medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (22. July) is the feast day of:
1) Mary Magdalen (d. 1st cent.). M., so named, appears several times in the New Testament as one of the women about Jesus. Jesus had cast seven devils out of her (Luke 8:2; Mark 16:9), she was among the Galilean women who are recorded by name as having observed the Crucifixion (Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40; John 19:25), she was one of the women who went to Jesus' tomb to anoint him (Matthew 28:1-3; Mark 16:1-3; Luke 24:1), and it was she who first saw the risen Jesus (Mark 16:9; John 20: 11-18). M. being thus a person of some importance in the Gospel narratives, some from at least Gregory the Great onward have attempted give her a fuller presentation by identifying her with others, notably Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:38-42; John 11) and the unnamed penitent sinner who washed Jesus' feet (Luke 7:36-50). This triune M. was the subject of a liturgically influential sermon attributed to Odo of Cluny (BHL 5439-41).
M.'s veneration in the West is at least as old as Bede's martyrology (ca. 720). She came to be viewed as an hermit saint and as a prophet as well as as the reformed penitent familiar from modern constructions of her. A good avenue of approach, with important basic bibliography, is Sherry Reames' introduction to her TEAMS edition of John Mirk's _Sermon on St Mary Magdalen_:
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/11sr.htm
In the East and also in the early medieval West it was believed that M. accompanied the Theotokos to Ephesus, died there, and was there entombed. From the seventh century onward we have notices of a church over her sepulture near the entrance to the cave of the Seven Sleepers. The emperor Leo VI (886-912) translated her putative relics from Ephesus to Constantinople, where they were venerated in the then newly built monastery of St. Lazarus (whose putative relics Leo had also translated from Ephesus). In the Latin West a legend emerged in the tenth century whereby M. had traveled to Provence, had participated in its evangelization, and had died there. In the following century the Cluniac abbey of Vézelay in Burgundy claimed to have M.'s remains, translated from Provence centuries earlier.
In 1058 pope Stephen IX, who as a former papal legate in Constantinople is likely to have been aware of the presence there of relics believed to be M.'s, issued a bull confirming the authenticity of those at Vézelay (not far from his native Lorraine). In the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries the great pilgrimage church dedicated to her was constructed there and there, in 1267, St. Louis IX and other French royals witnessed a translation of her relics. But in 1279 Charles I of Sicily, who was also count of Provence and who had been present at Vézelay for the ceremonies of 1267, oversaw in a church near Aix dedicated to a saint Maximinus the Invention both of that saint's relics and of what were proclaimed to be the true relics of M.
In 1289, under Charles II of Sicily and Provence, the church where these relics were discovered, located near a grotto called La Sainte-Baume, began to be replaced with an impressive new structure seemingly dedicated both to Maximinus and to M., consecrated in 1316 (when the crypt had been finished), and left unfinished in 1532. See the first of the translated "Letters of Charles II, King of Naples [_sic_; correctly, "of Sicily"], concerning the Church and Monastery of Saint-Maximin in Provence, 1295" at:
<http://tinyurl.com/25z93gf>. The church is commonly referred to simply as that of St. Mary Magdalen. The town, named for the adjacent abbey, is now Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume (Var).
Illustrated sites on the basilique Sainte-Madeleine, Vézelay (Yonne):
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/vezelay-basilica.htm
http://tinyurl.com/5fo2uu
http://tinyurl.com/2tvc49
http://www.art-roman.net/vezelay/vezelay.htm
http://www.romanes.com/Vezelay/
http://tinyurl.com/5hdw6y
A relic of M. in the crypt at Vézelay:
http://tinyurl.com/266tz2h
A page of views of the basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume is here (this is not a hot link; you will have to cut and paste):
www.france-voyage.com/photos/basilique-saint-maximin-la-sainte-baume-6218.htm
Other views:
http://www.web-provence.com/villes/saint-maximin-2.htm
http://tinyurl.com/q4d7y9
http://tinyurl.com/29smlnr
http://www.visitvar.fr/ressources/photos/5/Maxi/2121.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/ps4o65
http://tinyurl.com/2ejaul4
http://tinyurl.com/4mxugs
http://fr.structurae.de/photos/index.cfm?JS=32379
Interior:
http://tinyurl.com/3tfnq4
http://tinyurl.com/2e5oacy
http://storage.canalblog.com/70/36/112795/21508202.jpg
http://storage.canalblog.com/38/00/112795/21508303.jpg
http://fr.structurae.de/photos/index.cfm?JS=50104
http://fr.structurae.de/photos/index.cfm?JS=32396
http://fr.structurae.de/photos/index.cfm?JS=32380
More views at bottom here (scroll to the right):
http://tinyurl.com/54pm57
The crypt in M.'s church at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume (originally, an above-ground oratory):
http://tinyurl.com/6fztez
M.'s reliquary:
http://www.aboutprovence.com/Mmcrypt2.jpg
http://magdalineage.com/skull.html
Better views of the reliquary at home in the crypt:
http://tinyurl.com/6lbulb
http://tinyurl.com/6jc95h
The reliquary's copy in the upper church:
http://lieuxsacres.canalblog.com/images/MM.jpg
Some views of the cave of Sainte-Baume are here:
http://tinyurl.com/2a9v8ua
M. as depicted in detail views of the mid-twelfth-century (ca. 1145-1155) Passion of Christ window in Chartres cathedral:
http://tinyurl.com/29ndprf
http://tinyurl.com/26vjly2
The early thirteenth-century (ca. 1205-1215) Mary Magdalen window in the cathedral of Chartres:
http://tinyurl.com/2ang7z6
http://tinyurl.com/26a526j
M. (at right) as depicted in a mid-thirteenth-century (ca. 1250-1260) window of the west choir in Naumburg cathedral:
http://www.wga.hu/art/zgothic/stained/13c/12g_1250.jpg
Expandable views of paintings by Giotto and assistants from the earlier (first quarter) fourteenth-century Mary Magdalen cycle in the cappella della Maddalena of the Basilica Inferiore at Assisi:
http://www.gliscritti.it/gallery2/v/assisigiottomaddalena/
M. as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
a) At left with another Mary, observing Jesus' burial, in a sanctuary fresco:
http://tinyurl.com/pyy3z9
b) Jesus appearing to M. before the angel-guarded tomb and M. attempting to touch the risen Jesus, in a vault fresco over the altar:
http://tinyurl.com/otm8sa
http://tinyurl.com/q2s7fb
http://tinyurl.com/r7hv7x
Lukas Moser's Magdalenenaltar (1432) in the St. Maria Magdalena Kirche at Tiefenbronn (Lkr. Enzkreis) in Baden-Württemberg:
http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Fotos/Maria_Magdalena12.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/279qaom
Views of the church (ca. 1400):
http://web02.city-map.de/img/16220011001.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/27n52gd
http://tinyurl.com/24pnre5
M.'s cycle in the mid-fifteenth-century frescoes of the chapelle Saint-Érige at Auron, Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée (Alpes-Maritimes):
http://www2.culture.gouv.fr/culture/medieval/en/a-zoomb1.htm
An expandable view of Donatello's M. in the Museo dell'Opera del duomo, Florence (ca. 1457):
http://tinyurl.com/5ams54
Detail:
http://tinyurl.com/6xlpqs
Scenes from M.'s legend (ca. 1463) as painted by Giacomo d'Ivrea in the apse of the originally thirteenth-century chiesa di Sainte-Marie-Magdeleine de Villa at Gressan in Italy's Val d'Aosta:
http://www.naturaosta.it/images/maddalena.jpg
While we're here, a couple of exterior views of the church (whose facade was painted by the same artist):
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/17550747.jpg
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/14121969.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/nbr5h6
M. as depicted in the recently restored fifteenth-century frescoes of the oratorio di San Bernardo at Briona (NO) in Piedmont:
http://tinyurl.com/nyzmz7
M. as depicted in the recently restored late fifteenth-/early sixteenth-century frescoes of the oratorio di Sant'Antonio Abate in the same town:
http://tinyurl.com/l8kbvu
Some other medieval churches now dedicated to M. (whether all were so dedicated medievally is another matter: the early documentation for the second of these refers to it only by location):
a) The originally eleventh-/late twelfth-century église Sainte-Madeleine at Villefagnan (Charente):
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/pascal.baudouin/egmagdeleine.htm
b) The originally twelfth- or very early thirteenth-century (first documented, 1205) chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena at Chiaramonti (SS) in Sardinia (all views expandable):
http://tinyurl.com/ntzhbn
http://tinyurl.com/lo9y5t
http://tinyurl.com/kpfwl8
c) The originally twelfth-/late thirteenth-century église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine at Aigueperse (Rhône):
http://www.edelo.net/roman/images/rhone/aigueperse/photos.htm
http://tinyurl.com/m8tz2a
d) The originally thirteenth-/early fourteenth-century chapelle de la Madeleine in Brussels:
http://tinyurl.com/2djl6p2
2) Plato of Ancyra (?). We first hear of the megalomartyr P. from his entry under today in the fourth-century Syriac Martyrology and in a fifth-century narration attributed to a Nilus whom scholars used to identify as St. Nilus the elder (N. of Sinai; d. 430) in which a young man is said to have recognized P. in a vision thanks to his previously having seen a portrait of this saint. The _De situ terrae sanctae_ of Theodosius (ca. 530) records P.'s resting place at Ancyra (today's Ankara). Not long afterward there must have been a translation of his relics to Constantinople, as Procopius tells us that the emperor Justinian erected a church to him there. P.'s pre-metaphrastic and metaphrastic Passiones (BHG 1549-1550 and 1551-1552, respectively) make him a martyr of the Great Persecution.
In Orthodox churches P. has traditionally been celebrated on 18. November. The (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology and the ninth-century martyrologies of Florus, Ado, and Usuard all use today's date for him.
P. as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century (betw. 1335 and 1350) frescoes of the south nave (parecclesion of St. Nicholas) the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/ycvlybd
Detail:
http://tinyurl.com/yfrborh
P.'s martyrdom as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century (betw. 1335 and 1350) frescoes of the narthex in the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/p6lz3g
3) Wandregisilus (d. 668). W. (in French, Wandrille) is the founder of the abbey of Fontenelle (now that of Saint-Wandrille) in today's Saint-Wandrille-Rancon (Seine-Maritime) in Normandy. His Vitae (BHL 8804, 8805, 8806b) seem to begin in the eighth century; these make him a relative of Pepin of Landen and a high official at the Frankish court who left for a monastic life and who had traveled across the Alps to Bobbio before returning to Francia and founding his own monastery there in 649.
W.'s Fontenelle was destroyed by Northmen ca. 858. The abbey there was re-established about a century later. Its medieval buildings were badly damaged in the sixteenth-century wars of religion. Herewith some views of the remaining structures:
Refectory (three expandable views):
http://tinyurl.com/3asgb8
Abbey church of Saint-Pierre:
http://tinyurl.com/2mbuml
http://tinyurl.com/2qnwts
http://tinyurl.com/2losna
http://tinyurl.com/3yzvf8
Cloister:
http://tinyurl.com/2skxxq
The abbey's own site:
http://www.st-wandrille.com/
4) Walter of Lodi (d. 1223/24). According to his Vita (BHL 8795m) by his cousin BonGiovanni, W.'s childless parents vowed that if they were blessed with a son they would dedicate him to the service of God. After W. (in Italian, Gualtero, Gualtiero) was born the parents fulfilled this vow by raising him in a way suitable for a future religious life and by seeing to it that he became a Hospitaller at the age of fifteen. W. then served in various hospitals in Lombardy. In 1206 the city fathers of his native Lodi granted him land for the construction of what would become its ospitale della Misericordia. During the remainder of his not overly long life (he is thought to have died at about the age of forty), W. oversaw the growth of this institution and founded other hospitals in Lombardy which he administered as dependencies.
W. was noted for miracles in his lifetime. After his death his burial place in the church of the Misericordia (destroyed in 1856) became the locus of a cult. In the fifteenth century W.'s relics were translated to the high altar of Lodi's cathedral. After these had been relocated several times within that building, what remained of them were laid to rest in 1960 in the nineteenth-century church of San Gualtero near the site of the former Misericordia.
Lodi's cathedral of San Bassiano uses this marble sarcophagus as its main altar:
http://tinyurl.com/f4mmm
From the left, the figures represent St. Peter, St. Bassianus of Lodi (19. January; Lodi's principal patron), and perhaps W.
A page of views of the cathedral is here:
http://www.medioevo.org/artemedievale/Pages/Lombardia/DuomodiLodi.html
For BonGiovanni's Vita of W., see Alessandro Caretta, "Una nuova edizione della 'Vita' di s. Gualtiero da Lodi," _Archivio storico lodigiano_ 108 (1989), 101-40.
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post revised)
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