medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
In Orthodox and other Eastern-rite churches 4. September is also the feast day of an early martyr widely celebrated across medieval Christendom:
Babylas (d. 250 or 251). B. was bishop of Antioch on the Orontes (today's Antakya in southwestern Turkey). Said to have died of mistreatment in prison during the Decian persecution, he was venerated as a martyr. The later fourth-century Syriac Martyrology and the early medieval (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology enter him under 24. January and give him as companions in martyrdom three children (their names in Latin are Urbanus, Prilidanus, and Epolonus).
B. et socc. have legendary Passiones in conflicting versions and in several languages (BHG 205ff.; BHO 126ff.; BHL 889ff.); one version is in the _Suda_. Aldhelm includes a section on them in his early eighth-century verse _De virginitate_. In the Mozarabic Rite they were formerly celebrated on 25. January. Here's their Mozarabic hymn:
http://tinyurl.com/339lxf
In or shortly after 351 the Caesar Constantius Gallus had B.'s remains translated to a newly built martyrial church in the Antiochean suburb of Daphne (this is considered the earliest recorded translation of a martyr from his/her gravesite). Daphne was also the home of a famous temple to Apollo. According to St. John Chrysostom, the emperor Julian, consulting the latter's oracle and receiving no answer, concluded that the area had been polluted by B.'s presence and had the latter's remains returned to their original burial site. Shortly thereafter the great temple was destroyed by fire. Here's a fifteenth-century miniature illustrating these events as well as the martyrdom of St. Theodosius (Paris, BNF, ms. Français 51, fol. 141v; Vincent of Beauvais, _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay):
http://tinyurl.com/ybd9p7s
An English-language translation of Chrysostom's _Sermon on Babylas_ is here:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf109.vii.iv.html
Chryostom's _Oration on Babylas_ goes into the matter at greater length, using it both to exemplify the power of relics (B.'s had silenced the oracle) and to condemn Julian's attempt to restore pagan cults.
In 379-381 bishop Meletius of Antioch built on the other side of the Orontes, at today's Kaoussie, a martyrium into which he translated B.'s remains. Here's a ground plan of a cruciform church there that since its excavation in 1935 has usually been identified as that structure:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quadralectics/4313614424/
Tenth(?)-century synaxary notices of B. say that he was being celebrated on 4. September in the Chora monastery at Constantinople. The late ninth-century Bios of St. Michael the Syncellus by a monk of the same monastery (BHG 1296) is silent about our B. but says that the monastery's church of St. Anthimus (of Nicomedia) housed the relics of St. Babylas of Nicomedia and his eighty-four pupils. The latter, who also are commemorated in Orthodox churches on 4. September, are known only through a largely legendary Passio that presents this B. as a schoolteacher martyred under Diocletian. Though it has been suggested that the Chora monastery's early and continued connections with Syria make it likely that the B. venerated there was originally the martyred bishop of Antioch, in the present state of the evidence one has to credit the ninth-century source from the monastery itself (unreliable though this source may be in other respects).
Babylas of Antioch's much rebuilt church of San Babila in Milan is first attested from the late eleventh century.
Exterior views:
http://tinyurl.com/34jpdg
http://www.sff.net/people/sanders/it6.jpg
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/5151002.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/cznxu5
Interior:
http://tinyurl.com/b8d6tl
http://tinyurl.com/br683y
At Milan B. is celebrated with a Memorial (moved to 23. January to accommodate St. Francis de Sales on 24. January).
Another eleventh-century dedication to B. is the lower church, called the cripta de San Babil, of the monastery of San Salvador at Leyre in Navarra:
http://www.arquivoltas.com/6-Navarra/Leyre2.htm
http://www.arquivoltas.com/6-Navarra/Leyre3.htm
An illustrated, Spanish-language page on the originally thirteenth-century church of San Babil at Puente de la Reina in Navarra:
http://tinyurl.com/26x86q
Plan:
http://www.arquivoltas.com/6-Navarra/Leyre%20G70-PlantaCr.JPG
In later medieval and early modern Navarra B. was venerated as a local saint martyred in the Moorish conquest, imagined sometimes as a monk of Leyre who ran a school there and sometimes as an archbishop of Pamplona.
An illustrated, French-language page on the originally eleventh(?)-century, vastly rebuilt chapelle Saint-Babylas at Vallet, a
locality of Montendre (Charente-Maritime). Parts of the crypt and the supports of the chevet survived a Protestant-inspired demolition in the sixteenth century:
http://tinyurl.com/3gz4zwo
Two exterior views of the originally thirteenth(?)-century église Saint-Babylas in Saint-Babel (Puy-de-Dôme) will be found on this touristy, French-language page:
http://roch.jaja.free.fr/spip.php?rubrique141
Some expandable views of the same church:
http://tinyurl.com/3c22w5r
Some portrayals of B.:
B. as depicted as depicted in the earlier thirteenth-century frescoes (1230s) in the altar area of the church of the Ascension in the Mileševa monastery near Prijepolje (Zlatibor dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/y88ajz6
B. as depicted in the later thirteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1263 and 1270) in the church of the Holy Trinity at the Sopoćani monastery at Sopoćani (Raška dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/ycv3474
B.'s martyrdom, and that of his companions, as depicted in a September calendar scene in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/1322) of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending on one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/yj45fjv
B. as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1313 and ca. 1320) in the King's Church (dedicated to Sts. Joachim and Anne) in the Studenica monastery near Kraljevo (Raška dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/ydjuj2a
B.'s martyrdom, and that of his companions, as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century copy (ca. 1335) of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Arsenal 5080, fol. 206v):
http://tinyurl.com/3coyczd
B.'s martyrdom, and that of his companions, as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century (betw. 1335 and 1350) nave frescoes 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/ycg8xq2
B. as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century (betw. 1335 and 1350) frescoes in the prothesis of the church of the Holy Ascension at the aforementioned Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć:
http://tinyurl.com/yenj76o
Scenes from B.'s Passio occur on the late fifteenth-century retable from the iglesia de San Babilés at Quintanilla del Olmo (Zamora) now in the cathedral of León:
http://tinyurl.com/2fnqxh
A reliquary:
The Philadelphia Museum of Art's page on its later fifteenth-century (1467) arm reliquary of B. from the Guelph Treasure:
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/52231.html
Three photographs by Genevra Kornbluth of this object:
http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/images/PMAArmRel1.jpg
http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/images/PMAArmRel3.jpg
http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/images/PMAArmRel2.jpg
Another view (in different light):
http://tinyurl.com/3rpsoog
Best,
John Dillon
(matter from older posts revised)
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