medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On 07/26/12, I wrote:
> Herewith a link to an earlier (2011) 'Feasts and saints of the day' for 26. July (including Sts. Joachim and Anne; St. Simeon of Polirone; Bl. Ugo degli Atti):
> http://tinyurl.com/ctq66d5
> Further to Joachim and Anne:
> A. (reclining) at the Nativity of the Theotokos as depicted in the later twelfth-century frescoes (1164) of the church of St. Panteleimon (Pantaleon) at Gorno Nerezi (Skopje municipality) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
> http://tinyurl.com/ckj5zwn
Detail view (Anne):
http://tinyurl.com/cltbg7h
26. July is also the feast day of:
1) Hermolaus, Hermippus, and Hermocrates (d. early 4th cent., supposedly). Absent from both the later fourth-century Syriac Martyrology and from the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, and thus unlikely to have been recorded in their originally fourth-century common ancestor, these saints are also not recorded elsewhere as having enjoyed any particularly early veneration. They appear in the legendary Passiones of St. Panteleimon / Pantaleon of Nicomedia (BHG 1412z-1418c; BHL 6429-6446) as an elderly priest of that city who during the persecution of Maximian guided P. to Christianity (Hermolaus) and as two fellow priests (Greek tradition) or simply brothers (Latin tradition), also of Nicomedia (Hermippus and Hermocrates). First Hermolaus and shortly afterward Hermippus and Hermocrates were arrested, maintained their faith, and were put to death. On the day preceding his execution Hermolaus was consoled by Jesus Christ in a vision with the assurance that he was about to receive a martyr's crown. Thus far the legend, which has all three perish well before P.'s own trial and execution. In later construction Hermolaus was regarded as having also instructed P. in the art of healing; consequently he is often included along with P. among the those canonical healing saints the Holy Unmercenaries. He also came to be thought of as having been a bishop of Nicomedia. All three have a Greek Passio (BHG 2173) and a Latin one (BHL 3858) that are at least as legendary as the Acta of Panteleimon / Pantaleon on which they are based.
Like Panteleimon, Hermolaus had a cult in Constantinople, where relics believed to be his were venerated in the church of the important healing saints Cyrus and John. Anthony of Novgorod, who had been in Constantinople in the year 1200, reports in the account of his travels that Hermolaus' head was kept in Santa Sophia. In both Greek and Latin liturgical traditions Hermolaus' and his companions have been celebrated since the early Middle Ages on the day preceding the feast of Panteleimon / Pantaleon (in the SynCP, the latter was usually on 27. July; in the Latin tradition of Sts. Ado of Vienne and Usuard of Saint-Germain, followed by the RM until its revision of 2001, it was on 28. July). With its revision of 2001 Hermolaus, Hermippus, and Hermocrates ceased to grace the pages of the RM. Orthodox and other Eastern-rite churches continue to celebrate them on 26. July. In Roman-rite churches their cult, bolstered by putative relics of Hermolaus, has been locally important in Venice and at Calci (PI) in Tuscany. Until the mid-twentieth-century it was also maintained in Benevento with a feast on 7. February. A relic of Hermolaus is recorded from 1503 as having been in that city's chiesa di San Pietro in Transari; when that church was demolished in 1697 its relics were transferred to the cathedral.
For those with access to Google Books, Hermolaus as portrayed on an eleventh-century votive plaque now in the Dumbarton Oaks Library and Collection in Washington, DC:
http://tinyurl.com/6v5zyhu
This image is in Derek Krueger, ed., _Byzantine Christianity_ (Fortress Press, 2006), p. 118.
Hermolaus (in the roundel; beneath, Sts. Cyrus and John) as depicted in the mid-twelfth-century mosaics in the basilica di Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio (a.k.a. chiesa della Martorana) in Palermo:
http://tinyurl.com/6v5zyhu
Hermolaus as depicted in the later thirteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1263 and 1270 or slightly later) in the chapel of St. Stephen Protomartyr in the church of the Holy Trinity at the Sopoćani monastery in Sopoćani (Raška dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/77wsn3c
Seen with his supposed student St. Panteleimon:
http://tinyurl.com/246kvh2
NB: The site to which these links redirect is off-line at the moment.
Hermolaus as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1311 and ca. 1322) of the church of St. Nicholas Orphanos in Thessaloniki:
http://tinyurl.com/7wxzyw2
Hermolaus, shown as a martyr priest and with the attributes of a medical saint, as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (1330s) in the church of the Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/74nyvnn
NB: The site to which this link redirects is off-line at the moment.
Hermolaus as depicted in the later fourteenth-century frescoes (1360s and 1370s; restored in 1968-1970) in the church of St. Demetrius in Marko's monastery at Markova Sušica (near Skopje) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/7sarydx
An expandable, black-and-white image of Hermolaus as depicted in the mid-sixteenth-century frescoes (1547) by Onouphrios in the church of the Agioi Apostoloi in Kastoria in northwestern Greece:
http://www.bildindex.de/obj20208699.html#|home
In this thumbnail (shown for color), the painting in question is the one at right (at left, St. Blasius / Blaise):
http://pandektis.ekt.gr/pandektis/handle/10442/86249
Here Hermolaus is portrayed as a martyr bishop holding the attributes of a medical saint.
At Calci near Pisa Hermolaus' veneration is first recorded from 1110, when Pisans carried off to their city a relic of him (said to be his left arm). In the fifteenth century his cult seems to have been renewed at Calci when he became a formal co-titular with St. John the Evangelist of that city's originally eleventh- and twelfth-century pieve (major parish church). Brief English-language and Italian-language accounts of this structure are here:
http://www.itineraromanica.eu/index.php?id=143&lang=en
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieve_dei_Santi_Giovanni_ed_Ermolao
Pages of views of the pieve di Calci:
http://www.stilepisano.it/immagini/Pisa_foto_Pieve_di_Calci.htm
http://tinyurl.com/c93f47f
In 2010 a putative relic of Hermolaus was returned from Pisa to the pieve di Calci. Here's a view of his reliquary chest there:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/_Bwa-8ar9rhUzR5YEh3E0A
In Venice, Hermolaus is associated with the church of San Simeone Profeta (a.k.a. San Simeone Grande and San Simeone Maggiore), where he has an altar containing (or perhaps formerly containing) relics of him traditionally said to have been brought from Constantinople along with those of the prophet Symeon and where a late medieval and early modern society dedicated to his cult, the Scuola di Sant'Ermolao, was at times in conflict with the pastor of the church. A seemingly earlier fourteenth-century bas-relief, in the form of a gisant attached to an exterior wall of the church and first recorded from 1382, is traditionally believed to portray Hermolaus:
http://tinyurl.com/ctdhayv
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/artandmale/424159193/
A partial view of the inscription of Hermolaus' altar of 1521, paid for by Scuola di Sant'Ermolao:
http://www.piovesan.net/San%20Simeone/web/Foto%20dedicazione%20Altare.htm
2) Benignus and Carus (d. early 9th cent., supposedly). An earlier (2008) 'Saints of the day' notice of these saints of Malcesine (VR) in the Veneto is here:
http://tinyurl.com/cp2ujcd
In that earlier notice the link to a view of Benignus and Carus as depicted in a fourteenth(?)-century fresco in Verona's basilica di San Zeno Maggiore no longer functions. Use this instead:
http://tinyurl.com/d6w5vzo
Best,
John Dillon
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