medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Herewith a link to an earlier (2010) 'Saints of the day' for 2. September (including St. Theodota and her sons Sts. Evodius, Hermogenes, and Callistus; St. Antoninus of Apamea; St. Justus of Lyon; St. Nonnosus; Sts. Albert of Pontida and Guy of Pontida):
http://tinyurl.com/9abfg7l
Further to Antoninus of Apamea:
In the second paragraph of that earlier post's notice of this saint, at the third sentence for 'By the Middle Ages' please read 'By the later Middle Ages'.
Further to Justus of Lyon:
In the third paragraph of that earlier post's notice of this saint, for 'An illustrated pages' please read 'Illustrated pages'.
Today (2. September) is also the feast day of:
Abibus (d. early 4th cent.?). Abibus (in transliterated Syriac: Ḥabīb), is along with Gurias and Samonas one of three saints referred to jointly since late antiquity as the confessors of Edessa. They are first attested in the later fourth-century Syriac Martyrology, where Abibus occurs under 2. September and is said to have perished by fire and where Gurias and Samonas, identified as confessors, occur under 15. November and their manner of death is not specified. As the aforesaid martyrology does not style any of them 'ancient martyrs', its term for those who suffered prior to the early fourth-century Great Persecution, one may accept the testimony of their originally fourth-century Syriac Passiones (which come to us in other-language translations and in later, re-worked versions in Syriac) that they were martyred in that persecution. On the other hand, the specific years given in those texts (306/307 for Gurias and Samonas, who have a joint Passio; 308/309 for Abibus) may derive from a later chronicle tradition whose accuracy in these instances cannot be determined.
Abibus' Passio, in which that saint is said to have been a deacon, has him buried at the graves of Gurias and Samonas (who in their Passio are a recluse and a lay preacher, respectively). According to the sixth-century _Chronicle of Edessa_, after the edicts of toleration the Christians of that city built a church for themselves and also a martyrial chapel honoring these three saints (the latter, which was burned by the Persians in 530, is sometimes dated to ca. 350). Their joint cult there is reflected in a hymn by St. Ephraem the Syrian (d. 373) and in a joint feast on 15. November in various Syriac calendars (a few of which also record a celebration of Abibus on 2. September). 15. November is also the standard medieval and later feast day for all three in the Armenian, Georgian, and Greek churches, with the latter passing it on to the early medieval Latin church of Naples (assuming, as seems likely enough, that the Marble Calendar of Naples' _Samo[nae]_ of that day stands for all three) and to Orthodox churches of other countries. They are said to have been unknown in late antique and medieval Coptic Christianity.
Following the practice of Greek synaxaries, cardinal Baronio entered all three saints in the early RM under 15. November. But, as their martyrdoms are said to have been distinct, he created different entries for Gurias and Samonas on one hand and for Abibus on the other. The revised RM of 2001, following its frequent preference for the earliest recorded feast day, moved Abibus' commemoration to 2. September.
A church of St. Abibus (but possibly not he of Edessa) is recorded for Constantinople from 536. A tenth-century sermon for delivery in Constantinople, presumably at that city's church of Sts. Gurias, Samonas, and Abibus, attests to a translation thither of Abibus' head in the reign of Constantine VII (913-959) from Gamandra in the Byzantine theme of Armeniakon where it supposedly had been for many centuries after a _furtum sacrum_. This sermon (BHG 740m; edited by François Halkin in _Analecta Bollandiana_ 104 [1986], 287-297) shows that these saints' traditional designation as confessors had become problematic in view of the later arising distinction between martyrs and confessors; unfortunately, a lacuna in the sermon's one known witness deprives us of the author's solution to this difficulty.
Abibus (at left) as depicted in the eleventh-century frescoes of the south chapel of the church of St. Nicholas of Myra at Demre in Turkey's Antalya province:
http://tinyurl.com/cu6qf43
Abibus as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and ca. 1321/22) of the nave of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica 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/3euasjv
Abibus as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century mosaics (betw. 1315 and 1321) in the exonarthex of the Chora church in Istanbul:
http://www.le-flamant-rose.org/kahriye/photos_kariye_cami/abaibud_exonarthex.jpg
Abibus' martyrdom as depicted in a November calendar scene in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the narthex of 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/9bfo6qu
An early fifteenth-century church (1400/1401) dedicated to Gurias, Samonas, and Abibus in Kastoria in northwestern Greece has recently been restored. Herewith a link to an illustrated blog account of its re-opening in 2011:
http://tinyurl.com/82s4wca
Abibus (in the painting at lower right) as depicted in the earlier sixteenth-century frescoes (1545 and 1546) by Theofanis Strelitzas-Bathas (a.k.a. Theophanes the Cretan) in the katholikon of the Stavronikita monastery on Mt. Athos:
http://tinyurl.com/3bm47ox
Best,
John Dillon
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