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This morning's research
Jan. 28th, 2010 06:57 amSo here I am, munching on a raisin-cinnamon bagel and compiling lists of May feasts/saints, when what do I run across but an entry about a little-known, locally-venerated guy named "Beatus". His short story runs like this:
Beatus of Thun is a local saint of the area around Lake Thun in Canton Bern. Although his cult is at least as old as the thirteenth century, he has no Vita prior prior to the wholly legendary one by the Franciscan humanist Daniel Agricola, first printed in 1511. This makes him an Englishman named Suetonius who after his conversion to Christianity by St. Barnabas changed his name to Beatus and who not long afterwards went to Rome where he received from St. Peter himself the task of evangelizing Switzerland. It goes on to have Beatus effect conversions through his preaching and his miracles, slay a dragon in a cave (the corpse is thrown into Lake Thun), and settle down to a life of prayer and penitence along with his companion Achates. His Vita is an obvious confection but his veneration by pilgrims at a cave near today's Beatenberg in the Bernese Oberland is documented from 1231 onward.
And then John did something cool (as he often does), he included a link to a page "showing a late 15th century pilgrimage badge" and even though I often skip John's links (as they are mostly about architecture), I had to click on this one.
Oh that is fun! What a cool saint... there were photos of his cave (it is beautiful), of the pilgrimage center, of a museum - and of a big ole dragon made for kids to climb into and play in. It made me grin, just to see it. The page is in German but even if you don't speak that language, the photos are well worth taking a gander at. I tell you, as lovely as the landscape was, I'd kick a dragon out so I could live there, too. http://www.lochstein.de/hoehlen/Ch/beatus/beatus.htm
Beatus of Thun is a local saint of the area around Lake Thun in Canton Bern. Although his cult is at least as old as the thirteenth century, he has no Vita prior prior to the wholly legendary one by the Franciscan humanist Daniel Agricola, first printed in 1511. This makes him an Englishman named Suetonius who after his conversion to Christianity by St. Barnabas changed his name to Beatus and who not long afterwards went to Rome where he received from St. Peter himself the task of evangelizing Switzerland. It goes on to have Beatus effect conversions through his preaching and his miracles, slay a dragon in a cave (the corpse is thrown into Lake Thun), and settle down to a life of prayer and penitence along with his companion Achates. His Vita is an obvious confection but his veneration by pilgrims at a cave near today's Beatenberg in the Bernese Oberland is documented from 1231 onward.
And then John did something cool (as he often does), he included a link to a page "showing a late 15th century pilgrimage badge" and even though I often skip John's links (as they are mostly about architecture), I had to click on this one.
Oh that is fun! What a cool saint... there were photos of his cave (it is beautiful), of the pilgrimage center, of a museum - and of a big ole dragon made for kids to climb into and play in. It made me grin, just to see it. The page is in German but even if you don't speak that language, the photos are well worth taking a gander at. I tell you, as lovely as the landscape was, I'd kick a dragon out so I could live there, too. http://www.lochstein.de/hoehlen/Ch/beatus/beatus.htm
