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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (21. October) is the feast day of: Bertold of Parma (d. during the years 1106-1114). According to his Vita (BHL 1284) by a younger contemporary, B.'s parents were an Englishman of little means named Abundius and a Breton named Berta; these fled England as a result of devastation caused by a great conflict between the French and the English (usually understood to be the Norman invasion) and settled first in Milan and later in Parma, where B. was born. In the latter town, B.'s parents lived near the monastery of Sant'Alessandro, (a convent of Benedictine nuns) which latter they frequented and whence they obtained alms. In recompense, the father dedicated B., who was being brought up in his own trade (cobbler), to the monastery's service. At the age of twelve, B. decided that he wished to enter monastic life at Sant'Alessandro. Overcoming with his mother's aid his father's initial objections, he obtained parental permission and was presented to the abbess. For the remainder of his life -- apart from abbatially permitted pilgrimages to Rome and to Vienne (where he visited the hospital of St. Anthony abbot and made miraculous cures) --, B. resided chastely as a lay brother at Sant'Alessandro, running errands in town for the nuns, visiting the sick, and effecting other works of charity. He also served as sacristan of the monastery's church and became known to many by virtue of his having been its porter. He died young and in an odor of sanctity. One of medieval Italy's earliest lay saints, B. enjoyed a cult at Parma practically from the moment of his sepulture. He is a (the?) patron saint of sacristans. Though the church of Sant'Alessandro was rebuilt early in the sixteenth century, a door, said to be of the eleventh century, was preserved from the previous structure as a relic of B. What's left of that is kept in Parma's Galleria nazionale (no image available at the moment). The hospitallers of Vienne were originally Benedictines entrusted with relics said to be those of St. Anthony Abbot that had been brought to France in the late eleventh century. They occupied a site near that town at what is now Saint-Antoine l'Abbaye (Isère) in Dauphiné. This developed in the thirteenth century into an abbey run by a separate order, the Hospitallers of St. Anthony (of Vienne). A exterior view of the abbey church (now a _paroissale_) is here: http://tinyurl.com/yypxra And an interior one is here: http://blog.ritacuzzupi.com/images/abbaye.jpg A brief, French-language history of the church: http://tinyurl.com/yeolv5 And here's a reproduction of the dedication illumination of one of the order's books (an illuminated Life of St. Anthony Abbot, executed in 1426), now National Library of Malta, codex I: http://www.libraries-archives.gov.mt/images/nlm_011_l.jpg A description of this ms., with an expandable view of another illumination, is here: http://tinyurl.com/yr2uwk Best, John Dillon (last year's post lightly revised) ********************************************************************** 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