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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture On Monday, January 10, 2005, at 7:53 pm, Phyllis wrote: > Today (11. January) is the feast day of: > > Leucius of Brindisi (d. 180) According to tradition a missionary > from Alexandria, Leucius was the first bishop of Brindisi. Another > Leucius, officially "of Alexandria" is also celebrated today---that > one was martyred in c. 309. With the perhaps predictable exception of the Benedictines of Ramsgate Abbey [whose _The Book of Saints_, 6th ed. (1966), p. 559, repeats from earlier editions a mistaken grouping, already correctly characterized in Holweck's _A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints_ (1924), p. 607, as "not genuine", of Alexandrian martyrs Peter, Severus and Leucius celebrated on this day], the two Leuciuses mentioned above have long been considered one and the same: the protobishop of Brindisi, of uncertain date. For an explanation of why this is so, see Francesco Lanzoni, _Le diocesi d'Italia_ (Faenza, 1927), vol. 1, pp. 305-09. L. is sometimes referred to in English as Lucius the Confessor. His cult is attested to by the pseudo-Hieronymian Martyrology and by Gregory the Great and he is the subject of an early medieval Vita (BHL 4894) widely distributed in the Beneventan cultural area but seemingly unknown to Paul the Deacon when he was writing his _De espiscopis Mettensibus_ (after 765). This Vita has later revisions from Brindisi (BHL 4895; 9th[?]-cent.) and from Trani (BHL 4897; 11th[?]-cent.). L. is the first bishop of Brindisi whose name is known. Apart from this, none of the aforementioned accounts offers any reliable information about him. L. (or parts of L.) underwent various translations from the seventh century to the eleventh. Apart from bits that went to Rome and vicinity at the request of Gregory the Great, he was in Brindisi until sometime after the Lombard sack of 674, when he was translated to Trani and housed in the early crypt that bears his today. In probably the eighth he was removed to Benevento; in the ninth century an arm was returned to Brindisi. In the eleventh century, it seems, the diocese of Trani got half of L.'s body (or of what was then left of it) back from Benevento in return for a monetary payment. L.'s cult is widespread in formerly Lombard areas of the Italian south and centre. Canosa di Puglia (BA) boasts the remains of a Byzantine basilica that was renamed in L.'s honor after that town's capture by the Lombards in the late seventh century; see (about halfway down the page): http://www.canusium.it/Pages/Luoghi/Medioevale/Medioevale.htm#leucio and, for further detail,: http://www.itgnervi.it/Basilica%20di%20San%20Leucio.html http://www.itgnervi.it/Fase%20descrittiva.html http://www.canosadipuglia.org/sanleucio.htm A plan of Trani cathedral's rude crypt of St. Leucius is shown here (2d illustration): http://www.enec.it/Cripte/Trani/Planimetria.htm and a view of it is here (3d photograph from bottom): http://www.trani.org/trani/turismo/itinerari/indexitinerari.asp?id=47 Veroli (FR), in southern Lazio (an area of Beneventan cultural influence), has a church dedicated to L. in 1079: http://www.prolocoveroli.it/iti.2.2.html The cathedral of Atessa (CH) in southern Abruzzo is dedicated to L., who according to local legend slew a dragon that was terrorizing the population. A fossilized rib bone of some large prehistoric mammal is still on display in the cathedral in testimony of this feat. The building itself has a fourteenth-century portal (with later modifications): http://www.dsatessa.it/galleriafotografica/06hi.jpg http://utenti.lycos.it/sabridip/hpbimg/sanleucio.jpg http://www.ilportaledelsud.org/atessa.htm Aside from its reliquary of L., Brindisi itself has little medieval to show of its sainted protobishop. Its eigtheenth century cathedral, dedicated to John the Baptist, sports atop its facade statues dating from 1957 and depicting the local patron saints. L. is on the far left (the others are the soldier saint Theodore, Lawrence of Brindisi, and Pius X): http://www.brindisiweb.com/monumenti/foto/duomo4.jpg http://www.brindisiweb.com/storia/foto/corpus1.jpg The archdiocese of Brindisi-Ostuni also owns one of the vessels from the Marriage Feast at Cana: http://www.brindisiweb.com/arcidiocesi/foto/idria.jpg Related, perhaps, is this fresco of the water-into-wine miracle: http://www.mondimedievali.net/Edifici/Puglia/Brindisi/smcasal05.jpg from an interesting "gothic" church (with "romanesque" decor), Santa Maria del Casale (located a short distance outside of Brindisi proper): http://www.brindisiweb.com/monumenti/index.html Various views (expandable .jpgs) are here: http://www.mondimedievali.net/Edifici/Puglia/Brindisi/Brindisi.htm More details from the frescoes are on this page: http://www.mondimedievali.net/Edifici/Puglia/Brindisi/Brindisi02.htm#sch This church, incidentally, was the venue for the trial of the Templars of Apulia in 1310. Best, John Dillon ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join 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: leave 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/lists/medieval-religion.html