medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Absent from the _Depositio martyrum_ of the Chronographer of 354, Chrysanthus and Daria (d. ca. 283, supposedly) are Roman martyrs of the cemetery of Traso on the Via Salaria nova whose burial site there was embellished by pope St. Damasus I (366-384; their verse elogium ascribed to Damasus -- Ferrua no. 45 -- is spurious). The site is later attested by St. Gregory of Tours, by the late sixth-century _Index oleorum_ of abbot John of Monza, and by the early seventh-century lists of martyrs' burial places in and about Rome. Their sixth- or seventh-century legendary Passio in longer and shorter versions (BHL 1787, 1788) makes them husband and wife, has them executed by stoning followed by burial alive together, and places their death under the emperor Numerian (283-84). The chronicler Regino of Prüm (d. 915) places their death under Numerian's father, the emperor Carus (282-83).
Chrysanthus and Daria are entered under today (25. October) in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, in the early ninth-century Marble Calendar of Naples, and in Roman Martyrology as revised in 2001; in the medieval Latin West they were often celebrated on 29. November or 1. December. In Byzantine-Rite churches their feast day is usually 19. March; their abbreviated Passio in the so-called Menologion of Basil II is BHG 313.
In the ninth century relics believed to be those of Chrysanthus and Daria were translated from Rome to today's Prüm (Lkr. Bitburg-Prüm) in Rheinland-Pfalz (844, by Prüm's abbot Markward) and to today's Oria (TR) in southern Apulia (886, by Oria's bishop Theodosius). Other putative relics of these saints placed by pope St. Paschal I in Rome's Santa Prassede are said to have been translated to the Lateran Sancta Sanctorum by pope Stephen V (885-91). The relics at Prüm were translated to today's Bad Münstereifel (Lkr. Euskirchen) in Nordrhein-Westfalen in 848 for the dedication of a newly built monastery of Chrysanthus and Daria The latter's originally eleventh- and twelfth-century Kirche St. Chrysanthus und Daria (restored, nineteenth and twentieth centuries) is now a parish church (Roman Catholic). Some exterior views:
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/19943685.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/yhobcym
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/display/15597918
http://tinyurl.com/ylgbjum
An illustrated, Italian-language page (expandable views and plans at bottom) on Oria's originally late ninth-century rupestrian cripta dei Santi Crisante e Daria is here:
http://tinyurl.com/5nw2pm
In April 2011 it was announced that two sets of bones, each forming a complete human skeleton, that had been found in 2008 in the crypt of the cathedral of Reggio Emilia were in all probability the putative relics of Chrysanthus and Daria, whose remains are said to have been translated to Reggio Emilia from Rome in the mid-tenth century. Herewith some illustrated, English-language accounts:
http://tinyurl.com/44wg96b
http://tinyurl.com/3dh2rcx
http://tinyurl.com/3q3ryc2
Some period-pertinent images of Sts. Chrysanthus and Daria:
a) as depicted in the very late fifth- or early sixth-century mosaics of the Cappella Arcivescovile (a.k.a. Cappella di Sant'Andrea) in Ravenna:
1) Chrysanthus:
http://tinyurl.com/68e82pv
2) Daria:
http://tinyurl.com/5v5ykyv
b) Daria as depicted in the later sixth-century mosaic procession of the virgin martyrs (ca. 561; heavily restored) in the nave of Ravenna's basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo:
http://tinyurl.com/hhrabgp
c) as depicted (martyrdom) in the later tenth- or very early eleventh-century so-called Menologion of Basil II (Città del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Vat. gr. 1613, p. 118):
http://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1613/0140
http://tinyurl.com/jxfcdxw
d) as twice depicted (upper register: Chrysanthus baptized by St. Carpophorus; lower register: Daria and Chrysanthus) in a late tenth- or very early eleventh-century troper, proser, and gradual from the abbey church of the Holy Savior at Prüm in the Eifel (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 9448, fol. 73r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84229915/f155.item.zoom
e) as depicted (left-hand column; martyrdom) in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the _Legenda aurea_ (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 147r):
http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ds/huntington/images//000909A.jpg
f) as depicted (martyrdom) in a late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century copy of saint's lives in French (ca. 1290-1310; Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, ms. 588, fol. 163r):
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht15/IRHT_026506-p.jpg
g) as depicted (martyrdom) in an historiated initial "C" in a fourteenth-century copy, from the diocese of Girona, of a Catalan-language version of the _Legenda aurea_ (Paris, BnF, ms. Espagnol 44, fol. 227r [continue clicking on the image for increasingly higher resolution]):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52506309k/f458.item.zoom
h) a female Chrysanthe depicted along with Daria (lower register; martyrdom) in an October calendar composition in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/1322) of the nave of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/zlyomu7
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/horhtjm
i) a female Chrysanthe depicted along with Daria (at upper left in the lower panel; at upper right, Sts. Anthimus and Leontius, brothers of Sts. Cosmas and Damian) in an October calendar composition in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1313 and 1318; conservation work in 1968) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. George in Staro Nagoričane in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://cp14.nevsepic.com.ua/217/21667/1390000850-84.jpg
j) as depicted (panel at lower left; martyrdom) in an earlier fourteenth-century pictorial menologion from Thessaloniki (betw. 1322 and 1340; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Gr. th. f. 1, fol. 32r):
http://image.ox.ac.uk/images/bodleian/msgrthf1/32r.jpg
k) as depicted (martyrdom) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of a collection of French-language saint's lives (betw. 1326 and 1350; Cambridge, St Johns College, MS B.9, fol. 136r):
http://tinyurl.com/5gykfk
l) as twice depicted (martyrdom) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (betw. 1326 and 1350; BnF, ms. Français 185):
1) fol. 77r:
http://tinyurl.com/26p9yb3
2) fol. 123v:
http://tinyurl.com/29kaslv
m) as twice depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of books 9-16 of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1335; Paris, BnF, ms. Arsenal 5080):
1) Chrysanthus' temptation in an enclosed room (fol. 207r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7100627v/f419.item.zoom
2) martyrdom (fol. 208r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7100627v/f421.item.zoom
n) Chrysanthus as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the nave of the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/ykbgg7h
o) Chrysanthus and Daria as depicted by Spinello Aretino in later fourteenth or early fifteenth-century panel paintings (betw. 1361 and 1410; from a dismembered altarpiece) in the Galleria nazionale in Parma:
1) Chrysanthus (behind St. Philip the Apostle):
http://www.atlantedellarteitaliana.it/artwork-2658.html
2) Daria (behind St. James the Lesser):
http://www.atlantedellarteitaliana.it/artwork-2657.html
p) as depicted in an historiated initial "B" in a later fourteenth-century Roman missal of north Italian origin (ca. 1370; Avignon, Bibliothèque-Médiathèque Municipale Ceccano, ms. 136, fol. 277r):
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_055396-p.jpg
q) Chrysanthus as depicted in the late fourteenth-century frescoes (later 1380s?) in the nave of the church of the Holy Ascension at the Ravanica monastery near Ćuprija in central Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/yjxhjzv
r) Chrysanthus as depicted in grisaille (his temptation in an enclosed room) in a late fourteenth-century copy of part of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1396; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 313, fol. 202r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84557843/f409.image.zoom
s) as depicted (the richly dressed Daria approaching Chrysanthus) in a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Rennes, Bibliothèque de Rennes Métropole, ms. 266, fol. 295r):
http://tinyurl.com/jow6j9e
t) as depicted (the richly dressed Daria approaching Chrysanthus) 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. 239r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8426005j/f493.item.zoom
u) as depicted (scenes) in a later fifteenth-century copy from Bruges of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay followed by the _Festes nouvelles_ attributed to Jean Golein (ca. 1460-1470; Mâcon, Médiathèque municipale, ms. 3, fol. 2r):
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_095313-p.jpg
v) as depicted (scenes from their 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. 41r):
http://tinyurl.com/26sl9ad
w) Chrysanthus as depicted (at lower left, Chrysanthus' temptation in an enclosed room; at upper right, Daria in the bordello) in a later fifteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language translation by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1480-1490; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 245, fol. 145v):
http://tinyurl.com/z774epg
x) as depicted (Daria in the bordello; Daria spares one of the lion's captives) in a late fifteenth-century Roman breviary of French origin (after 1482; Clermont-Ferrand, Bibliothèque du patrimoine, ms. 69, fol. 587v):
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht4/IRHT_081410-p.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
|