Today, medieval people celebrated...
Mar. 1st, 2010 02:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stitchwhichBonavita (1375) - a blacksmith and Franciscan tertiary, he lived and died in the village of Lugo, fourteen miles west of Ravenna; there, he was noted for his simplicity and his many miracles.
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Senan (6th cent.) Senan was an Irish monk and monastic founder, born in County Clare. His most important foundation was on Scattery Island in the Shannon estuary. Perhaps the best legend about Senan is one that makes him look bad: St. Cannera (a woman) wanted to visit the Scattery community (she'd had a vision that she would be buried on the island), but was forbidden because of her sex. Senan blocked her at the water's edge and told her she was not welcome because she was a woman. They argued, and finally she responded: "God did not become incarnate for men more than for women. He did not suffer for men more than he did for women. Heaven is open to both sexes equally. In fact, Christ did not in the least refuse the companionship of holy women who ministered to him and his disciples." She won - and died as soon as her foot touched the shore. She was, indeed, buried there.
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Eudokia "the Samaritan" (d. 107 (?)) Legend tells that Eudokia was a beautiful whore who lived in what is now Lebanon. She was converted to Christianity (and to a life of chastity), giving all her goods to the poor (which earned her the nickname "the samaritan"). Her former lovers denounced her as a Christian and she was brought before the emperor Aurelian. But she healed Aurelian's son, and converted the emperor to Christianity, so he released her. Then the governor of Heliopolis arrested her - but she worked a miracle in his presence and he released her. The *next* governor of Heliopolis finally beheaded the woman.
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David of St Davids (d. 589/601?) David (Dewi) is the patron saint of Wales. His cult was already established by the eighth century. He was supposed to be the son of the king of south Wales and St. Non. He is presented as a monastic founder, as the preeminent bishop of Wales, and as a saint of a stature at least equal to that of St. Patrick and certainly greater than that of St. Gildas. His abbey at Vallis Rosina (also Mynyw, latinized as Menevia) came to be known as Dewi's House (Tyddewi) and was the nucleus of medieval and modern St Davids (Pembrokeshire), where he was both abbot and bishop to an advanced age. Legend says he was consecrated archbishop of the Cambrian church by the patriarch of Jerusalem while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
St. David was purported to have encouraged the natives to wear a leek in their cap when they fought their battle with the pagan Saxon invaders in a field full of leeks, so as to easily distinguish friend from foe. The battle was a victorious one for the Welsh and, according to legend, the leek was thereafter adopted as the national emblem. The afore-mentioned era is documented in the Red Book of Hergest, the largest of the medieval vernacular manuscripts, which contains a copy of most Welsh literature written before1400.
Supposedly Callistus II approved his cult in c1120, making him the only Welsh saint formally canonized. Pope Calixtus II (Pope from 1119 to 24) decreed that one pilgrimage to St David’s was equal to two to Rome. He is represented in art as standing on a mound with a dove on his shoulder, in allusion to a legend that once while preaching a dove descended next to his ear, and the earth beneath his feet rose up to form a hill so that David could be better heard.
In 1275, John de Gamages, an Abbot based 60 miles from here, dreamt about the resting place of St David and following his instructions a body was found in the cathedral grounds. It was placed in a new shrine in 1275. King Edward I was one of the first to visit and make an offering.
“The prosperity of St Davids continued with a steady traffic of visitors until the sixteenth century. The current Dean said: "In 1538, Protestant William Barlow was appointed bishop at St David’s. He wanted to shut down the cathedral and confiscated the reliquaries. As far as we know, they were all destroyed. In the nineteenth Century some bones were found walled up in a recess at the back of the High Altar and they were later believed to be those of St. David. I had these carbon dated and it was revealed they are actually from the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It would appear that no relics have survived."
---***---
Senan (6th cent.) Senan was an Irish monk and monastic founder, born in County Clare. His most important foundation was on Scattery Island in the Shannon estuary. Perhaps the best legend about Senan is one that makes him look bad: St. Cannera (a woman) wanted to visit the Scattery community (she'd had a vision that she would be buried on the island), but was forbidden because of her sex. Senan blocked her at the water's edge and told her she was not welcome because she was a woman. They argued, and finally she responded: "God did not become incarnate for men more than for women. He did not suffer for men more than he did for women. Heaven is open to both sexes equally. In fact, Christ did not in the least refuse the companionship of holy women who ministered to him and his disciples." She won - and died as soon as her foot touched the shore. She was, indeed, buried there.
---***---
Eudokia "the Samaritan" (d. 107 (?)) Legend tells that Eudokia was a beautiful whore who lived in what is now Lebanon. She was converted to Christianity (and to a life of chastity), giving all her goods to the poor (which earned her the nickname "the samaritan"). Her former lovers denounced her as a Christian and she was brought before the emperor Aurelian. But she healed Aurelian's son, and converted the emperor to Christianity, so he released her. Then the governor of Heliopolis arrested her - but she worked a miracle in his presence and he released her. The *next* governor of Heliopolis finally beheaded the woman.
---***---
David of St Davids (d. 589/601?) David (Dewi) is the patron saint of Wales. His cult was already established by the eighth century. He was supposed to be the son of the king of south Wales and St. Non. He is presented as a monastic founder, as the preeminent bishop of Wales, and as a saint of a stature at least equal to that of St. Patrick and certainly greater than that of St. Gildas. His abbey at Vallis Rosina (also Mynyw, latinized as Menevia) came to be known as Dewi's House (Tyddewi) and was the nucleus of medieval and modern St Davids (Pembrokeshire), where he was both abbot and bishop to an advanced age. Legend says he was consecrated archbishop of the Cambrian church by the patriarch of Jerusalem while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
St. David was purported to have encouraged the natives to wear a leek in their cap when they fought their battle with the pagan Saxon invaders in a field full of leeks, so as to easily distinguish friend from foe. The battle was a victorious one for the Welsh and, according to legend, the leek was thereafter adopted as the national emblem. The afore-mentioned era is documented in the Red Book of Hergest, the largest of the medieval vernacular manuscripts, which contains a copy of most Welsh literature written before1400.
Supposedly Callistus II approved his cult in c1120, making him the only Welsh saint formally canonized. Pope Calixtus II (Pope from 1119 to 24) decreed that one pilgrimage to St David’s was equal to two to Rome. He is represented in art as standing on a mound with a dove on his shoulder, in allusion to a legend that once while preaching a dove descended next to his ear, and the earth beneath his feet rose up to form a hill so that David could be better heard.
In 1275, John de Gamages, an Abbot based 60 miles from here, dreamt about the resting place of St David and following his instructions a body was found in the cathedral grounds. It was placed in a new shrine in 1275. King Edward I was one of the first to visit and make an offering.
“The prosperity of St Davids continued with a steady traffic of visitors until the sixteenth century. The current Dean said: "In 1538, Protestant William Barlow was appointed bishop at St David’s. He wanted to shut down the cathedral and confiscated the reliquaries. As far as we know, they were all destroyed. In the nineteenth Century some bones were found walled up in a recess at the back of the High Altar and they were later believed to be those of St. David. I had these carbon dated and it was revealed they are actually from the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It would appear that no relics have survived."
