medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (4. August) is the feast day of:
1) Eleutherius of the Tarsia (d. ca. 307). E.'s cult is first attested by a church dedicated to him at Constantinople in the reign of Arcadius (395-405). He has a legendary Greek-language Passio (BHG 572), undated but older than the tenth century, that makes him a pagan _koubikoularios_ (i.e. a eunuch of the imperial palace) under Maximianus (Galerius) who, already practicing Christian virtues, withdrew from court and went to the Tarsia in Bithynia (now the plain of Ak Ova in Turkey's Sakarya province), where he built a house with a subterranean oratory, lived there, and had himself baptized by a local priest. The emperor became aware of E.'s Christian faith, failed to persuade him to apostasize, and finally condemned him to death. E. was executed and was buried at his oratory, where later a great church was erected in its stead. Thus far the Passio, which seems to have been written for recitation at E.'s annual feast at his church in the Tarsia.
2) Ia and companions, martyred in Persia (d. 362). I., a handmaiden of the Lord, was one of numerous Christians taken prisoner by the forces of the Persian king Shapur II during a raid on Roman territory. Brought to Persia with other captives, she proselytized among the local women, some of whose husbands then brought charges of sorcery against her. I. was tortured, imprisoned, found guilty, tortured some more, and finally decapitated. She has two surviving Greek Passiones (BHG 761, 762), both edited by Delehaye in his "Les versions grecques des Actes des martyrs persans sous Sapor II", _Patrologia Orientalis_ 2, pt. 4 (1907), 403-560, at pp. 453-73; the first of these has a Latin translation edited by Delehaye and printed below the corresponding Greek text.
Several no longer extant churches in Constantinople were dedicated to I., most notably one near the Golden Gate restored by Justinian and destroyed during the capture of the city in 1204. Representations of her seem not to exist on the free Web. In lieu thereof, here are a few perhaps less well known images of Shapur II:
http://www.livius.org/a/1/iran/coin_shapur_ii.jpg
http://www.answers.com/topic/shapur-ii-bust-jpg-1
as well as the famous victory relief at Taq-e Bostan (Iran), where a figure usually identified as S. stands between Mithra and Ahura Mazda and (along with Ahura Mazda) on top of a prostrate victim often identified as the emperor Julian (d. 363):
http://www.livius.org/a/iran/taqebostan/relief2.JPG
In the last of the expandable images here one can get a better view of the victim underfoot:
http://www.livius.org/a/iran/taqebostan/taqebostan2.html
For S. in hunting scenes, see the first and third objects here:
http://tinyurl.com/5d3olo
3) Onuphrius of the Chaos (?). Today's less well known saint of the Regno (also O. of Belforte) is a very poorly attested Italo-Greek hermit of Calabria. He is said, seemingly legendarily, to have been born at today's Belforte (CZ) and to have lived ascetically to a great age in perhaps the tenth century as a recluse at a place called the Chaos (perhaps because of very rough terrain). This was located by early modern scholars in the woods of today's Panaia, now a _frazione_ of Spilinga (VV). Others identify it as today's Sant'Onofrio (VV), where O. is sometimes said to have founded its eponymous monastery that lasted until the early nineteenth century and that probably was always dedicated to his famous homonym of 12. June, the late antique anchorite in Egypt. The RM has opted for Panaia and is silent about O. the presumed monastic founder. Postmortem miracles are attributed to him.
Legend of uncertain antiquity also gives O. a sister, Helen, who is said to have been a hermit with him and who in popular writing is also regarded as a saint. Our chief source for both is a pair of Lives by the seventeenth-century Basilian abbot general Apollinare Agresta, a popularizer of medieval Greek saint's lives from Calabria.
4) Rayner of Cagli and of Split (d. 1180). R. (in Italian, Rainerio; in Serbo-Croatian, Arnir) was a monk of Fonte Avellana and a friend of St. Ubald of Gubbio. In 1156 he was elected bishop of relatively nearby Cagli (in today's Pesaro-Urbino province in the Marche). In 1175 a dispute with his chapter led to R.'s being translated (kicked upstairs?) to the archdiocese of Split in today's Croatia, then a possession of the Roman Empire of the East. R. arrived in his new see in 1177, attended the Third Lateran Council in 1179, and in 1180 was back at Split attempting to regain some diocesan properties from adverse possession by local Slavs (Croats). On 4. August of that year, while visiting the territories in question, R. was stoned to death by a crowd of people unhappy at being called usurpers. The cult that ensued was confirmed in 1690 for the archdiocese of Split and was extended in 1819 to the then diocese of Cagli-Pergola.
R.'s Cagli was abandoned following a disastrous fire in 1287; the present town is its replacement in a different location. Surviving from R.'s day, though somewhat rebuilt, is the former abbey church of San Geronzio at Cagli:
http://tinyurl.com/rt39p
http://tinyurl.com/mbo9r
At Split (in Italian, Spalato), the cathedral of Sv. Duje / San Domnione occupies the building that was once Diocletian's mausoleum. Most of its more striking appointments are from the centuries following R.'s death. Herewith a few views:
http://www.pmfst.hr/razno/entropy/index_clip_image002_0003.jpg
http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/palace.exhibit/53.jpg
http://www.cromaps.com/uploads/pics/katedrala_split_cromaps.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/gdufj
http://www.st.carnet.hr/split/mauzolej.html
Best,
John Dillon
(Ia and companions and Rayner of Cagli very lightly revised from an older post)
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