medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (18. July) is the feast day of:
1) Symphorosa and companions (?). S. is a martyr of the Via Tiburtina venerated at Tivoli and at Rome. She has a legendary Passio (BHL 7971) that has her martyred along with her seven sons late in the reign of the emperor Hadrian and buried at her villa at the ninth milestone on the aforementioned Roman road, the location also given for her in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology. A ruinous martyrial basilica erected on the spot is said to have been visible in 1111. Remains of this structure, which had been rebuilt at least once, were described by Antonio Bosio early in the seventeenth century. Here's a view of what's left now:
http://tinyurl.com/ntb5rq
Pope Steven III (752-57) had the putative relics of the entire family, including Symphorosa's supposed husband St. Getulius (10. June), translated from Tivoli and interred in his newly built Roman church located in the Porticus Octaviae and known today as Sant'Angelo in Pescheria. Herewith a few exterior views of the church:
http://www.romasegreta.it/s.angelo/porticodiottavia.htm
http://tinyurl.com/38kml8
The dome visible in the background of the first view belongs to Santa Maria in Campitelli.
Two expandable views of the interior (followed by one Santa Maria Maggiore) showing the left apse at subfloor level and its early medieval frescoes are here:
http://tinyurl.com/6qkw3t
Here's a view of the rebuilt, originally earlier fifteenth-century (consecrated, 1438) chiesa parrocchiale di Santa Maria Assunta e Santa Sinforosa in Tossicia (TE) in Abruzzo (note the different styles of the two portals):
http://tinyurl.com/lhq59b
This church's dual dedication -- that to S. is said to be popular only, not official -- is often abbreviated, both in the usual way of citing only the Marian one and in a collapsed form naming both (Santa Maria Sinforosa).
Expandable (left-click only) detail views of the two portals and of the church's fifteenth-century reclining Madonna (sometimes identified as S.) are here:
http://tinyurl.com/ld2qn4
There's an interesting modern story associated with that statue. Stolen in 1978, it passed to a Briton whose collection was subsequently shown on television. Among the many who saw that show was an expatriate from Tossicia who recognized the statue and who notified the local authorities. The Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Teramo bought the statue and arranged for its repatriation to Tossicia.
While we're here, it's worth continuing down that page and beyond to the many views of Tossicia's fifteenth-century chiesa di Sant'Antonio Abate, with its portal of 1471. A much smaller set of views is here:
http://tinyurl.com/nqvssh
A detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/nyzf3t
The town's page on this church:
http://tinyurl.com/lrs5qe
and its page on Santa Maria Sinforosa:
http://tinyurl.com/mromus
Tossicia was severely shaken by last April's great earthquake in the Aquilano. There was considerable damage to private homes and to the palazzo housing the local museum. I have not seen any report of damage to Sant'Antonio Abate and -- though it's unsafe to draw conclusions from such a brief look -- this video shows only minor damage to Santa Maria Sinforosa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syPB-ErF9Uc
In addition to Tivoli and to Tossicia, S. is a patron saint of Roccadaspide (SA) in southern Campania, where the chiesa di Santa Sinforosa is of mid-fifteenth-century origin, and of San Chirico Raparo (PZ) in Basilicata, where her cult was introduced only in the late sixteenth century.
2) Rufillus of Forlimpopoli (?). Forlimpopoli (FC) in southern Emilia-Romagna is the former Forum Popili on the Via Aemilia. R. (also Rofillus, Rufilius, etc.) is its legendary protobishop. According to an anonymous sermon praising him (BHL 7823; not later than the early twelfth century), he was charitable, ascetic, preached regularly and often, and together with St. Mercurialis of nearby Forlě slew a dragon that had been threatening their towns.
R.'s cult spread widely in central Italy, where it is estimated that medievally some thirty churches were dedicated to him. At Forlimpopoli itself the originally late antique and much rebuilt basilica di San Rufillo (or Ruffillo) has been dedicated to R. since at least the late tenth century (when it enters history as the already existing church of a newly founded abbey) and is presumed to have previously served as the town's cathedral. It houses R.'s putative remains, removed to Forlě in 1362 and returned only relatively recently.
3) Maternus of Milan (d. early 4th cent.). M. is the traditional seventh bishop of Milan, succeeding Mirocles (who participated in councils in 313 and 314) and preceding Protasius (who participated in the council of Serdica/Sardica in 343/44). His legendary Vita (BHL 5682) departs from this chronology and places his pontificate during the Diocletianic persecution; it also ascribes to him the translation from Lodi of the Milanese martyrs Felix and Nabor and the erection of their memorial basilica in Milan (in which M. was buried). In the fifth-century mosaics of Milan's San Vittore in Ciel d'Oro (now part of the basilica di Sant'Ambrogio) M. comes between the representations of Felix and Nabor. Here's an expandable view of his portrait there:
http://tinyurl.com/5spnu3
4) Philastrius (d. late 4th cent.). P. was a theologian and anti-Arian controversialist active in northern Italy in the latter half of the fourth century. St. Augustine met him in Milan close to the time in which P. was composing his extant catalogue of heresies, the _Diversarum haereseon liber_. According to a sermon (BHL 6796) attributed to St. Gaudentius of Brescia, P. was a mainstay of the Catholics in Milan during the episcopate of St. Ambrose's Arian predecessor Auxentius (d. 374). He later became bishop of Brescia, where his miracle-working body was venerated medievally in the city's successive cathedrals, especially the eleventh-/twelfth-century Santa Maria Rotonda shown here in various views:
http://tinyurl.com/28regn
http://tinyurl.com/2ctn8g
http://tinyurl.com/2ht5yz
And here's a view of the originally later medieval chiesa di San Filastrio at Tavernole sul Mella (BS):
http://www.valletrompia.it/esy/images/83492.jpg
This church has been restored quite recently. Here's an illustrated, Italian-language account with slightly expandable views of some of its fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century wall paintings:
http://tinyurl.com/35xpj6
A view of the interior prior to the restoration:
http://www.valletrompia.it/esy/images/35481.pjpeg
5) Arnulf of Metz (d. 640). A. was a high official in the Austrasian court who resigned to become a hermit with his friend St. Romaric (the founder of the first community at what became Remiremont in the Vosges) but who according to his contemporary Vita (BHL 692) was instead made bishop of Metz against his will. Ultimately he was able to resign from office and undertake his long-desired eremitical life. A. died at the future Remiremont and was translated to Metz, _non sine miraculis_. Through his son Ansegisel and the latter's wife St. Begga he became a progenitor of the Pippinids.
Here's A. in an illuminated initial in an earlier twelfth-century legendary from Cîteaux (Dijon, Bibliothčque municipale, ms. 641, f. 18):
http://tinyurl.com/2huabk
And here's an eleventh-century depiction of pope St. Leo IX dedicating Metz' rebuilt abbey church dedicated to A.:
http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/art-30029
6) Bruno of Segni (d. 1123). The theologian and biblical scholar B. (also B. of Asti), a native of Solero in Piedmont, was educated at the monastery of Santa Perpetua in Asti and at Bologna before becoming a canon of Siena. His denunciation in 1079 if the Eucharistic doctrine of Berengar of Tours led to his elevation in the same year to the see of Segni in today's Lazio. An adherent of the reform papacy, B. served in the papal court during the pontificates of Gregory VII, Victor III, Urban II, and Paschal II. In 1103, for reasons that are unclear, he became a monk of Montecassino while still retaining his bishopric; in 1107 he was elected abbot there. Paschal II, with whom B. had a very uneasy relationship, compelled him to return to Segni in 1112. B. was canonized in 1181.
An English-language translation of two anti-simoniacal writings of B.:
http://tinyurl.com/lez9sv
A few views of Segni's originally early thirteenth-century chiesa di San Pietro. Erected over the remains of an ancient temple located at the town's highest point, it replaced an earlier structure on the same spot that in B.'s time was Segni's cathedral:
http://tinyurl.com/5fcoo2
http://tinyurl.com/2do3rl
http://www.romeartlover.it/Gregseg3.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/67zl7n
7) Simon of Lipnicza (d. 1482). As a young man S. left his native Lipnicza Murowana in Lesser Poland for Kraków, where in 1454 he entered the Jagiellonian academy. St. John of Capestrano had preached in the city in the previous year and had founded there a convent dedicated to the newly canonized St. Bernardino of Siena. The proselytizing of its friars is credited with an important role in S.'s decision to enter the Franciscan order in 1457 along with ten of his fellow students. Ordained priest in about 1460, S. developed his talents as a preacher and in 1463 became the first member of his order to preach at Kraków's Wawel Cathedral.
In 1472 S. was one of the Polish Franciscans who took part in St. Bernardino's translation to what is now the Basilica di San Bernardino at L'Aquila in today's Abruzzo. In 1478 he was again in Italy, participating in a general chapter at Pavia and then visiting Rome prior to undertaking a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. S. died while ministering to the very ill during a major outbreak of plague at Kraków. His cult was immediate. He was canonized in 2007.
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post lightly revised)
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