medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Today, March 17, is the feast day of:

Alexandrian Martyrs (d. 390) These are the victims of a riot in Alexandria
between Christians and worshippers of Serapis that broke out when the news
of the proposed destruction of the Temple of Serapis was announced. Many
were killed, and the Christians were regarded as martyrs. The patriarch of
Alexandria destroyed the great temple of Serapis the following year so it's
pretty easy to tell who won.

Joseph of Arimathaea (1st century) Joseph has been listed as a saint in the
Martyrologium Romanum only since the end of the 16th century, but legends of
him were popular throughout much of the Middle Ages. According to the
gospels, Joseph was a counselor in Jerusalem, and possibly can be counted
among Jesus' wider circle of disciples. After the crucifixion, Joseph
received permission to remove Jesus' body from the cross and bury it in his
own tomb. According to later legend, Joseph collected Jesus' blood in a
chalice - the starting point of the Grail legend. A legend reports that
Joseph later became a missionary in Britain, bringing the grail there and
planting the great Hawthorne tree at Glastonbury (destroyed in WWII, but the
current plant comes from a cutting of the original). It came from Joseph of
Arimathea's staff, which took root when he planted it in the ground. This
particular tree and its clones (offspring from cuttings) are known for their
habit of early blooming, traditionally on Old Christmas (January 6th) - in
fact, if I recall correctly, its blooming on January 6th rather than
Christmas was regarded by some who opposed England's changeover to the
Gregorian calendar as "proof" that the Julian calendar was the "divinely
ordained" one.

Patrick (d. 493?), of course, but his bio is too long to include here.

Agricola/Agricole/Agrèle/Arègle of Chalon-sur-Saône (d. c580).  We know
about Agricola chiefly from a brief notice in St. Gregory of Tours' Historia
Francorum and from incidental information in the same author's treatment of
St. Desideratus of Chalon-sur-Saône in his In gloria confessorum..  Agricola
came from a Gallo-Roman senatorial family and became bishop of
Chalon-sur-Saone in 532. He spoke with eloquence though he had little
education in the humanities, practiced abstinence from meals, erected many
buildings in his city, established just outside it a leprosarium with a
church to serve it (into which he translated the aforementioned
Desideratus). His friend Gregory of Tours said Agricola never dined, and
only broke his fast in the evening, when he ate (while standing) a small
amount of food. Agricola died at the age of 83, in the year 580, after
having been bishop of Chalon for almost forty-eight years.  His presence is
recorded at several councils. St. Venantius Fortunatus recounts in his Vita
of St. Germanus of Paris how Agricola successfully obtained from the latter
the healing of one of his servants.
   Agricola's cult at Chalon-sur-Saône is first attested from 878, when his
relics and those of his city's bishop St. Sylvester were translated from
Chalon's church of St. Marcellus to the abbey church of St. Peter in the
same city.  A later fifteenth-century calendar in a Book of Hours for the
Use of Chalon-sur-Saône (København, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, ms. Thott 536)
records his commemoration on July 28.

Gertrude of Nivelles (d659) Gertrude was a daughter of the Carolingian Pepin
of Landen and St. Ida (Itta). When Pepin died in 639, Itta built the double
monastery at Nivelles and entered it with her daughter. Elected at age 20,
Gertrude served as abbess from 639 until 656, when she resigned her position
to spend the last three years of her life in prayer, being penitential, and
having visions. She became known both for her learning and her charity.
Gertrude had books brought from Rome and patronized Irish wandering monks to
help improve the new foundation. By the time she died, at about the age of
33, she had built Nivelles into a major religious center. Gertrude's cult
was popular in the Netherlands.
   For cat fanciers, Gertrude does not take second place to St Patrick...
she is known for protection from mice, and by extension has become the
patron saint of cats and cat lovers. Gertrude became a saint especially
beloved by farmers; according to legend, her prayer ended a plague of rats
and mice, thus saving the harvest. (Alternately, because popular Teutonic
superstition regarded mice and rats as symbols of souls, the rat and mouse
became characteristics of S. Gertrude, and she is represented in art
accompanied by one of these animals. In order to explain the significance of
the mouse in pictures of S. Gertrude it was related that she was wont to
become so absorbed in prayer that a mouse would play about her, and run up
her pastoral staff, without attracting her attention.) She is also a patron
of travellers, due to her care for pilgrims and to a miraculous rescue at
sea of some of her monks, who invoked her name in a moment of great danger.
Fine weather on her feast day is supposed to be the sign to start garden
work.

Withburga (d. c. 743) Withburga was an East Anglian princess, a sister of
St. Etheldreda. She became a solitary. Her fame seems really to have begun
when she was exhumed 50 years after her death, and the body was found to be
incorrupt.  In 974 the monastery of Ely stole the body under rather exciting
circumstances (pursuit by the men of Dereham, escape by boat).

Conrad of Bavaria (d1154) is said to have been born c1105, a son of duke
Henry IX (Heinrich der Schwarze) of Bavaria and to have been educated at
Weingarten abbey (a relatively recent foundation of his Welf family) and
later at Köln, where he studied theology under the protection of the
archbishop (a paternal cousin). Recruited into the Cistercian Order either
in 1125/26 or in 1147, Conrad (in Italian, Corrado) soon undertook a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land and to live as a hermit there. Conrad returned
to Europe when he heard that Bernard was ill; hearing of Bernard's death
when he reached southern Italy on his homeward journey, Conrad remained as a
hermit near Bari. His last days were spent near today's Modugno in Puglia
at, it is thought, the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria ad Cryptam, in
whose cave church (first recorded from 1189) he is said to have been buried,
either in 1126 (recent conjecture) or in 1154 (traditional view).

Guðmundr Arason of Iceland (1237), a bishop of Iceland, never officially
canonized but the one of the three Icelandic holy men to maintain his
position in folklore through the nineteenth century. The wells and springs
he is supposed to have consecrated were legion. No snakes or druids in
Iceland, but he dealt with a number of rather nasty trolls and the like. He
died on March 16, 1237.

	  
happy reading,
Terri Morgan
--
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in
school.  ~Albert Einstein

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