medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Tom,
I'm well aware of the tradition that Peter was
the first pope of Rome from the "early" sources
cited; it's what we learned as seminarians. The
point that Fr. McBrien and his contemporary
authorities now make is that the tradition was
established in the late antique period or early
Middle AgesMiddle Ages, so what we learned in
History of the Church class needs to be revised a
bit because the earliest records (e.g. Acts) have
the apostles as missionaries and the churches
local chosen leaders. The Apostolic Tradition
therefore has to be understood somewhat
differently from the belief that bishops are
"directly" descended from the Apostles "as the
fist bishops."
As for the Irenaeus tradition dropping out of the
Western tradition: No. In the Roman canon of
every Mass the commemorations of the popes still
being with Linus: "Linus, Cletus, Clement,
Xistus, Cornelius"; they follow upon the
Apostles in the Canon.
GHB
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>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
>Peter is established as first bishop of Rome by
>the time the Liber pontificalis was compiled in
>the 9th century. See The Book of Pontiff,
>trans. Raymond Davis (Liverpool UPrm=, 1989),
>pp. 1-2.
>Platina takes up that version in the 15th
>century. Did the Irenaeus list drop out of the
>Western tradition?
>
>Tom Izbicki
>
>John Wickstrom wrote:
>>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>>
>>John, your first sentence seems (perhaps
>>intentionally) ambiguous. Traditional Catholic
>>teaching makes Peter the first bishop of Rome
>>(2nd and 3rd century sources according to, most
>>recently, Mc Brian's new book on /The
>>Church/); in that tradition your sentence
>>should read "L. was Peter's successor and
>>[therefore] the second bishop of Rome." My
>>understanding is that Linus appears as the
>>first name in the list by Irenaeus that you
>>mention, making him, not Peter, the first
>>bishop of Rome. Peter's "primacy" of the Roman
>>church then would be, if anything, a more
>>informal recognition, both during his time at
>>Rome and elsewhere as the New Testament
>>appointed (thou art Peter) leader of the church
>>(?)
>>
>>jbw
>>
>>
>>John B. Wickstrom
>>
>>Kalamazoo College
>>
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>
>>> From: medieval-religion - Scholarly
>>>discussions of medieval religious culture
>>
>>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Dillon
>>
>>> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 12:43 AM
>>
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>>> Subject: [M-R] saints of the day 23. September
>>
>>>
>>
>>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>>
>>>
>>
>>> A reprise of that last post with the date
>>>corrected for the Archives. Apologies for
>>
>>> the duplication.
>>
>>> --JD
>>
>>>
>>
>>> Today (23. September) is the feast day of:
>>
>>>
>>
>>> 1) Linus, pope (d. 1st cent.). According to
>>>most early sources for him L. was
>>
>>> Peter's successor and the first bishop of
>>>Rome. Irenaeus (_Adv. haer._ 3. 3. 13)
>>
>>> identifies him with the L. of 2 Tim 4:21. The Liberian Catalogue dates his
>>
>>> pontificate to the years 56-67; Jerome places
>>>in the years 67-78. L. is named in
>>
>>> the Roman and the Ambrosian Canons of the
>>>Mass. He was venerated medievally
>>
>>> as a martyr (traditional Catholics still think of him as one).
>>
>>>
>>
>>> Here's L. officiating at the sepultures of
>>>Sts. Peter and Paul in panels of an early
>>
>>> fourteenth-century fresco in the basilica of
>>>San Piero a Grado (San Petro ad
>>
>>> Gradus Arnenses) in the Pisan _frazione_ of that name:
>>
>>> http://tinyurl.com/3qmw4z
>>
>>> http://tinyurl.com/4emvhh
>>
>>> More views of this originally tenth- and eleventh-century church and of its
>>
>>> important series of depictions of early popes:
>>
>>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/cienne/sets/72157600114508041/
>>
>>>
>>
>>> L.'s Vita in the Liber Pontificalis says that
>>>he was Tuscan. The late fourteenth-
>>
>>> and early fifteenth-century papal official
>>>and polymath Piero Maffei asserted in
>>
>>> his _Commentariorum rerum urbanarum_ (finished, 1506) that L. came from
>>
>>> Volterra. In 1519 (remember, folks, in this
>>>list we go up to the year 1550) Leo X
>>
>>> granted Volterra an Office of L. accepting as
>>>traditional L.'s Volterran origin.
>>
>>> Volterra's church of San Lino was built for
>>>Maffei (d. 1522) on a site purported to
>>
>>> have been where L.'s family once dwelt.
>>>Herewith two views of the terracotta
>>
>>> bust of L. attributed either to Giovanni
>>>della Robbia (d. 1529) or to Benedetto di
>>
>>> Buglione (d. 1521), now in Volterra's diocesan museum:
>>
>>> http://www.tuttipapi.it/TombeMausoleiRitratti/78-Lino.jpg
>>
>>> http://www.toscanaoggi.it/musei/foto/grandi/11-2.gif
>>
>>>
>>
>>>
>>
>>> 2) Thecla of Iconium (d. late 1st cent.,
>>>supposedly). We know about T. from the
>>
>>> romance-like, late second-century apocryphal
>>>Acts of Paul and Thecla (BHG 1710-
>>
>>> 22; BHL 8020-25; BHO 1152-56). This makes T. a nobly born young woman of
>>
>>> Iconium (today's Konya in Turkey) whose
>>>determination to remain virginal arouses
>>
>>> the hostility of parents and lovers, who is
>>>converted to Christianity by St. Paul,
>>
>>> who is condemned to death by the Roman state, survives two attempted
>>
>>> executions, converts her mother, lives as a
>>>recluse, miraculously avoids being
>>
>>> raped by brigands, and finally dies a natural
>>>death. Her many sufferings make
>>
>>> her a martyr. Widely venerated in medieval and modern Christianity, T. was
>>
>>> dropped from the RM in 2001. Her feast today
>>>remains on local calendars (e.g.,
>>
>>> at Tarragona, which has her putative relics
>>>said to have been translated from
>>
>>> Armenia and where she is the patron saint).
>>>Orthodox churches celebrate T. on
>>
>>> 24. September.
>>
>>>
>>
>>> T. on the remains of a pilgrim flask from one
>>>of her Eastern cult sites, now in the
>>
>>> Yale Art Gallery, New Haven (CT):
>>
>>> http://tinyurl.com/46a939
>>
>>> Here's T., again between two beasts, on a
>>>sixth-century flask depicting both her
>>
>>> and St. Men(n)as of Egypt. now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris:
>>
>>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/antiquite-tardive/128179152/
>>
>>>
>>
>>> Two views of the entrance to the cave at
>>>Ma'aloula in Syria traditionally said to
>>
>>> have been T.'s resting place:
>>
>>> http://tinyurl.com/3fh6kc
>>
>>> http://cache.virtualtourist.com/2054404.jpg
>>
>>>
>>
>>> In this view of the late twelfth-century
>>>ciborium in the basilica di Sant'Ambrogio
>>
>>> in Milan T. is the center figure in the group at the left:
>>
>>> http://tinyurl.com/3hnbg3
>>
>>> A smaller but clearer view:
>>
>>> http://www.jemolo.com/alta/imgl0063.jpg
>>
>>>
>>
>>> Here's T. with St. Sebastian in the central
>>>panel of the Retable of Sts. Thecla and
>>
>>> Sebastian (late fifteenth-century; attributed
>>>to Jaume Huguet) in the cathedral of
>>
>>> Barcelona:
>>
>>> http://tinyurl.com/488zel
>>
>>>
>>
>>>
>>
>>> 3) Sossus (Sossius, Sosius; d. 305,
>>>supposedly). Today's less well known saint of
>>
>>> the Regno is the early Christian martyr of
>>>Misenum (now Miseno [NA]) in coastal
>>
>>> Campania. S. is mentioned by the
>>>fifth-century exile in Campania Quodvultdeus
>>
>>> of Carthage, was depicted in the now lost
>>>mosaics of the late fifth- or very early
>>
>>> sixth-century church of St. Priscus at old
>>>Capua, is listed for today in the early
>>
>>> sixth-century calendar of Carthage, appears
>>>in a non-Januarian sixth-century
>>
>>> fresco in the catacombs of St. Gaudiosus at
>>>Naples, and is the subject of a verse
>>
>>> epigram placed by pope St. Symmachus
>>>(498-514) over a relic niche in his chapel
>>
>>> of St. Andrew next to old St. Peter's on the
>>>Vatican. The latter calls S. a
>>
>>> _minister_ (a term often designating a deacon) who attempted to save his
>>
>>> bishop's life and who suffered martyrdom along with him.
>>
>>>
>>
>>> A text of that epigram (PONTIFICIS VENERANDA SEQUENS... ) together with an
>>
>>> Italian translation can be read about halfway down the page here:
>>
>>> http://www.tuttofrattamaggiore.it/chiese/chiesa_sansosio.htm
>>
>>>
>>
>>> In the late sixth- or seventh-century _Acta
>>>Bononiensia_ of the St. Januarius
>>
>>> venerated especially at Naples (BHL 4132) and
>>>in subsequent versions of this
>>
>>> account, S. was a deacon of Misenum who was
>>>already in prison when J., who was
>>
>>> _not_ his bishop, became involved the
>>>tribunals that led to his own martyrdom,
>>
>>> along with that of S. and others, at the
>>>Solfatara in the Phlegraean Fields outside
>>
>>> of Pozzuoli. S. was one of the saints of
>>>coastal Campania whose cult came early
>>
>>> to England (probably with abbot St. Hadrian
>>>of Nisida) and traveled thence to the
>>
>>> Low Countries, as evidenced by the Calendar
>>>of St. Willibrord, written between
>>
>>> 702 and 706 and now Paris lat. 10837.
>>
>>>
>>
>>> According to a translation account (BHL 4116) of Januarius and some of his
>>
>>> companions whose earliest witness is of the ninth century as well as to the
>>
>>> historical martyrologies from Bede onward,
>>>S.'s remains were soon removed from
>>
>>> their resting place at the Solfatara to a church at Misenum where they were
>>
>>> venerated. In John the Deacon's account (BHL
>>>4135) of S.'s early tenth-century
>>
>>> translation to Naples S.'s tomb in this
>>>church, which is said to have become
>>
>>> ruinous, was recognized only because it still
>>>bore a few letters of his name. Be
>>
>>> that as it may, remains said to have been
>>>those of S. from Misenum were then
>>
>>> deposited in a newly built Benedictine
>>>monastery in Naples that had recently
>>
>>> acquired the relics of St. Severinus of
>>>Noricum and that shortly became known as
>>
>>> the monastery of saints Severinus and Sossius
>>>(in the earliest sources, S.'s name
>>
>>> appears as 'Sossus' but by this time the form
>>>with palatalizing 'i' was already
>>
>>> standard).
>>
>>>
>>
>>> From there S.'s cult spread medievally to
>>>such other Benedictine monastery towns
>>
>>> as Falvaterra (FR) in southern Lazio and San
>>>Sossio Baronia (AV) in Campania. In
>>
>>> 1806 the monastery was secularized and in
>>>1807 the remains or putative remains
>>
>>> of Severinus and Sossius were formally
>>>translated to Fratta (now Frattamaggiore
>>
>>> [NA]), just north of Naples, where they
>>>remain today in the originally twelfth- or
>>
>>> thirteenth-century church of San Sossio,
>>>shown here with its baroque facade and
>>
>>> sixteenth-century belltower:
>>
>>> http://tinyurl.com/nsvcp
>>
>>> This building, an Italian national monument
>>>sometimes said to go back in part to
>>
>>> the tenth century and since last year a papal
>>>basilica, was gutted by fire in
>>
>>> November 1945:
>>
>>> http://tinyurl.com/3bovg9
>>
>>> http://tinyurl.com/2w6wly
>>
>>> and has been restored in the interior to a "romanesque" look:
>>
>>> http://tinyurl.com/3bq33g
>>
>>> http://tinyurl.com/3czkkl
>>
>>> Italian-language accounts of the church are here:
>>
>>> http://www.frattamaggiore.org/sansossio.htm
>>
>>> http://www.tuttofrattamaggiore.it/chiese/chiesa_sansosio.htm
>>
>>> http://www.trionfo.altervista.org/Monumenti/frattasossio.htm
>>
>>>
>>
>>> Also in Campania, S. is reported to be among
>>>the saints depicted in a twelfth-
>>
>>> century Januarian portrait cycle at the
>>>church of St. Agnellus (S. Aniello) at
>>
>>> Quindici (AV). See the Italian-language discussion here:
>>
>>> http://www.agendaonline.it/avellino/articoli/chiesaquindici.htm
>>
>>>
>>
>>> Here he is as depicted in the
>>>fifteenth-century Polyptych of Saints
>>>Severinus and
>>
>>> Sossius (whose central figure is Severinus)
>>>now in Naples' Museo Nazionale di
>>
>>> Capodimonte:
>>
>>> http://www.prolocofratta.it/sansossio/images/sossio.jpg
>>
>>>
>>
>>>
>>
>>> 4) Constantius of Ancona (d. 6th cent.). We
>>>know about C. (in Italian, Costanzo)
>>
>>> from pope St. Gregory the Great, _Dialogues_,
>>>1. 5, where we are told that he
>>
>>> lived for many years in monastic garb at
>>>Ancona, that he was mansionary there of
>>
>>> the church of St. Stephen, that he was short
>>>of stature and unprepossessing to
>>
>>> look at, and that he had a great reputation
>>>as a holy person, and that his holiness
>>
>>> was attested by a miracle in which lamps that
>>>he had filled with water blazed
>>
>>> just as though they contained oil. Gregory
>>>then recounts an exemplary tale in
>>
>>> which the humble and charitable C. embraces a rustic who had come to Ancona
>>
>>> to see the great man of whom he has heard much but who on having C. pointed
>>
>>> out to him refuses, thanks to C.'s appearance
>>>and the rustic's prejudices, to credit
>>
>>> the identification.
>>
>>>
>>
>>> The fourteenth-century hagiographers Pietro
>>>Calò and Petrus de Natalibus report
>>
>>> that at some unspecified time C.'s relics
>>>were translated from Ancona to Venice
>>
>>> and placed there on a 12. July in the church
>>>of St. Basil. They also give today as
>>
>>> C.'s _dies natalis_. When Venice's parish of
>>>San Basilio vescovo was merged in
>>
>>> 1808/09 into that of Santi Gervaio e Protasio
>>>its putative relics of C. as they were
>>
>>> then -- a fragment of bone had been given to
>>>the diocese of Ancona in 1760 --
>>
>>> were transferred to the latter's church
>>>(a.k.a. San Trovaso). They are said to
>>
>>> remain there today.
>>
>>>
>>
>>> Best,
>>
>>> John Dillon
>>
>>> (Soss[i]us lightly revised from last year's post)
>>
>>>
>>
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>>
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--
George Hardin Brown, Professor of English Emeritus
Department of English, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2087
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