medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Thursday, January 20, 2011, at 10:58 pm, Terri Morgan sent:
> Neophytos (d. c250) Celebrated only by the Orthodox Church, Neophytos'
> story is quite wonderful.
N.'s story may indeed be quite wonderful. But it is no more true now than it was in 2003 <http://tinyurl.com/6jlrm98> that he is celebrated only in the Orthodox Church (by which is surely meant the generality of Orthodox churches). In the Roman Catholic Church he is commemorated on 20. January in the Roman Martyrology (as St. Neophytus of Nicaea) and in churches of its Byzantine Rite he is celebrated today. N. is also celebrated today in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.
He was born to a Christian family of Bithynia, and
> started working miracles at the age of nine (miraculously producing
> food for
> his schoolmates). One day when he was in bed, a dove flew in and spoke
> to
> Neophytos in human voice - Neophytos's mother was so shocked that she
> died,
> but Neophytos's prayer soon resurrected her. Neophytos and the dove then
> went off to set up housekeeping in a cave on Mt. Olympus, where Neophytos
> was nourished by angels. He returned home at the age of 11, where he gave
> all the family goods to the poor. Then, led by an angel, Neophytos
> went to
> Emperor Decius and professed his Christian faith. After surviving all
> tortures unscathed, Neophytos was finally killed with the sword.
>
This N. (sometimes called N. the Martyr or N. the Great Martyr to distinguish him from various homonyms) has an extensive hagiographic dossier whose texts differ just enough on his age at death to have permitted his construction now as a child saint and now as a young man by the time of his martyrdom. One may suspect that in these highly legendary writings (which for the actual N. is all we have) N.'s youth derives from the literal meaning of his Greek name ('young shoot') rather than from any reliable information about the saint.
N. (at left) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the nave of 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/6gt5no9
Best,
John Dillon
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