medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Protus and Hyacinth (d. 257, supposedly) are martyrs of the cemetery of Basilla (or of Hermes) on the Via Salaria vetus. Recorded under 11. September in the _Depositio martyrum_ of the Chronographer of 354, they are among the very few saints identified by name in pope St. Damasus I's inscription for the cemetery as a whole (_Epigrammata Damasiana_, ed. Ferrua, no. 47). Pope St. Symmachus (498-514) removed most of their relics to his newly built church of St. Andrew on the Vatican, where they were placed in the confessio. When Hyacinth's early resting place, identified by a grave slab noting today as his day of laying to rest, was discovered in the cemetery in 1845, it contained ashes and fragments of charred bone wrapped in cloths of costly material. These are now thought to be relics deliberately left at the site by Symmachus. A section of the cemetery showing Hyacinth's resting place (just above the majuscule "G") is here:
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/raid2/no_dgb/pics/26/large/NICOL~71.jpg
Part of an inscribed grave slab for Protus was found nearby. The precise location of his resting place is unknown.
Protus and Hyacinth are among the martyrs depicted in the sixth-century mosaics of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo at Ravenna. They are fixtures in the seventh-century lists of martyrial resting places in and about Rome. Their relics are among the great many that pope St. Leo IV (847-55) is said to have translated into the city, though given what were already on the Vatican and, if these were authentic, the relics of both saints that are said to have been brought to Einhard's church at Seligenstadt in the reign of Louis the Pious (814-34), there may not have been much left of them to translate. Protus' head (or a piece of it) is reported to have been in Rome's church of the Santi Quattro Coronati during Leo IV's pontificate; this relic's presence there was noted in an inventory conducted in 1111. In the later Middle Ages Rome's now demolished church of San Salvatore de pede pontis claimed to have relics of both saints (these went to San Giovanni dei Fiorentini in 1592).
Protus and Hyacinth have a highly legendary Passio (versions: BHL 6975 and 6976-77) that brings together in a single episodic narration various saints of their cemetery and others, most notably St. Eugenia of Rome (25. December). This confection was known in some form to St. Ado of Vienne, who in his ninth-century martyrology uses it for his _elogium_ of these saints. It makes Protus and Hyacinth Eugenia's slaves or servitors who convert her to Christianity and who are martyred with her either under Valerian or -- according to Ado and Usuard -- under Gallienus (who is not known to have persecuted). Protus and Hyacinth are entered under 11. September in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, in the early medieval historical martyrologies, in the earlier ninth-century Marble Calendar of Naples, and in the Old English Martyrology. They also have a synaxary notice in the so-called Menologion of Basil II (late tenth- or early eleventh-century). Today (11. September) is their day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Some period-pertinent images of Sts. Protus and Hyacinthus of Rome:
a) as depicted (third and second from right; Hyacinth labeled IAQVINTVS) in the heavily restored later sixth-century mosaics (ca. 561) in the nave of Ravenna's basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo:
http://tinyurl.com/h6dq535
b) as depicted in the mid-twelfth-century mosaics of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo:
1) both saints (grayscale images; Protus at left, labeled PROTIVS):
http://tinyurl.com/jg3maen
2) Protus (in color; arch soffit at left, second from bottom):
http://tinyurl.com/zmdj8rx
3) Hyacinth (in color; at center in the arch soffit):
http://www.thejoyofshards.co.uk/visits/sicily/palatina/images/288arch.jpg
c) as depicted (their martyrdom and that of St. Eugenia) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1326-1350; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 185, fol. 254v):
http://tinyurl.com/zzev6b9
d) as depicted (at far right; their baptism and that of St. Eugenia) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy (ca. 1335) of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Arsenal 5080, fol. 152v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7100627v/f310.item.zoom
e) as depicted in a later fourteenth-century Roman missal of north Italian origin (ca. 1370; Avignon, Bibliothèque-Médiathèque municipale Ceccano, ms. 136, fol. 269r):
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_055374-p.jpg
f) as depicted (at far right; their baptism and that of St. Eugenia) 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. 36v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8449688c/f80.item.zoom
g) as depicted in semi-grisaille (their martyrdom and that of St. Basilla) 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. 184r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84557843/f373.item.zoom
h) as depicted (their martyrdom; at right, St. Eugenia) 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. 252v):
http://tinyurl.com/gwjm3tz
i) as depicted (at lower right, their martyrdom; at left, St. Eugenia) in an earlier 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. 1402-1425; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 242, fol. 205v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8426005j/f426.item.zoom
j) as depicted in the early fifteenth-century Châteauroux Breviary (ca. 1414; Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2, fol. 327r):
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_054175-p.jpg
k) as twice depicted (their martyrdom and that of St. Eugenia) in a later fifteenth-century copy (1463) of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay:
1) in the panel at right, their baptism and that of St. Eugenia (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 50, fol. 392r):
http://tinyurl.com/lug4dwz2
2) their martyrdom and that of St. Eugenia (Paris, BnF ms. Français 51, fol. 26r):
http://tinyurl.com/lah5zg
l) as depicted (at left; at right, St. Eugenia) in a late fifteenth-century Roman breviary (after 1482; Clermont-Ferrand, Bibliothèque du patrimoine, ms. 69, fol. 548v):
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht4/IRHT_081388-p.jpg
m) as portrayed in relief (flanking St. Eugenia) on the recently restored late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century great altarpiece of the iglesia de Santa Eugenia in Astudillo (Palencia):
https://palenciapatrimonio.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/dsc03942.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
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