medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Monday, September 15, 2008, at 10:27 pm, I wrote:
> 1) Cornelius, pope (d. 253) and Cyprian of Carthage (d. 258)..
>
> a) CORNELIUS.
> ... Jerome also (_De viris
> illustribus_, 66) gives today as C.'s _dies natalis_.
> b) CYPRIAN.
> ... The _Depositio martyrum_ of the Chronographer of
> 354 gives today as his feast day...
In both cases, for "today" read "14. September". And even that's inaccurate in the case of Jerome, who merely says that Cyprian died on the same day as did Cornelius but not in the same year. Apologies for the lapses (I had begun this notice on 14. September and failed in these instances to correct for the modern date of their feast).
Curiously, Jerome also says (loc. cit.) that Cornelius died at Rome. Did he not know of C.'s relegation to Centumcellae? Or was he misled by Cyprian's also having been relegated to a coastal town but then having been brought to a major city to face trial (after which Cyprian is said to have been executed on the spot)?
Today (16. September) is also the feast day of:
Ninian (d. 5th or 6th cent., supposedly). N. is the legendary founder of the church called, in Latin, Candida Casa ('Gleaming-White House') in the Isle of Whithorn in today's Dumfries and Galloway, where from the late seventh or early eighth century until ca. 803 there was a bishopric that in the twelfth century was re-erected as a suffragan of York). N. is also the legendary apostle of the Picts. Nothing verifiable is known about him and even the century of his floruit is controversial. Early sources for traditions about N. of uncertain age and accuracy are the verse _Miracula Nynie episcopi_ and Bede's _Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum_, both of the eighth century (as is also the _Hymnus Nynie episcopi_). Much later is N.'s Vita by the twelfth-century Aelred of Rievaulx (BHL 6239-6240).
N.'s cult at his tomb at Candida Casa is attested from the eighth century onward; medievally, his feast was kept in Scotland and in the northern English dioceses of Hexham and Lancaster. Views of a restored fourteenth-century structure in the Isle of Whithorn called St Ninian's Chapel are here:
http://www.whithorn.com/history-local-sites.asp?localsiteID=2
And here's a distance view of the entrance to what is said to have been St Ninian's Cave (also in Whithorn):
http://www.whithorn.com/history-local-sites.asp?localsiteID=8
An illustrated, English-language page on the remains of Whithorn Priory:
http://tinyurl.com/5ccvf6
Another view of the priory church:
http://tinyurl.com/5zgucw
A view of the seal of Whithorn Priory (legend: CONVENTVS CANDIDE CASE):
http://tinyurl.com/6ftucl
N. as depicted in the fifteenth-century Hours of St Ninian, now in the British Library:
http://tinyurl.com/6zg5qa
Best again,
John Dillon
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