medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
We know almost nothing about the historical Plechelmus (Plechelm; d. 8th cent.), said to have been a missionary and monastic founder in the Low Countries. He has a very unreliable late tenth- or eleventh-century Vita (BHL 6867) that probably was written at the abbey of St. Peter at Odilienberg near Roermond. This makes him an Irishman and a companion of saints Wiro and Otger, whose own Vitae (Wiro's, at least, is considerably earlier) are cut from the same legendary cloth. Plechelmus appears in a tenth-century calendar from Utrecht and is commemorated in the originally twelfth-century St. Plechelmusbasiliek in Oldenzaal (Ov), where he is said to have founded a church dedicated to St. Sylvester and where an earlier church had also been dedicated to him in 954. Some views of this pile:
http://www.plechelmusbasiliek.nl/actueel/foto/groot/actueel_2.jpg
http://www.archimon.nl/overijssel/oldenzaalplechelmus.html
http://www.plechelmusbasiliek.nl/parochie/foto/groot/parochie_3.jpg
Dating from 1244, the seal shown at right in this view bears the oldest known effigy of Plechelmus:
http://tinyurl.com/58f985
For 15 euros one may purchase from the St. Plechelmusbasiliek a CD of a performance of his medieval Office:
http://tinyurl.com/2zpkur
For more on Plechelmus' cult, see the essays in Guus Goorhuis and Jan Oude N©¦huis, eds., _Plechelmus: z©¦n kerk, liturgie en kapittel te Oldenzaal_ (Zutphen: Walburg Pr., 2005; 254pp.).
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
|