medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (15. June) is the feast day of:
1) Vitus (d. ca. 304, supposedly). We know nothing about the historical V. (Vito, Veit, Vid, Gui, Guy, etc.). His cult is ancient: there is evidence of a church in Rome in the fifth century dedicated to him and from the correspondence of Gregory the Great we learn that in the sixth century there were monasteries dedicated to him in Sicily and in Sardinia.
V. has a legendary Passio (BHL 8711-8716) whose earliest version is thought to be of the seventh century. According to this, he was a boy of seven years (in some versions, twelve years) at Lilybaeum in Sicily (today's Mazara del Vallo [TP]), a professed Christian, and a miracle-worker. His pagan father had him tortured and thrown in prison in an attempt to get him to renounce his faith. But an angel freed him together with his nurse Crescentia and his tutor Modestus (in some versions, Crescentia's husband), whereupon V., together with these surrogate parent figures, removed to Lucania and continued to profess Christianity and to perform miracles.
Still according to the legend, V.'s fame reached the ears of the emperor Diocletian, who called him to Rome to cure his demonically possessed son. V. obtained this cure but refused to sacrifice to Rome's pagan gods. Diocletian had V. tortured anew and then imprisoned along with the always faithful Crescentia and Modestus. But again they were liberated by an angel, who now brought them back to Lucania near the river Sele (thus making them saints of the Regno; the area in question is now in southern Campania). From there they were called not long afterward to their eternal reward.
The seemingly very late seventh- or early eighth-century (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology appears to be following the legend when it says of V. only _In Lucania, Viti_ ("In Lucania, Vitus") without naming a specific cult site. In the Roman rite Modestus and Crescentia were celebrated jointly with V. from at least the ninth century through 1969.
Here's a fourteenth-century illumination of all three (Crescentia, in the middle, appears to have received a stain making her seem bearded) in which, contrary to the standard legend, they are depicted as being martyred by decapitation:
http://saints.bestlatin.net/gallery/modestus_bnfms.htm
In a German tradition, abbot Fulrad of Saint-Denis outside Paris had V.'s relics translated thither in the mid-eighth century, whence in turn abbot Hilduin gave them to the monastery of Corvey in today's Kreis Höxter in Niedersachsen. The latter, a daughter house of Corbie, became a major medieval and early modern cult center for V., especially in the western empire. During the Thirty Years' War (or perhaps earlier; accounts differ) relics of venerated as those of V. wound up in Prague, where they are housed in the medieval cathedral that already was dedicated to him. At about the same time V. was declared patron of Mazara del Vallo (TP), whose cathedral houses what is said to be one of V.'s arms along with other relics of him and where there is a major annual celebration in his honor. V.'s former abbey church at Mönchengladbach in the Rheinland has among its relics a head said to be that of V.
Here's an illustrated, German-language account of the Carolingian-period Westbau of the abbey church at Corvey:
http://www.wernernolte.de/corvey.html
Some single views:
http://tinyurl.com/mcvmcf
http://tinyurl.com/km8bps
http://www.leonardfrank.com/Worldheritage/Corvey04.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/m9dmuz
http://www.ib.hu-berlin.de/~wumsta/Milkau/180-2.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/m6prs6
also (click on the links):
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/01070/01070m.html
and the expandable view at upper left on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/lujlup
An English-language page on the originally late tenth- to twelfth-century Klosterkirche St. Vitus at Drübeck (Lkr. Harz) in Sachsen-Anhalt:
http://tinyurl.com/3owa87
A page of views:
http://tinyurl.com/4uyq8f
An illustrated, German-language page (many expandable views at bottom) on the Münster-Basilika St. Vitus at Mönchengladbach in the Rheinland (begun after 974; consecrated 1275; rebuilt after massive damage in World War II):
http://www.baukunst-nrw.de/index.php?oid=756
Other sets of expandable views:
http://tinyurl.com/664k2e
http://tinyurl.com/543utd
Various views of Prague's originally fourteenth- and fifteenth-century cathedral of St. Vitus (Katedrála sv. Víta):
http://www.ivanweb.net/images/Mondo/Praga/22.jpg
http://www.ivanweb.net/images/Mondo/Praga/23.jpg
http://www.ivanweb.net/images/Mondo/Praga/25.jpg
And a few views of its famous Last Judgment mosaic:
http://tinyurl.com/psof5
http://www.meritoviaggi.com/praga/immagini/city/mosaic_sanvito.jpg
An illustrated, Slovenian-language page on the originally twelfth-century cerkev sv. Vida in Dravograd (formerly Unterdrauburg):
http://www.ntz-nta.si/default.asp?id=5488
That page has an English-language version:
http://tinyurl.com/6mumem
Another view:
http://tinyurl.com/6hu2bz
Moving down to Croatia, some views of the originally late eleventh-century crkva sv. Vida in the town named for it near Dobrinj, Sveti Vid Dobrinjski:
http://tinyurl.com/n64s5g
http://tinyurl.com/kpu3bp
http://tinyurl.com/na4544
Views of the crkva sv. Vida (ca. 1300) at ®rnovo on the Croatian island of Korčula:
http://tinyurl.com/55bpbr
http://tinyurl.com/6yw7rb
(for enlargement, click on VEĆA FOTOGRAFIJA)
The highest elevation on the Croatian island of Pag is named for V. (sv. Vid; ca. 345 m.). Some views of his chapel (kapelica sv. Vida) at the summit:
http://tinyurl.com/4f4xgd
http://www.8ung.at/pag/slike420/jezerce.JPG
http://tinyurl.com/4grz2h
http://www.8ung.at/pag/slike420/kapelica_otok.JPG
http://www.8ung.at/pag/slike420/kapelica.JPG
V. is the patron saint of Serbia, where he is celebrated secularly on 28. June (Gregorian calendar) and liturgically on 15. June (Julian calendar) in commemoration of the Battle of Kosovo, reputed to have occurred on V.'s day in 1389. He is also one of the late medieval and early modern Fourteen Holy Helpers.
2) Abraham of Clermont (d. ca. 480). The principal sources for A. (also A. of Saint-Cirgues, A. of Saint-Cyrgues) are St. Sidonius Apollinaris' account of him in verse and prose (_Ep._ 7. 17) and its expansion by St. Gregory of Tours (_In gloria confessorum_, 3). According to these notices A. was a native of Persian-ruled Mesopotamia who after five years' imprisonment there for his faith (Sidonius; Gregory says that he was seized by pagans while on his way to visit the Egyptian desert fathers, held for five years, and released by an angel) traveled to Auvergne, where he founded a monastery in the diocese of Clermont (Gregory specifies that this foundation adjoined an existing church of St. Ciricus [i.e. Quiricus]), served as its abbot, and died a saint.
Gregory rounds out his portrayal of A. the exemplary monk by ascribing to him a lifetime miracle, similar to that of the prophet Elias, of providing an abundance of wine at very short notice. He ends his account by observing that sufferers from fever are cured by sleeping next to A.'s tomb.
A.'s monastery, which took the name of the adjacent church, is generally called that of Saint-Cirgues; little is known about its subsequent history. The church. which no longer exists, was rebuilt in the twelfth century and from then onward served a parish in Clermont. In 1804 relics believed to be A.'s were translated from it to Clermont's église Saint-Eutrope. Here's a view of an early medieval _denier_ issued by the abbey:
http://tinyurl.com/n8xsk3
3) Landelin of Lobbes (d. ca. 686). According to his very late ninth- or early tenth-century Vita (BHL 4696) written at Crespin in today's département du Nord in Franch Hainaut, the ascetically inclined repentant sinner L. founded the monastery of Lobbes and then two others in today's Belgian Hainaut. After Lobbes had become rich from royal patronage L. and two disciples departed for a simpler life and ultimately founded the abbey of Crespin. The place had been without water but L., like so many medieval Moseses in the wilderness, struck the earth with his staff and lo! a spring arose. L. was buried at Crespin, _non sine miraculis_. Herewith a page of views of the remains of the abbaye Saint-Landelin (as that house came to be called):
http://www.crespin.fr/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=95
An illustrated, French-language page on the abbey of Lobbes:
http://users.skynet.be/bk342309/Lobbes/page2.html
A view of Lobbes' originally ninth-century former abbey church, now the collégiale Saint-Ursmer, dedicated to L.'s immediate successor there, St. Ursmar (18. April):
http://tinyurl.com/38pll4
4) Bernard of Menthon (d. 1008 or 1081). B. (also B. of Aosta) is the reputed founder of the hospices after which the Great and the Little St. Bernard passes are named. His Vitae differ on when he lived. Tradition makes him a priest at Aosta active in the eleventh century and has him dying at the abbey of St. Lawrence at Novara. B. has had a cult at Novara from the twelfth century onward. He was papally canonized in 1681 (his legend has him canonized ca. 1120). The cathedral of Novara claims to have his remains. In 1923 Pius XI** proclaimed B. patron of skiers and of alpine residents.
Thanks to a belief that B. belonged to the family of the former lords of Menthon, today's Menthon-Saint-Bernard (Haute-Savoie) takes its name from him. Elsewhere in the Jura, B. is the titular of the now much rebuilt église Saint-Bernard-de-Menton at Ferrette (Haut-Rhin). Herewith a few views showing its originally twelfth-century belltower:
http://tinyurl.com/6kj8s3
http://www.maison5temps.com/img/ferrette_3.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/49d3f8
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post lightly revised and with the addition of Abraham of Clermont)
_____
** Or somebody else. In what one may hope is an uncorrected machine translation, one reads on the "ST-BERNARD" subpage of the English-language version of the Château de Menthon's website:
http://www.chateau-de-menthon.com/enindex.htm
the following:
"Saint Bernard de Menthon proclaimed, by Magpie XI, holy for the mountaineers and all those which travel in the mountains,..."
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|
