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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Hope all is well. Struggling to make it through. Spring is almost here, and with it comes Jack in the Green. -----Original Message----- From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Conrad Bladey Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 6:36 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [M-R] saints of the day 17. March medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Greetings - You will find everything related to St. Patrick Here. All the primary documents and much more. Have fun. http://mysite.verizon.net/cbladey/pat/patrick.html Conrad John Dillon wrote: >medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > >Today (17. March) is the feast day of: > >1) Patrick (d. 5th cent.). P. is the apostle of Ireland and one of its patron saints. The son of a deacon and the grandson of a priest, he was captured at the age of sixteen from his home town in Britannia by pirates who sold him into slavery in Ireland. He toiled for six years as a herdsman before escaping and returning home. Later he experienced a nocturnal vision in which he was recalled by the Irish to minister unto them. After further divine prompting, P. returned to engage in pastoral activities of that sort (chiefly, it would seem, in Ulster). We have two genuine writings by him, the _Confession_ and the _Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus_. English-language translations of these are here: >http://www.irishchristian.net/history/stpatrick/confessio.html >http://www.irishchristian.net/history/stpatrick/coroticus.html > >By the seventh century, when his Vita by St. Muirchu (BHL 6497) will have been written, P. was already the stuff of legend. Armagh claimed to have his remains and promoted his cult. A notable relic of this activity is the ninth-century Book of Armagh (now Trinity College, Dublin, Ms. 52), which in addition to the Gospels and other New Testament texts contains Muirchu's Vita of P., another by bishop Tirechan (BHL 6496; late seventh- or early eighth-century), and other writings bearing on P. A page from this manuscript is shown here: >http://tinyurl.com/2n9cgq >The Book of Armagh was long kept in an eighth-century satchel originally crafted for a larger book: >http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/leather/armagh.jpg > >Another relic associated with P. is the very early (late sixth-century?) handbell known as the Black Bell of St Patrick and now kept, along with its late eleventh- or very early twelfth-century shrine, in the National Museum in Dublin. Views of both the bell and the shrine are here: >http://tinyurl.com/3xy893 >Another view of the bell: >http://www.dunningspub.com/images/cloch_dubh.JPG > >P. is the patron saint of Patrick in the Isle of Man, where the remains of an originally tenth- or eleventh-century church dedicated to him are enclosed within the walls of Peel Castle on St Patrick's Isle. In the aerial view shown here, the ruin in question is visible between the round tower and the remains of the cathedral of St. German: >http://tinyurl.com/cnuta2 >In this view it is the building at top center: >http://tinyurl.com/2forte >An illustrated account of the several stages of construction of this church is here: >http://tinyurl.com/d7srfg >Better views of the cathedral: >http://tinyurl.com/cdv8ph >http://tinyurl.com/c48765 >A distance view of the islet: >http://tinyurl.com/2qwvh3 > > >2) Agricola of Chalon-sur-Saône (d. 580). We know about A. (in French: Arègle, Agrèle) chiefly from a brief notice in St. Gregory of Tours' _Historia Francorum_ (5. 45) and from incidental information in the same author's treatment of St. Desideratus of Chalon-sur-Saône in his _In gloria confessorum_ (cap. 85). He came from a senatorial family, spoke with eloquence though he had little education in the humanities, practiced abstinence from meals, erected many buildings in his city, established just outside it a leprosarium with a church to serve it (into which he translated the aforementioned Desideratus), and died at the age of eighty-three after having been bishop of Chalon for almost forty-eight years. His presence is recorded at several councils. St. Venantius Fortunatus recounts in his Vita of St. Germanus of Paris how A. successfully obtained from the latter the healing of one of his servants. > >A.'s cult at Chalon-sur-Saône is first attested from 878, when his relics and those of his city's bishop St. Sylvester were translated from Chalon's church of St. Marcellus to the abbey church of St. Peter in the same city. A later fifteenth-century calendar in a Book of Hours for the Use of Chalon-sur-Saône (København, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, ms. Thott 536) shows him commemorated on 28. July. > > >3) Gertrude of Nivelles (d. 659). Getrude was a daughter of Pepin of Landen and of his wife, St. Itta; she was thus also a sister of St. Begga. After Pepin's death Itta founded a double monastery at today's Nivelles (prov. de Brabant Wallon) in Belgium and entered it along with G., who became abbess. In about 670 a monk of Nivelles wrote the first of G.'s Vitae (BHL 3490), setting forth her knowledge of Scripture, her works of charity, and her miracles. Her cult spread widely in the Low Countries and in adjacent areas. > >G.'s monastery has disappeared without trace. Herewith some views of Nivelles' originally eleventh-century collégiale dedicated to her, now rebuilt after extensive bombing damage sustained early in World War II: >http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/Joshke/Niv1.jpg >http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/Joshke/Niv2.jpg >http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/Joshke/Niv3.jpg >http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/Joshke/Niv6.jpg >http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/Joshke/Niv5.jpg >http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/Joshke/Niv4.jpg > >Here's an illustrated, German-language page on the originally later fourteenth-century Pfarrkirche St. Gertrudis in Horstmar (Kr. Steinfurt) in Germany's Land Nordrhein-Westfalen: >http://tinyurl.com/2bnuz4 > >And here's a page of views of the originally late fifteenth-century St. Gertrudiskerk in Workum (Fr) in The Netherlands: >http://frieslandchurches.tripod.com/workumherv.html > > >4) Conrad of Bavaria (Bl.; d. 1154, traditionally). Today's less well known holy person of the Regno is said to have been a son of duke Henry IX (Heinrich der Schwarze) of Bavaria and to have been educated at Weingarten abbey (a relatively recent foundation of his Welf family) and later at Köln, where he studied theology under the protection of the archbishop (a paternal cousin). Recruited into the Cistercian Order either in 1125/26 or in 1147, C. (in Italian, Corrado) soon undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land but fell ill either before he could depart from Italy or shortly after his return. C.'s last days were spent near today's Modugno (BA) in Puglia at, it is thought, the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria ad Cryptam, in whose cave church (first recorded from 1189) he is said to have been buried, either in 1126 (recent conjecture) or in 1154 (traditional view). > >At some point, seemingly after the suppression of Santa Maria ad Cryptam in 1309, the diocese of Molfetta took possession of C.'s relics and translated them to its then cathedral. With this translation C.'s cult enters history. A fourteenth-century missal from Molfetta preserves a Mass for the feast of the translation of Saint Conrad the Confessor, celebrated on 9. February. That is still the day of C.'s liturgical celebration in the diocese of Molfetta and of his civic festival in Molfetta proper (C. is the patron saint of both jurisdictions). Today is his traditional _dies natalis_, commemorated as such at Molfetta (BA) and in the RM. C.'s cult was confirmed under Gregory XVI in 1832, with the issuance of a new Mass following two years later. The belief in Molfetta (not shared by editors of the RM) is that this confirmation was at the level of Saint. > >In 1785 C.'s relics were translated to Molfetta's present cathedral, where his skull is preserved in a seventeenth-century reliquary bust. The latter recently underwent restoration, during which time the skull had to be removed. Photographs of the skull when it was being removed in August 2007 are here: >http://www.molfettalive.it/news/news.aspx?idnews=4667 >and a gallery of photographs of the skull's ceremonial return to the reliquary on 9. February 2008 is here (click on the numbers under the view of the cutting of the ribbon): >http://www.molfettalive.it/mediacenter/gallery.aspx?m=419 > >Molfetta's previous cathedral, built in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, is now dedicated to C. Herewith some illustrated, Italian-language accounts of this structure, a major element of a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site, Romanesque Cathedrals in Puglia: >http://tinyurl.com/d3ayb4 >http://www.ilportaledelsud.org/molfetta.htm >Further views: >http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/52247/view/?service=1 >http://tinyurl.com/dn5gb6 >http://tinyurl.com/c5mcda >http://www.flickr.com/photos/tilli/297388195/ >http://tinyurl.com/c4hwnz >http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/laserdisk/artsurvey/bysite/00200.html >http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/laserdisk/artsurvey/bysite/00199.html >http://www.thais.it/architettura/romanica/schede/sc_00281_uk.htm >http://tinyurl.com/clgqeh >http://www.thais.it/architettura/romanica/schede/sc_00282_uk.htm > >At Modugno the ex-monastic site of Santa Maria ad Cryptam morphed over time into today's Santuario di Santa Maria della Grotta. Its cave church was restored in 1974. Here's an Italian-language account noting its medieval remains: >http://tinyurl.com/ccgncv >A view of part of the twelfth-century mosaic pavement: >http://www.ba.cnr.it/~irisnm08/fig14.htm >A plan showing the extent of the remaining fragments of the pavement: >http://www.ba.cnr.it/~irisnm08/fig15.htm >A view of a service taking place in part of the grotto: >http://www.giovanirog.it/images/PiaUniovePV19mar05big.jpg >Another view (not the same occasion): >http://www.solobari.it/gallery/data/media/109/bari_026.jpg >Here's a view of the exterior of the Santuario. The latter after centuries of progressive decline as an ecclesiastical property was secularized in the 1800s and converted into a villa. In the twentieth century it was bought by its present owners, the Rogationist Fathers. The base of the tower is a medieval survival: >http://tinyurl.com/2oxg8t > >Best, >John Dillon >(Patrick, Gertrude of Nivelles, and Conrad of Bavaria lightly revised from last year's post) > >********************************************************************** >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 > > > ********************************************************************** 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 ********************************************************************** 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