medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On 12/27/11, I wrote:
> Further to the Holy Innocents:
> The earlier thirteenth-century mosaic (betw. 1315 and 1321) in the exonarthex of the Chora church at Istanbul to which a link was provided last year:
> http://www.fixcas.com/cgi-bin/herod.py?KariyeCamii
> Detail view:
> http://tinyurl.com/6vhlde2
Er, The earlier fourteenth-century mosaic...
28. December is also the feast day of:
1) Theonas of Alexandria (d. 300). According to Eusebius (_Historia ecclesiastica_, 7. 32), Theonas succeeded Maximus in the see of Alexandria and ruled it for nineteen years. In the numeration of the popes of Alexandria he is Theonas I. He placed the future pope St. Achillas in charge of what became the see's famous catechetical school and ordained as presbyters the theologian St. Pierius of Alexandria and the future martyr St. Peter of Alexandria. According to the Arabic Jacobite synaxary of the Coptic Orthodox Church, which places his feast day on 28. December, Theonas was noted for his learning and his charity. In the Latin west, for reasons unknown Theonas' feast day was placed by the ninth-century St. Ado of Vienne under 23. August; Usuard followed suit, as did the Roman Martyrology prior to its revision of 2001.
2) Antonius of Lérins (d. ca. 525). We know about this late antique holy person from his closely posthumous Vita (BHL 584), written by St. Ennodius at the behest of an abbot of Lérins. The offspring of well-to-do parents in Pannonia Valeria and the nephew of a bishop, he lost his father early and was brought up by St. Severinus of Noricum in the latter's monastery at Favianis (now Mautern an der Donau). In 488, when Odoacer organized the withdrawal from Noricum of its remaining Roman communities, Antonius entered Italy with the other refugees and then settled at Lake Como as a disciple of a priest named Marius. Marius had numerous disciples; seeking solitude, Antonius withdrew to a cave near one of the southern extremities of the lake and there lived for a while with two hermits at the tomb of a St. Felix.
Still according to Ennodius, a man who had killed his wife in a fit of jealousy sought to evade punishment by attaching himself to Antonius without revealing that he was a criminal. But Antonius unmasked the hypocrite and drove him from his cell. The acclaim that followed this incident brought the saint too many visitors. Seeking to restore his solitude, he crossed the Alps and entered the island monastery of Lérins. There he found peace and died two years later. Thus far the Vita.
Best,
John Dillon
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