medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today, March 22, is the feast day of:
Aphrodisius, bishop of Beziers (3rd or 4th century) This bishop, an Egyptian
by birth, accompanied S. Paul of Narbonne, in his mission into Gaul. A
foolish legend is to the effect that he was governor of Egypt at the time
when S. Joseph and the B. Virgin went down thither with the Holy Child
Jesus, to escape the persecution of Herod who sought the young child's life.
On the arrival of the child Jesus in Egypt all the idols fell, and
Aphrodisius, recognising in Him his God, bowed before him in adoration.
Basil of Ancyra/Ankara (d. 362) According to Sozomen (Historia
ecclesiastica, 5. 11. 7-11), Basil was a priest of Ancyra (Galatia), who
kept loudly preaching against the Olympian gods in the reign of Julian the
Apostate and aggravated the situation by loudly defending his bishop
(Marcellus), who had been deposed by the Arians in favor of another (also)
named Basil. He tried to hold the local catholic community together. When
Julian became emperor, Basil exhorted the people to hold fast against the
temptation to apostacize, which the Arians used as an excuse to accuse him
of disloyalty to the emperor. His seemingly legendary Passiones (BHG 242 and
243; the latter by the tenth-century Johannes Hagioelites) have Basil also
interrogated by the emperor Julian, whom Basil so angered that Julian
ordered him to be flayed alive, after which Basil was executed at Ancyra by
exposure ad bestias (alternately, his flesh was torn with rakes, he was
flayed alive, and finally tossed onto red-hot spikes.) Relatives gathered
his scattered remains and placed them in a martyrial church dedicated to
him. Thus far Basil's Passiones. Byzantine menaia have similar accounts
that give Basil's place of execution as Caesarea in Cappadocia;
corresponding synaxary notices enter Basil of Caesarea under January 2.
Orthodox churches celebrate Basil of Ankara on one or more of the following
days: 1. January 1 or 2, March 22, June 28.
Lea (d. 384). We know about Lea from St. Jerome, who shortly after her
death praised her in a letter to her friend Marcella (_Ep_. 23). L. is
described therein as an aristocratic Roman widow who had once been the head
of a great household but who after her conversion lived a life a great
simplicity and daily labor while heading a monastic community of Christian
women in Rome. In this letter, in which Lea is contrasted with her recently
deceased fellow aristocrat Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (now in Tartarus,
according to Jerome), she is called sanctissima and said to be in heaven.
Lea entered the martyrologies in a sixteenth-century addition to Usuard.
Her modern cult is widespread in Lazio, especially at Ostia (where Jerome
tells us she was buried). She is called "mother of virgins" because of her
community - the collection of women was later identified as the convent of
S. Marcella of Rome.
We don't spend much time with non-Christians on this list. But
Praetextatus, familiar to many medievalists from his portrayal in Macrobius'
Saturnalia, and his wife Fabia Aconia Paulina, prominent pagans in an
increasingly officially Christian late antique Rome, have left a couple of
visuals worth noting. Here's a dedication to him listing his priesthoods
(_CIL_ VI, 31929), with an English-language translation and discussion
following: http://tinyurl.com/2qdt95 and here's their funeral monument:
http://tinyurl.com/25jxsp . This bears an inscription (_CIL_ VI, 1779), most
of which is in verse spoken by Paulina (herself a priestess of several
mystery cults). Here's a translation: http://tinyurl.com/2h8nuv
Maijastina Kahlos, the author of a fairly recent book on Praetextatus
(_Vettius Agorius Praetextatus: A Senatorial Life in Between, Acta Instituti
Romani Finlandiae, no. 26 [Roma, 2002]), argues that Jerome's _Ep_. 23 is a
response to this text. See her discussions here: http://tinyurl.com/382ngr
and here: http://tinyurl.com/3377m5
Here's an English-language translation of Jerome's letter:
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001023.htm
Octavian and companions (d484) Octavian was archdeacon of Carthage. When
Hunneric, a man of firm Arian convictions, became king of the Vandals, he
launched a major persecution of catholics, during which Octavian and a lot
of other people (legend says several thousand) were killed.
Darerca (5th century?) Legend makes Darerca the widowed sister of Patrick of
Ireland. She is reported to have had fifteen sons, ten of whom became Irish
bishops.
Benvenuto Scotivoli (d1282) We know about Benvenuto from his own episcopal
acta and from a few other contemporary documents. He had been a papal
chaplain and then archdeacon of Ancona when Urban IV provided him to Osimo
in 1264 when he restored its former see (which, thanks to Osimo's adherence
to Frederick II, it had lost to Recanati in 1240) to that fortress town in
the Marche. As bishop he was especially vigilant in forbidding the
alienation of church property. While dying, he asked to be carried into his
church and, in imitation of Francis of Assisi, be placed upon the ground,
where he soon died. A cult arose immediately after his death, he was
credited with lifetime and posthumous miracles, and a campaign began to have
him formally canonized. There is no proof that a papal canonization of him
ever took place, but in his diocese he has been treated as a saint ever
since and in the fifteenth century both Eugenius IV and Innocent VIII
recognized his cult (in Innocent's case at least, this was certainly at the
level of Saint). Benvenuto's cult is attested to in the early
fourteenth-century (1308) statutes of Osimo, which stipulate that his feast
is to be kept as a holiday just as are those of the BVM and of Osimo's older
saints Leopard, Vitalian, and Victor. He is called sanctus in the RM.
In this polyptych from 1518 in the Diocesan Museum at Osimo, Benvenuto is
the bishop at upper right:
http://www.comune.osimo.an.it/museo/images/pietro-polittico.jpg
Benvenuto's remains were initially entombed in the rear of Osimo's
cathedral of San Leopardo; later they were were housed in crypt at a spot
below their original location. In 1590 they were translated within the
crypt to a new tomb. In this view the tomb in question is the one at the
rear:
http://www.iviaggidellupo.it/images/Osimo240706_022.jpg
Benvenuto's tomb in a later eighteenth-century engraving:
http://tinyurl.com/db2a9p
A still closer view: http://tinyurl.com/c9fbda
Benvenuto's previous tomb, which had been left in the upper church as a
memorial after the first translation, is said to have been inscribed as
follows: S. Beneuenutus de Scotiuolis, Anconitanus, Episcopus Auximanus
('St. Benvenuto Scotivoli, Anconitan, Bishop of Osimo').
That other tomb in the first view above is a re-used historiated sarcophagus
with the remains of the martyrs Florentius, Sisinnius, and companions:
http://www.anconaguideturistiche.it/images/gallery/big/osimo_37.jpg
Thomas of Lancaster (1321) There have been, as there probably ever will be,
great differences of opinion as to the justice of beheading Thomas, Earl of
Lancaster, cousin-german to king Edward II.
Eelko Liaukaman(d. 1332) Not formally canonized. Elko was abbot of the
Praemonstratensian monastery Lidlom in the diocese of Utrecht (Netherlands).
The rebellious brethren of his monastery murdered him because of his
strictness. He is represented in art shaking roses out of his habit.
Ugolino Zefferini da Cortona (c. 1470) - a lily magically grew out of his
corpse, and caused many miraculous cures and events (no sign of a crucifix
on it, though).
happy reading,
Terri Morgan
--
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in
school. ~Albert Einstein
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