medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today, January 23, is the feast day of:
Severianus and Aquila (?)are husband and wife, entered under today in the
(pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology as martyrs of Neocaesarea in Mauretania.
This information is repeated in the historical martyrologies of the
Carolingian period with the detail that they were burned to death. As there
is no other record of a Neocaesarea in Mauretania, other venues have been
suggested, e.g. Neocaesarea in Pontus and Caesarea in Mauretania. Aquila is
a name ordinarily borne by men; possibly Aquila was originally called
something else (e.g. Acilia).
Asclas of Antinoe (d. c287) At one time a popular saint, legend reports that
Asclas was a native of the Thebaid in Egypt. He was arrested as a Christian,
and while in prison prayed that the Roman governor declare in writing that
the God of the Christians was the sole God. The governor was stranded in the
Nile until he said that he did believe such, but as soon as he was able to
return to shore, he had Asclas burnt in the ribs with torches, then drowned
in the Nile with a stone tied around his neck.
Emerentiana (c304?) (whose name seems really to have been Emerentianes) is a
martyr of the great cemetery on the Via Nomentana, where she is cited in the
seventh-century pilgrim itineraries for Rome and where in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries fragments of her epitaph were found. A fifth-century
addition to the pseudo-Ambrosian Passio of St. Agnes makes her Agnes' foster
sister, stoned to death by pagans at Agnes' funeral (or according to legend,
two days later as she prayed beside Agnes' grave) and buried alongside her.
When Emerentiana appears in the later sixth-century (c560) procession of
virgin martyrs in Ravenna's Sant'Apollinare Nuovo she is at some remove from
Agnes. According to a report in the Annals of Xanten, Emerentiana's body was
translated in 851 to Saxony. In 1123 an altar was dedicated to her at Agnes'
reputed place of execution in what now is Rome's Piazza Navona.
In 1615 remains said to be Emerentiana's were intended to be enclosed
along with those of the by-then headless Agnes in a silver reliquary
commissioned by Paul V and located in Rome's Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura. In
1621 this reliquary was placed under the same pope's newly commissioned
altar for that church. When it was rediscovered early in the twentieth
century it contained only the skeleton of one headless girl, generally
assumed to be Agnes.
In the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology Emerentiana appears under
September 16. Her feast today, two days after that of her supposed sister,
is recorded in the historical martyrologies from Bede onward, in Young
Gelasian sacramentaries, and in other early medieval liturgical sources. In
the Mozarabic liturgy Agnes and Emerentiana are celebrated jointly on
January 20. Emerentiana is the patron saint of the city of Teruel in Aragón,
where she is honored today with a Solemnity.
The British Museum's Royal Gold Cup (later fourteenth-century) depicts
Emerentiana's stoning: http://tinyurl.com/yaxrczq . More on this piece:
http://tinyurl.com/yaxrczq , http://tinyurl.com/ywqzgm
Eusebius of Mt. Coryphe (4th century) was a Syrian hermit, head of a
community near Antioch. He treated himself much more harshly than his
disciples, normally eating only one day in four, etc. Eusebius' mind
wandered one day while listening to the scriptures being read. To punish
himself he locked himself into a heavy iron collar and a heavy iron belt,
with a bar connecting them so he couldn't bend or look down. And he lived
that way for 40 years.
Clement of Ankara and Agathangelus (d. 308?ish?) The cult of these saints is
first attested in a fifth-century sermon dubiously ascribed to St. Proclus
of Constantinople. According to his legendary pre-metaphrastic Passio (BHG
352-352d), Clement was a native of Ankara (anciently, Ancyra) who was
orphaned early, who as a child showed a strong inclination to asceticism and
to acts of charity. He entered the clergy while still very young, and at the
age of twenty became Ankara's bishop. He was arrested in Diocletian's
persecution, was jailed in Ankara for a while, became famous for enduring
harsh torments, and was then sent to Rome, where though still a prisoner he
continued to attract attention for his constancy under duress and managed to
make many converts.
Agathangelus was one of Clement's converts at Rome. He became so devoted
to Clement that he smuggled himself aboard a ship that was to take Clement
to the emperor Maximian in Nicomedia. From there the pair was taken from
place to place for many years, enduring trials and torture and ending up in
Ankara, where Agathangelus was executed by decapitation on a November 5th
and where Clement, whom the local Christians had freed so he could celebrate
the Theophany with them, was arrested again and along with the deacons
Christopher and Chariton suffered the same fate on a Sunday, January 23.
Clement was laid to rest in the sepulchre already occupied by Agathangelus.
Thus far Clement's Passio.
Clement and Agathangelus are the subject of a sermon by the late
ninth-/early tenth-century emperor Leo VI (BHG 354) and of a later
tenth-century expanded Passio by Symeon Metaphrastes (BHG 353). In
Constantinople they had a martyrial church on the left bank of the Bosporus
and were venerated as well in the church of St. Irene (for views, see
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Irene>) and in a palace chapel built in
Clement's honor by the emperor Basil I and housing what was believed to be
Clement's head. In 907 the metropolitan of Ankara sent other relics of
Clement to patriarch Euthymius of Constantinople, who in turn deposited
these in the monastery in the city's Psamathia section.
Byzantine synaxaries give Clement and Agathangelus a joint feast under
today. In the Greek church Agathangelus has also been celebrated on November
5. The earlier ninth-century Marble Calendar of Naples' entry for today
names Agathangelus alone.
Clement's martyrdom as depicted in the (betw. 1335-1350) 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/yza8h9v . The caption names Clement and Agathangelus, the
honorands of today's feast, but the scene (one of several illustrating the
January calendar) seems rather to depict Clement's execution along with the
two deacons. And here are Clement (at left) and Agathangelus in a
13th-century menaion from Cyprus (Paris, BnF, ms. Grec 1561, fol. 95r):
http://tinyurl.com/yhotx7g
John the Almsgiver (d. c618/619/620) was born c550/555 on Cyprus, married
and produced several children. After his wife and all his children had died,
John became an ascetic, and in 611/612 was chosen as patriarch of Alexandria
by Emperor Heraclius. He won great esteem for his mildness and care for the
sick and refugees. He took great care of the poor, by ordering the use of
just weights and measures, and forbidding his officers and servants from
accepting gifts, and sent aid to Jerusalem when it was sacked by the
Persians. He had considerable success converting the monophysites to
orthodox doctrine. He himself died on the island of Cyprus, a refugee from
the Persians. There are relics of John in Venice (since the thirteenth
century) and in Budapest (since 1489), but it is in the eastern church that
his cult is especially strong.
Lufthildis (c850?) Another elusive folk saint of Germany, Lufthildis still
has a cult in the area around Bonn. She was of noble family and perhaps
lived in the ninth century, winning a great reputation as a doer of good
deeds. Legend reports that she had been cruelly treated by her stepmother
and fled her to become a hermit. In 1623 her relics were elevated, and she
still attracts pilgrims looking for help with ear problems.
Heinrich Suso (blessed) (d. 1366) is one of the most important German
mystics. He was born in c1300 to a knightly family near Lake Constance. At
the age of 13 he entered the Dominican order; at the age of 18 he started
experiencing visions. For the following 20 years he lived a life of extreme
ascetic practices, including wrapping iron chains around his body and
branding himself with the name of Jesus. Later he became a noted charismatic
preacher and pastor.
Margaret of Ravenna, virgin (1505) - although supposedly blind from birth,
she could manage certain things quite well, moving her hagiographer to
declare: 'This induces me to believe that, although blind, she saw what she
wished to see.' - inspired Girolamo Maluselli to found the order of Priests
of Good Jesus.
happy reading,
Terri Morgan
--
"Nobility depends not on parentage or place of birth, but on breadth of
compassion and depth of loving kindness. If we would be noble, let us be
greathearted." - anon [log in to unmask]
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