medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (8. August) is the feast day of:
1) Cyriacus, Largus, and Smaragdus (?). C., L., and S. are martyrs of the Via Ostiensis, recorded for today by the _Depositio Martyrum_ of the Chronographer of 354. C. was early confused with the C. of 16. March, seemingly a Greek saint. When he, L., and S. became characters in the legendary _Passio sancti Marcelli_ (BHL 5234, 5235; C. as a deacon, L. and S. as his housemates in life and companions in death), their martyrdom, supposedly occurring under Maximian during the Great Persecution, was in this story said to have taken place on that earlier date. But the author of the Passio, aware too of their celebration on this day in August, implicitly converted the latter into a translation feast commemorating what the Passio describes as their solemn reburial by pope St. Marcellus I. In Ado and in Usuard their martyrdom is recorded on both days. Prior to 2001 the RM had opted for the March date made traditional by the Passio.
To distinguish him from one or more of the numerous other saints of this name, C. is also known as Cyriac of Rome. Thanks to an episode the Passio, he became known as someone to invoke in cases of demonic possession. Venerated singly, C. enjoyed considerable popularity in northern Europe from the Ottonian period onward and became one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers of the later Middle Ages.
Devotion to C. has been especially strong in Germany In the tenth century a relic believed to be his was brought to today's Gernrode (Kr. Quedlinburg) in Sachsen-Anhalt and there deposited in a newly built monastic church for women that had been dedicated to St. Mary and St. Peter. In time the church became known instead as that of C. (who, after all, was present -- at least in part -- in the confessio). Herewith views of Gernrode's Stiftskirche St. Cyriakus (west portions rebuilt in the twelfth century):
http://www.harz-paradies.de/pics/GernrodeSt.CyriakusMotorradGro%DF.gif
http://tinyurl.com/fu7x9
http://tinyurl.com/zehft
http://tinyurl.com/hrbcq
http://tinyurl.com/zjdsf
http://tinyurl.com/ht9mg
http://tinyurl.com/zyl3z
http://tinyurl.com/hkymy
This church contains a Holy Sepulcher (later eleventh-/early twelfth-century), described here:
http://tinyurl.com/oc6ro
and shown here:
http://dl.ccc.cccd.edu/classes/internet/art100/images/S0096319.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/g7j9a
http://tinyurl.com/galfv
http://tinyurl.com/h7dh7
http://tinyurl.com/fyrf3
http://tinyurl.com/o5ch3
There is also a baptismal font of the mid-twelfth century:
http://tinyurl.com/jsryz
Other dedications to C.:
1. Pfarrkirche St. Cyriakus (twelfth-/thirteenth-century; rebuilt,seventeenth century), Marburg-Bauerbach, Hessen:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Bauerbach_church.jpg
2. Paroissiale (ancienne abbatiale) St-Cyriaque (twelfth-/eighteenth-century), Altorf (Bas-Rhin), Alsace:
http://perso.orange.fr/jean-marie.poncelet/altorf.htm
3. St. Cyriakus Propstei-Kirche (1250-1490; later additions and modifications), Duderstadt, Niedersachsen:
Account:
http://www.st-cyriakus.city-map.de/3.html
Views:
http://tinyurl.com/nemhh
4. St. Cyriakus Kirche (mostly fifteenth-century), Weeze (Kreis Kleve), Nordrhein-Westfalen:
http://tinyurl.com/kn639
2) Secundus, Carpophorus, Victorinus, and Severianus (?). S., C., V., and S. are four martyrs recorded for today in the _Depositio Martyrum_ of the Chronographer of 354. The (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology also records them for today and adds that they were buried at Alba at the fifteenth milestone on the Via Appia. That datum accords with the location of the Catacombe di San Senatore at today's Albano Laziale (RM) in Lazio. An Italian-language page on that complex is here:
http://tinyurl.com/5fcvat
and a multi-page, illustrated, Italian-language site on the complex begins here:
http://tinyurl.com/6a3gjg
The complex contains a number of frescoes of late antique and early medieval date, mostly in very poor condition. The first one shown in this page has been dated to the late fifth century and depicts six figures flanking a seated Christ (those at either end are interpreted as donors; the other flanking figures are thought to represent S., C., V., and S.):
http://tinyurl.com/67w24j
3) Aemilian of Cyzicus (d. after 815). A. succeeded to the see of Cyzicus in the late eighth century. An iconophile, he was exiled after having opposed the emperor Leo III at the latter's synod of 815, where the patriarch St. Nicephorus I was deposed and iconolatry was condemned. The year of his death is unknown.
4) Altmann of Passau (d. 1091). According to his earlier twelfth-century Vita (BHL 313), A. came from a noble family of Westphalia, was educated at the cathedral school at Paderborn, which he then headed for many years before becoming Henry III's royal chaplain at Aachen. His contacts with the royal family led to his being named bishop of Passau in 1065. In that see, which then included much of Austria, he showed his Reform inclinations by founding (or by converting from other forms of joint life) communities of Canons Regular and by being Gregory VII's leading supporter among the German bishops during the Investiture Controversy In 1078 A. was forced to leave Passau. He returned in 1081, only to be deposed in 1085 by the imperial party's bishops, who installed at Passau a succession of (anti)bishops in his stead. He spent the remainder of his life in the eastern part of his diocese, under the protection of Leopold II of Austria.
A. was laid to rest at one of his foundations, the Augustinian canonry at Göttweig. Somewhat ironically for a great promoter of Canons Regular, within a few years of his death this house was converted into a Benedictine abbey. A.'s Vita, which was written there, presents him both as a defender of church interests against rapacious lords lay and ecclesiastical and as a thaumaturge. A.'s cult is also attested for Heilgenkreuz in the twelfth century, for Lilienfeld in the thirteenth, and for Melk by at least the end of the Middle Ages. His cult is said to have been confirmed, presumably for the Benedictines and the Augustinians, by Boniface VIII (1300) and by Alexander VI (1496). In the late nineteenth century it was extended to the dioceses of Linz and Passau. A., recognized as a Saint, entered the RM only in the the 2004 edition of its version of 2001.
Here's a later twelfth-century miniature of A. from Göttweig, showing him as founder (Göttweig, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 97 rot):
http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Fotos/Altmann_von_Passau.jpg
Here's a partial view of A.'s tomb in the crypt of the abbey church:
http://tinyurl.com/5tvhjy
A view of his head reliquary:
http://tinyurl.com/5qgaqj
5) Famian (d. 1150). F. is the patron saint of Gallese (VT) in northern Lazio. According to his Vitae, all of which seem to be Early Modern, he was a native of Köln who at a fairly early age undertook a series of pilgrimages that took him to Rome in 1108, to other parts of Italy, and to Compostela. While in Spain he is said to have been ordained priest and to have lived as a hermit at the not-yet-Cistercian abbey of Oseira in Galicia. The date of F.'s return to Italy is unknown. He is reported to have died on this day at Gallese, where by the late thirteenth century there was a full-blown pilgrimage cult in his honor with a church that is said to have replaced an oratory at his wonder-working grave. Here's an illustrated, Italian-language page with views of F.'s since modified church and of his tomb within it:
http://tinyurl.com/6ck7oy
6) Dominic of Caleruega (d. 1221). D. is also known as D. of Osma (where he had been a Canon Regular). The founder of the Order of Preachers, he was canonized in 1234. Herewith two views of his tomb in Bologna's San Domenico:
http://tinyurl.com/mno98
http://tinyurl.com/j9arl
Kept behind the tomb is D.'s head reliquary executed in 1383 by the Bolognese goldsmith Jacopo Roseto. A website devoted to this treasure is here (the links at left lead to sub-pages, most of which are illustrated):
http://www.op.org/curia/reliquiario/
And a detail view of the central portion is here:
http://tinyurl.com/s87ya
Best,
John Dillon
(Cyriacus, Largus, and Smaragdus and Dominic of Caleruega lightly revised from last year's post)
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