medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today's Andrew of Crete (d. ca. 740; also Andrew of Gortyn and Andrew of Jerusalem), a confessor, is not to be confused with his supposedly slightly later -- and probably quite fictional -- homonym also known as Andrew "in Crisi", said to have been martyred in Constantinople by iconoclasts. The principal source for his biography is his perhaps ninth-century Bios by Nicetas the Patrician (BHG 113; the basis for several later Bioi). Further information is provided by his homilies and other writings. Born in Damascus, early in life he entered the monastery of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where in time he became a notary of the Great Basilica. Sent to Constantinople in 685, he governed an orphanage and a poorhouse there. At some time between 692 and 713 Andrew was made bishop of Gortys (also Gortyn), the metropolitan see for Crete). In addition to his homilies he is known for his hymns, especially for his penitential Great Canon in 250 strophes sung in Great Lent.
Andrew died on this day at Erissos on Lesbos. He has the first entry under 4. July in the originally tenth-century Synaxary of Constantinople. This remains his feast day in Byzantine-rite churches and is also his day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology. Additionally, he has the second entry under 4. June in the Synaxary of Constantinople and is to be found under that day in some later medieval painted calendars.
Andrew's Great Canon in an English-language translation:
http://www.orthodoxchristian.info/pages/canon.htm
Links to an English-language translation of Andrew's Encomium of St. Nicholas of Myra in two different formats are here:
http://tinyurl.com/zo25zqm
Some period-pertinent images of St. Andrew of Crete, confessor:
a) as depicted in a somewhat degraded June calendar portrait in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/1322) in the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending on one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/hrdrcf4
b) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1314 and ca. 1320) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. Nicetas the Goth (Sv. Nikita) at Čučer in today's Čučer-Sandevo in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/zhgoovh
Detail view (at left; at right, St. Gregory of Nyssa):
http://tinyurl.com/7efwcso
c) as depicted (upper left in the panel at lower left; at lower right in the same panel, Sts. Theodore and Cyprilla of Cyrene) in an earlier fourteenth-century pictorial menologion from Thessaloniki (betw. 1322 and 1340; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Gr. th. f. 1, fol. 46r):
http://image.ox.ac.uk/images/bodleian/msgrthf1/46r.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
|