medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
28. August was also the feast day of (among others):
Julian of Brioude (?). J. is a martyr of Auvergne, commemorated by an early Passio (BHL 4540), in poems by St. Sidonius Apollinaris and by Venantius Fortunatus, in the _Miracula_ of St. Gregory of Tours, and in a legendary Passio (BHL 4542) once ascribed to Gregory of Tours. From this ensemble of posthumous acclaim, it would seem that he was a Christian of Vienne in military service who during a persecution fled to today's Brioude (Haute-Loire), where he was hunted down and decapitated. Whereas the soldiers who performed this execution are said to have brought J.'s head back to Vienne after washing it in a fountain, his body -- so the story goes -- was taken and buried nearby by pious Christians. In the later fourth century J.'s cult was renewed and a memorial basilica was erected over what was believed to have been his grave.
In the later fifth century J. was credited with a local victory over Burgundian raiders and his church was rebuilt. At about the same time divine providence ordained the finding of J.'s head by St. Mamertus of Vienne, who will have discovered it at Vienne in the tomb of J.'s former military commander, the martyr St. Ferréol. J.'s annual feast is said to have been fixed for today by St. Germanus of Auxerre when he was passing through Brioude; less legendarily, it appears under this day in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology and in the martyrologies of Ado of Vienne (quelle surprise!) and of Usuard.
J.'s present Basilique Saint-Julien at Brioude is a later eleventh- to thirteenth-century structure built over the remains of several predecessors. It was a major pilgrimage church; dust from the saint's tomb and water from a nearby fountain at today's St-Ferréol-d'Auroure (Haute-Loire) were considered _materia medica_. Herewith some views, etc.:
http://tinyurl.com/2jngmy
http://tinyurl.com/5nnfaz
http://www.route-romane.net/default_fr.php?gzev=st_bk_190
http://tinyurl.com/2uhuv5
Four pages:
http://www.art-roman.net/brioude/brioude.htm
Relics said to be of J. are kept here:
http://tinyurl.com/6znryj
And here are illustrated French-language and English-language versions of a page on the fourteenth-century église Saint-Julien at Tournon-sur-Rhône (Ardèche):
http://www.ville-tournon.com/patrimoine/eglise/index.php
http://www.ville-tournon.com/english/heritage/church/church.htm
Re-used stones from this church's "romanesque" predecessor are shown and discussed towards the bottom of this page:
http://www.patrimoine-ardeche.com/visites/tournon.htm
A black-and-white image of this church's early sixteenth-century fresco of the Crucifixion:
http://tinyurl.com/2rfnvh
Best,
John Dillon
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