 |
 |
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture On Saturday, April 1, 2006, at 5:56 pm, Phyllis wrote: > Today (2. April) is the feast day of: > Francis of Paola (d. 1507) Francesco came from small-farmer stock. > His parents, though, had spent several childless years, so they > vowed > any son they might have to Francis of Assisi. Sure enough, they > then > produced a son, who was named after the great saint, and raised to > be > pious. At age 12 he was taken to a friary to spend a year The friary was at San Marco (Sammarco) in northern Calabria, today's San Marco Argentano (CS). It still exists and is still Franciscan: it and its church are known as the Convento e la Chiesa della Riforma because it was once a Reformed Franciscan house. It has been much reworked over the centuries but its church of St. Anthony of Padua, whose present austere exterior http://tinyurl.com/g276l conceals a more elaborate baroque interior, still retains elements of its original "gothic" form. Two of these (the windows in the apse) are visible in this view: http://www.comune.sanmarcoargentano.cs.it/santantonio.jpg The church's thirteenth-century fresco of St. Anthony is shown on this Italian-language page on the complex: http://web.tiscali.it/argentanum/riforma.htm Brief English- and Italian-language accounts are here: http://www.esperia.it/attrazioni/chiesariforma.htm A view of the cloister: http://www.comune.sanmarcoargentano.cs.it/convento.jpg San Marco Argentano was an early base for Robert Guiscard's Calabrian conquests and still has noteworthy structures surviving from the Norman period. While he was here, F. would have seen the town's cathedral, begun around the year 1080 and dedicated to St. Nicholas of Myra in 1087 (the year he landed in Bari). This was heavily rebuilt in the 1930s and now sports a modern facade and a new belltower. A side view from the early twentieth century: http://web.tiscali.it/argentanum/Catt1.gif and this view of the rear: http://www.comune.sanmarcoargentano.cs.it/cattedrale.jpg give some idea of the building's late medieval exterior appearance. The brief English- and Italian-language accounts here each have a view of the nave: http://www.esperia.it/attrazioni/cattedralesanmarco.htm The reconstruction of the 1930s led to the reopening of the cathdral's extensive crypt, several expandable views of which may be seen on this page (scroll down to 'La cripta'): http://www.occhiettineri.it/Itinerari/CS-SMarcoArg.php Among the cathedral's treasures is the reliquary cross shown and described here: http://tinyurl.com/g86mx and here: http://web.tiscali.it/argentanum/cattedrale.htm This was donated in 1321 by a new bishop who previously had been abbot of the also Guiscard-founded abbey of Santa Maria della Matina, a short distance outside of town. Urban II stayed here in 1092. The abbey, which became Cistercian in 1322, was already in decline in F.'s time. In the nineteenth century what was left of the complex was converted to a private dwelling; the present owners make it accessible to those who wish to view the remains of its thirteenth-century Cistercian form. A brief, English-language account is here: http://tinyurl.com/jgq9e Various illustrated, Italian-language accounts are here (scroll down to 'L'Abbazia della Matina'): http://www.comune.sanmarcoargentano.cs.it/monumenti.htm here: http://web.tiscali.it/argentanum/cattedrale.htm and here: http://www.comprensivosanmarco.it/matina.htm One more view of the chapter house: http://www.discoveritalia.it/iwe/images/content/540.jpg For those who like military architecture, the castle of San Marco Argentano (rebuilt in stone in the twelfth century on what had been Guiscard's basic plan) deserves a look: http://tinyurl.com/hr92t http://www.ville-caen.fr/mdn/plantagenets/san-marco.html A model of the original structure: http://www.ville-caen.fr/mdn/plantagenets/ImgSanMarco.htm Some contemporary views: http://192.167.233.134/esaro/img/itin2b.jpg http://www.occhiettineri.it/FotoS.MarcoArg/03%20Torre%20Normanna%203.php http://www.occhiettineri.it/FotoS.MarcoArg/02%20Torre%20Normanna%202.php Returning briefly to F., it's perhaps worth noting that his reputation for sanctity and adversion to pomp caused Louis XI of France to request his presence as a spiritual counselor. In 1483 F. yielded to pressure from his pope (Sixtus IV) and from his king (Ferrante/Ferrando I) and journeyed via Naples to France, where he was soon installed in a hermitage built for him on the royal estate at Plessis-les-Tours. He died here in the reign of Louis XII and was buried in a chapel on the estate that already housed the body of the deposed last Aragonese king of mostly mainland Sicily, Ferrando I's second legitimate son, Federico (d. 1504), who as duke of Maine had been living in exile at the chateau here. In 1562 Huguenots ransacked the chapel and burned both bodies. 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