medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (4. August) is the feast day of:
1) Aristarchus (d. 1st cent.). A., a Hellenized Jew residing at Thessalonica, was a disciple of St. Paul who shared some of the latter's journeys as well as Paul's imprisonment in Rome. He is last heard of in Colossians 4. The date and place of his death are unknown. A.'s commemoration under this date is at least as old as the martyrologies of the Carolingian period. In the Greek church he has had, with different companions, feasts on 27. April (also 27. September) and, as a martyr under Nero, 14. April. A. is reckoned among the Seventy (or Seventy-Two) Disciples (in Orthodox churches, the Seventy Apostles).
During Paul's ministry at Ephesus an angry mob, fearful of Christianity's threat to the cult of Artemis and to their livings that depended on it, seized A. and his fellow disciple Gaius and, dragging them to the theatre, put them in danger of their lives (Acts 19:24-40). Herewith a couple of views of the excavated theatre at Ephesus (whose audience capacity was expanded under Nero to ca. 24,500):
http://tinyurl.com/2a6crrm
http://biblefocus.net/files/EphesusTheatre.jpg
2) Crescentio and Justin of Rome (?). C. (also Crescens, Crescentius, and Crescentianus) and J. are Roman martyrs recorded under today in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology. In the latter's oldest witness, no location is given for them but in succeeding witnesses they are assigned to the cemetery of St. Lawrence on the Via Tiburtina, the general location also given for them (with variations as to specific site) in the seventh-century itineraries for pilgrims in Rome. Nothing reliable is known about either saint.
In the originally perhaps late fifth-century _Passio s. Polychronii_ (BHL 4753, 4754), a legendary Passio of Sts. Lawrence (a much more famous martyr of the Via Tiburtina), Sixtus II, and others, C. is said in the portion dealing with Sixtus to have been a blind man healed by Lawrence in the house of one Narcissus and J. to have been a priest who performed works of charity on Lawrence's behalf. In the portion dealing with Lawrence C. is said to have been slain with L. (so also the _Liber Pontificalis_ in its notice of Sixtus II, where C. is identified as a lector) and the priest J. is said to have co-operated with St. Hippolytus in arranging Lawrence's burial.
In the ninth-century martyrology of St. Ado of Vienne J. appears twice, once (following the [ps.-]HM) under 4. August and once, with details from the aforementioned Passio, under 17. September. Under the latter date Narcissus and C. follow in an entry of their own. The also ninth-century Usuard enters all three only under 17. September, again with J. in an entry of his own and with Narcissus and C. in the one that follows.
J. also has a legendary Passio of his own (versions: BHL 4584-4845b) whose earliest witness is dated to the twelfth century. This has him survive the persecution in which Sixtus and the others are said to have perished (historically, the Valerianic persecution but in these legendary texts, which tend not to separate the two, the persecution under Decius) only to be arrested under an emperor Claudius (presumably Claudius Gothicus, who is not known to have persecuted as emperor), tortured, executed by decapitation, and buried in a crypt in the Ager Veranus (i.e., in the vicinity of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura and where the pilgrim guides say he reposes). J.'s Passio follows the (ps.-)RM in assigning today as his _dies natalis_.
In editing the early RM cardinal Baronio entered J. under today's date but kept Narcissus (who, not having a recorded late antique cult, is now usually thought to be probably entirely legendary) and C. under 17. September. The revised RM of 2001 dispensed with Narcissus and moved C. back to today in accordance with the evidence of the (ps.-)HM.
3) Hyacinth of Rome, martyr of the Via Labicana (?). This H. (the H. of Protus and Hyacinth is likewise a Roman martyr) is entered under today, and without companions, in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology as a martyr of the fourteenth milestone on the Via Labicana. He is probably also the H. who in the ninth-century historical martyrologies and in editions of the RM prior to that of 2001 formed part of the group Zoticus, Irenaeus, Hyacinthus, and Amantius commemorated on 10. February and whose association with Zoticus and Irenaeus is older still, as it already occurs in a Gelasian sacramentary of ca. 800, codex Sangallensis 348. In early witnesses of the (ps.-)HM the entry for those martyrs, where Z. at least is located at the _tenth_ milestone on the Via Labicana, lacks an H. The prevailing assumption today is that the H. of that group was really today's H. and that his entry in the (ps.-)HM under today preserves the true location of his memorial.
In 1902 the archeologist Felice Grossi Gondi reported the existence of remains of an ancient church situated near the Torre Iacova in today's Colonna (RM) at about the fourteenth milestone on the Via Labicana and presumed on the basis of its location to have been H.'s martyrial basilica.
4) Eleutherius of the Tarsia (d. ca. 307, supposedly). E.'s cult is first attested by a church dedicated to him at Constantinople in the reign of Arcadius (395-405). He has a legendary Greek-language Passio (BHG 572), undated but older than the tenth century, that makes him a pagan _koubikoularios_ (i.e. a eunuch of the imperial palace) under Maximianus (Galerius) who, already practicing Christian virtues, withdrew from court and went to the Tarsia in Bithynia (now the plain of Ak Ova in Turkey's Sakarya province), where he built a house with a subterranean oratory, lived there, and had himself baptized by a local priest. The emperor became aware of E.'s Christian faith, failed to persuade him to apostasize, and finally condemned him to death. E. was executed and was buried at his oratory, where later a great church was erected in its stead. Thus far the Passio, which seems to have been written for recitation at E.'s annual feast at his church in the Tarsia.
5) Ia (d. 362?). According to her hagiography, I., a handmaiden of the Lord, was one of numerous Christians taken prisoner by the forces of the Persian king Shapur II during a raid on Roman territory. Brought to Persia with other captives, she proselytized among the local women, some of whose husbands then brought charges of sorcery against her. I. was tortured, imprisoned, found guilty, tortured some more, and finally decapitated. She has two surviving Greek Passiones (BHG 761, 762), both edited by Delehaye in his "Les versions grecques des Actes des martyrs persans sous Sapor II", _Patrologia Orientalis_ 2, pt. 4 (1907), 403-560, at pp. 453-73; the first of these has a Latin translation edited by Delehaye and printed below the corresponding Greek text.
Several no longer extant churches in Constantinople were dedicated to I., most notably one near the Golden Gate restored by Justinian and destroyed during the capture of the city in 1204. Representations of her seem not to exist on the free Web. In lieu thereof, here are a few perhaps less well known images of Shapur II:
http://tinyurl.com/2g8gmrf
http://tinyurl.com/2c3xgy8
as well as the famous victory relief at Taq-e Bostan in Iran, where a figure usually identified as S. stands between Mithra and Ahura Mazda and (along with Ahura Mazda) on top of a prostrate victim often identified as the emperor Julian (d. 363):
http://tinyurl.com/25f8vsh
http://www.livius.org/a/iran/taqebostan/relief2.JPG
http://humanpath.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/7.jpg
For S. in hunting scenes, see the first and third objects here:
http://tinyurl.com/5d3olo
6) Onuphrius of the Chaos (?). Today's less well known saint of the Regno (also O. of Belforte) is a very poorly attested Italo-Greek hermit of Calabria. He is said, seemingly legendarily, to have been born at today's Belforte (CZ) and to have lived ascetically to a great age in perhaps the tenth century as a recluse at a place called the Chaos (perhaps because of very rough terrain). This was located by early modern scholars in the woods of today's Panaia, now a _frazione_ of Spilinga (VV). Others identify it as today's Sant'Onofrio (VV), where O. is sometimes said to have founded its eponymous monastery that lasted until the early nineteenth century and that probably was always dedicated to his famous homonym of 12. June, the late antique anchorite in Egypt. The RM has opted for Panaia and is silent about O. the presumed monastic founder. Postmortem miracles are attributed to him.
Legend of uncertain antiquity also gives O. a sister, Helen, who is said to have been a hermit with him and who in popular writing is also regarded as a saint. Our chief source for both is a pair of Lives by the seventeenth-century Basilian abbot general Apollinare Agresta, a popularizer of medieval Greek saint's lives from Calabria.
7) Rainerius of Cagli and of Split (d. 1180). R. (also Raynerius, Reynerius; in Italian, Rainerio; in Serbo-Croatian, Arnir) was a monk of Fonte Avellana and a friend of St. Ubaldus of Gubbio. In 1156 he was elected bishop of relatively nearby Cagli (in today's Pesaro-Urbino province in the Marche). In 1175 a dispute with his chapter led to R.'s being translated (kicked upstairs?) to the archdiocese of Split in today's Croatia, then a possession of the Roman Empire of the East. R. arrived in his new see in 1177, attended the Third Lateran Council in 1179, and in 1180 was back at Split attempting to regain some diocesan properties from adverse possession by local Slavs (Croats). On 4. August of that year, while visiting the territories in question, R. was stoned to death by a crowd of people unhappy at being called usurpers. The cult that ensued was confirmed in 1690 for the archdiocese of Split and was extended in 1819 to the then diocese of Cagli-Pergola.
The Cagli of R.'s time was abandoned following a disastrous fire in 1287; the present town is its replacement in a different location. Surviving from R.'s day, though somewhat rebuilt, is the former abbey church of San Geronzio at Cagli:
http://tinyurl.com/rt39p
http://tinyurl.com/mbo9r
At Split (in Italian, Spalato), the cathedral of Sv. Duje / San Domnione occupies the building that was once Diocletian's mausoleum. Most of its more striking appointments are from the centuries following R.'s death. Herewith a few views:
http://img465.imageshack.us/img465/3531/slika2096xt.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/24ws79o
http://img465.imageshack.us/img465/172/slika2104rr.jpg
http://www.st.carnet.hr/split/mauzolej.html
8) Cecilia the Roman (Bl.; d. 1290). C. (called "the Roman" rather than "of Rome" both because she is so referred to by early Dominican writers and to distinguish her from the martyr St. Cecilia of Rome) is first attested from 1219 as a nun of Santa Maria in Tempulo at Rome. Together with others of her house she was attracted to the new Dominican order and in February 1221 she took the Dominican habit at the convent of San Sisto (now San Sisto Vecchio). In about 1223 she was sent with three companions to Bologna to join the convent of Sant'Agnese founded by Bl. Diana d'Andaḷ (d. 1236). C. succeeded there as prioress in 1237 and spent the rest of her life at that house (whence she is also known as C. of Bologna). Late in her life her oral reminiscences of St. Dominic from her time in Rome were written down by a nun of Sant'Agnese named Angelica; called the _Miracula beati Dominici_, these became a valued source of anecdotes about the saint.
C. is also known as Cecilia Cesarini, though her membership in that family cannot be documented. She was beatified in 1891.
We'll get to San Sisto Vecchio on 7. August. In the meantime, herewith two views of the also much rebuilt Santa Maria in Tempulo:
http://tinyurl.com/2gyt8vj
http://tinyurl.com/37zsfnc
9) William Horne (Bl.; d. 1540). H. was a lay brother of the London Charterhouse who along with a number of others of his house, professed and lay, refused in May 1537 (when the priory was dissolved) to subscribe the Oath of Supremacy. All were sent to Newgate prison where over the next several months the others died of starvation or illness. For some reason H. was kept alive and allowed to wear his religious habit. Attainted of treason in 1540, he was hanged, disembowelled, and quartered at Tyburn on this day.
H. was one of fifty-four English martyrs beatified together in 1886.
The fabric of London's Carthusian priory of the Salutation of the Mother of God, founded in 1371, was greatly transformed following this house's dissolution. The Norfolk Cloister, shown here, was built in the early 1570s. But the rubble wall at left is a survivor from the medieval Charterhouse:
http://tinyurl.com/274zx83
The one remaining entrance from the cloister to a monk's cell of later fourteenth-century construction (excavation following the fire-bombing of 1941 led to the discovery of the cell's original layout):
http://tinyurl.com/2fpr9sw
http://tinyurl.com/282xwxu
Best,
John Dillon
(an older post revised and with the additions of Aristarchus; Crescentio and Justin of Rome; Hyacinth of Rome, martyr of the Via Labicana; Bl. Cecilia the Roman; and Bl. William Horne)
**********************************************************************
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
|
