nel Cimino, which was then being rebuilt. These were promptly identified as E.'s; they are said to be still housed in the eighteenth-century Santuario di Sant'Eutizio now occupying the site.
E. is a co-patron both of Soriano nel Cimino and of nearby Carbognano (VT), where he continues to be celebrated liturgically on this day. He was removed from the RM in 2001. Carbognano also has a small church dedicated to E. In its present rebuilt form it has a late medieval peaked facade but is thought to be originally of perhaps the ninth century. Herewith two thumbnail views:
http://www.carbognanonline.it/assets/images/S._Eutizio02.jpg
http://www.carbognanonline.it/assets/images/Navata_S._Eutizio.jpg
2) Simplicius "of Fausania" (d. before ca. 625; perh. 303). All we know for certain of this saint is the common fund of information given by the principal witnesses of the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology in its Italic recension: _In Sardinia Simplici_ ("In Sardinia, Simplicius/Simplicus"). Later witnesses unlikely to be drawing upon ancient testimony in this regard round out the notice by calling S. either priest or bishop.
A church dedicated to a saint Simplicius at Fausania, one of the predecessors of today's Olbia (OT) in the former judicate of Gallura, is first attested to in the eleventh century. Evidence for the antiquity of S.'s cult at Olbia and vicinity is said to be lacking. A somewhat later Passio making S. bishop of Fausania and assigning his martyrdom to the Diocletianic persecution confers antique distinction upon the diocese of Civita (as Olbia was called in the central and later Middle Ages). Despite its acceptance by the early modern editor of the Roman Martyrology, Cardinal Baronius, this account is fiction.
S.'s church at Olbia (its ex-cathedral, the diocese of Civita having been suppressed in 1503), on the other hand, is splendidly factual. Constructed chiefly of granite (much of it of the local pink variety), its colors are richer in some lights than in others. Particularly impressive is the band of really rosy brick (emblematic of a martyr?) on the rear wall above the apse and continuing for much of the way along the sides at the same height. Some images follow:
Exterior views, strong summer sunlight:
http://www.immaginidellasardegna.it/chiese/galleria9/index.html
Exterior in winter, colors better:
http://www.ilportalesardo.it/galleria/detail.asp?iType=2&iPic=44
Exterior (2 views), interior (1 view), excellent colors. Scroll down to "La basilica di San Simplicio"; click on views for enlargements:
http://www.lamiasardegna.it/files/101.htm
Exterior details:
http://www.sansimplicio.org/chiesa/chiesa.htm
Exterior shots (front and rear), interior details:
http://www.ilportalesardo.it/monumenti/ssolbia.htm
Exterior and interior shots, good for interior height:
http://web.tiscali.it/Olbia2000/pages/sanSimplicio.htm
Exterior and interior shots, better for aisle structure:
http://www.quiolbia.it/sansimplicio.php
3) Adiutor, venerated in Campania (d. 5th cent., supposedly). An A. who seems to be today's less well known saint of the Regno appears in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology under 2. June and again under 17., 18., and 19. December. His cult in Campania is at least as old as the earlier ninth century, when he appears under 1. September along with St. Priscus (of Capua) in the Marble Calendar of Naples. In the central and later Middle Ages A. was also venerated in the dioceses of Benevento, Capua, and Salerno, as well as at the territorial abbey of the Most Holy Trinity at today's Cava de' Tirreni (SA), where in 1049 a fortified place called in our twelfth-century source and in other texts _castrum sancti Adiutoris_ was given to St. Alferius for the use of his then nascent monastery. In these places A. was usually celebrated liturgically on 18. or 19. December.
When in 1513 the diocese of Cava was erected A. was chosen its patron saint; its present cathedral, begun in 1517, is dedicated to him. The late sixteenth-/early seventeenth-century ecclesiastical historian Michele Monaco identified A. with one Benignus, the companion of St. Priscus of Capua in the synthesizing and highly legendary eleventh- or twelfth-century _Passio sancti Castrensis_ (BHL 1644; makes its protagonists African bishops sent to sea in an unseaworthy vessel by Vandal persecutors and arriving safely in Campania). Probably because of that Passio's dubious reputation, A.'s Office at Benevento was suppressed in 1945. In 2001 he was dropped from the RM where, thanks to his association with St. Priscus, he had been commemorated on 1. September. A. is a co-patron of the city of Cava de' Tirreni and of the archdiocese of Amalfi-Cava de' Tirreni and in those places is now celebrated liturgically on this day.
4) Hallvard (d. 1043, supposedly). Tradition makes H. the son of a prominent farmer of Huseby in Lier (Buskerud), Norway. He became a trader in the Baltic. One day, while his ship was in the Drammenfjord, he gave sanctuary on it to a women suspected of theft. In at least one account, she was pregnant. Her enemies shot him/them to death with arrows. Wishing to conceal H.'s fate, they tied a millstone to his body and threw it into the fjord. Miraculously, both the body and the millstone floated to the surface, H. was buried at Lier, then in the diocese of Oslo. In the twelfth century his relics were translated to Oslo's new cathedral dedicated to him (now a ruin); his Passio (BHL 3750) may date from the 1170s. H., who has been shown on the city's seal since the fourteenth century, is Oslo's patron saint. Yesterday (14. May) was the day of his commemoration in the RM; today is his feast day in Norway.
Some views of the remains of Oslo's Hallvardskatedralen:
http://tinyurl.com/2ec46m
http://www.miljostatus.no/upload/3989/Pil03_600.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/5lwjxr
The restored, originally early thirteenth-century church of St. Nicholas at Botne in Holmestrand (Vestfold) has a thirteenth-century wooden statue of H., shown in color in the last image on this page:
http://home.no.net/midkrkvf/botne.htm
and in black-and-white here:
http://www.lier.kommune.no/liers-historie/5-117.gif
An originally thirteenth-century church at Løvøy in Borre (Vestfold) is dedicated to H. (and to St. Martin of Tours). Here's an illustrated account of it in its present restored state:
http://home.no.net/midkrkvf/lovoya.htm
Whereas this page has some revealing, expandable views of the building prior to restoration:
http://tinyurl.com/yp4d5c
And here's a view of H.'s holy spring at Lier:
http://www.olavsrosa.no/images/251872.jpg
Lucky Oslo: it gets to celebrate its patron saint just before the national holiday (Syttende mai, commemorating the signing of independent Norway's constitution on 17. May 1814).
Best,
John Dillon
(Simplicius "of Fausania" and Hallvard lightly revised from last year's post)
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