medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The martyrs Felix and Philip, Martial, Vitalis, and Alexander, Silanus, and Januarius are entered under today in the _Depositio martyrum_ of the Chronographer of 354 as saints of various Roman cemeteries: Felix and Philip in the cemetery of Priscilla; Martial, Vitalis, and Alexander in the cemetery of the Jordani; Silanus in the cemetery of Maximus (but _Novati_ -- possibly Novatianists -- have stolen his body); Januarius in the cemetery of Praetextatus. Beyond that we know nothing about them. Their legend, a Christian adaptation of the story of the Maccabean martyrs, makes them the sons of St. Felicity of Rome (23. November; like Januarius, a saint of the cemetery of Maximus); this already existed in some form by the earlier fifth century when it was used by St. Peter Chrysologus in a sermon in which the Jewish origin of their story is apparent. They have a widely copied brief, legendary Passio (BHL 2853) in which Januarius comes first and Silanus is called Silvanus; this has them tried jointly before a prefect Publius and martyred in different ways under an emperor Antoninus whom many, seemingly forgetful of the fact the Severans also called themselves by that name, have supposed to indicate either Antoninus Pius or Marcus Aurelius. The Passio's narrative device of separate single or small-group martyrdoms rationalizes the otherwise awkward fact that the members of this assemblage are known martyrs of different cemeteries. These martyrs are also characterized as brothers in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, where they appear among the Roman saints of this day. The ninth-century martyrologies of Wandalbert of Prüm, St. Ado of Vienne, and Usuard of Saint-Germain again present them as Felicity's seven sons; the latter two also follow the Passio in having Januarius come first and in calling Silanus Silvanus. In the Roman Martyrology today is their day of commemoration (since 2001 without reference to persons and narrative details of the legend).
Some period-pertinent images of Sts. Felix and Philip, Martial, Vitalis, and Alexander, Silanus, and Januarius in their collective identity as the sons of St. Felicity of Rome:
a) as depicted (their martyrdom [only six shown]; at right, Felicity) in one of four panels of a full-page illumination in the late twelfth-century so-called Bible of Saint Bertin (ca. 1190-1200; Den Haag, KB, ms. 76 F 5, fol. 39r, sc. 2B):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76f5%3A039r_min_b2
b) as depicted (at right: martyrdom [only six shown]; at left, Felicity) in a late thirteenth-century collection of saint's lives in French (1285; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 412, fol. 75v:
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84259980/f160.item.zoom
c) as depicted ([only three shown] with Felicity before the emperor) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1335; Paris, BnF, ms. Arsenal 5080, fol. 146v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b55000813g/f298.item.zoom
Prior to correction this copy gave the number of Felicity's sons as three (.iii.); hence, presumably, the number of sons in this illumination.
d) as depicted (with Felicity before the emperor) in a mid-fourteenth-century copy, from the workshop of Richard and Jeanne de Montbaston, of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1348; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 157v):
http://tinyurl.com/ybdavag
e) as depicted ([only three shown] with Felicity before the emperor) in a later fourteenth-century copy of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1370-1380; Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 15941, fol. 32v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8449688c/f72.item.zoom
Here the text does give the number of sons as seven but the illumination copies a model suited to a text that gave the number as three (as in Arsenal 5080; item d, above).
f) as depicted in semi-grisaille (with Felicity before Publius) in an early fifteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay followed by the _Festes nouvelles_ attributed to Jean Golein (ca. 1401-1425; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 242, fol. 136v:
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8426005j/f288.item.zoom
g) as depicted (their martyrdom and that of Felicity) 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 50, fol. 388v):
http://tinyurl.com/y9ntrq9
h) as depicted (flanking an enthroned Felicity) by Neri di Bicci in a panel painting from a later fifteenth-century altarpiece (begun May 1464) in the chiesa di Santa Felicita in Florence:
http://tinyurl.com/jnhqbpq
i) as portrayed (around a seated Felicity) in a polychromed late fifteenth-century statue (ca. 1490) in the Diözesanmuseum St. Afra in Augsburg:
http://tinyurl.com/hbxqxdg
http://tinyurl.com/h9kc57d
j) as depicted (their heads displayed by Felicity) in the Beloit College copy of Hartmann Schedel's late fifteenth-century _Weltchronik_ (_Nuremberg Chronicle_; 1493) at fol. CXIIIIr:
http://tinyurl.com/y8kenyp
k) as portrayed (around a seated Felicity) in a polychromed late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century sculpture in the Kirche St. Felizitas und ihre Söhne (ca. 1500; used since the 1890s as an altar frontal) in Weinhausen, a locality of Jengen (Lkr. Ostallgäu) in Bavaria (smallish grayscale image):
http://www.weinhausen.de/assets/images/Felizitas_Gruppe.JPG
Two distance views (for the object's colors and size):
http://tinyurl.com/hbw69mz
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/103506811.jpg
l) as depicted (at right, their heads displayed by Felicity; at left, St. Erasmus) by the Hirschvogel (_aliter_: Hirsvogel) workshop in an earlier sixteenth-century glass window panel (1517) in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg:
http://tinyurl.com/ztnp9wb
Detail view (Felicity displaying their heads):
http://tinyurl.com/zy7eadk
Best,
John Dillon
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