medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Desiderius of Langres (d. prob. ca. 356; in French, Didier and Désiré), bishop of what is now Langres (Haute-Marne), is named by St. Athanasius of Alexandria in his _Apologia contra Arianos_ as one of the subscribers to the Acts of the Council of Serdica in 343. He is said to have been his city's third bishop. According to his early seventh-century Passio (BHL 2145) by Warnaharius of Langres, when his city was attacked by Germanic marauders (the Passio calls them Vandals), Desiderius left the safety of the walls to admonish the enemy to desist lest divine punishment be visited upon them. Captured and brought before the barbarian chief, he offered his life in return for sparing the city. Whereupon the enemy leader had Desiderius decapitated and then took Langres, sacked it, and slew all its Christians. Thus far Warnaharius.
In the earliest witness of the originally probably early seventh-century (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology Desiderius is entered under 11. February. Ninth-century and later versions enter him under today, as does also Usuard of Saint-Germain in his martyrology. Legend made Desiderius both a cephalophore and a native of a small town near Genoa, in whose former republic he has been widely celebrated from at least the eleventh century onward. Today is Desiderius' day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Desiderius of Langres:
a) as depicted (martyrdom) in a later fourteenth-century copy of books XVII-XX of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1370-1380; Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 15943, fol. 117v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8449689s/f242.item.zoom
b) as depicted in a fifteenth-century polychrome statue in the église Saint-Didier in Autrey lès Gray (Haute-Saône):
http://la-haute-saone.com/images/st_didier_autrey-ebde.jpg
http://clochers.free.fr/details/d_autrey_lg5.jpg
c) as depicted (martyrdom) in a mid-fifteenth-century copy of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1455; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 310, fol. 95r):
http://tinyurl.com/zvmcq7f
d) as depicted (scenes from his Passio) in a later fifteenth-century copy of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1463; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 51, fol. 328v):
http://tinyurl.com/3xhzoqg
e) as depicted (enthroned) in a later fifteenth-century book of hours for the Use of Langres (after 1475; Langres, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 4, fol. 150r):
http://tinyurl.com/2568nk8
f) as depicted (martyrdom) in a late fifteenth-century breviary for the Use of Langres (after 1481; Chaumont, Mediathèque de Chaumont, ms. 32, fol. 430v):
http://initiale.irht.cnrs.fr/ouvrages/ouvrages.php?imageInd=180&id=-1
g) as depicted (at left; at right, St. John the Apostle) by Valentin Bousch in an earlier sixteenth-century glass window (bay 210; 1528) in Metz' cathédrale Saint-Étienne:
http://therosewindow.com/pilot/Metz-cath/w210.htm
Best,
John Dillon
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