(no subject)
Mar. 17th, 2010 11:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stitchwhichNarcissus of Gerona (d. 307) Perhaps completely legendary, the story is that Bishop Narcissus of Gerona (Spain) came to Augsburg with his deacon Felix at the beginning of the fourth century. There they baptized St. Afra and consecrated her uncle Dionysius as first bishop of Augsburg. After their return to Gerona, both were martyred. A cult began to develop in the eleventh century. Narcissus is often depicted in art with a dragon (he's supposed to have killed one). When king Philip of France took Gerona, his soldiers pillaged the shrine of S. Narcissus, whereupon a swarm of hornets issued from it and stung them. Consequently in art he is also represented with hornets issuing from his tomb. [For this reason, he is also known as St Ung.]
---***---
Fra Angelico (d. 1455) Fra Angelico (Guido da Vicchio) was born near Florence. When about 20 years old, he and his brother became Dominicans at Fiesole. "Brother John of the Angels" (or "Fra Angelico" as he became known outside of the convent) became one of the great artists of the quattrocento, especially noted for his fresco cycles in Rome and his frescos at San Marco in Florence, where he served as prior for several years.
Yes, that Fra Angelico!
---***---
Edward the Martyr (d. 978) The older son of the Anglo-Saxon king Edgar the Peaceable and his first wife, Aethelfleda, Edward (Eadweard) succeeded to the throne in 975 at about the age of twelve. His stepmother arranged his assassination while he was on a visit to his half-brother and successor Æthelred at Corfe Castle in Dorset. Edward's murdered body was thrown into a swamp, but it was discovered by a miraculous light shining down on it and the archbishop of Canterbury, St. Dunstan, proclaimed his sanctity. On 13 February 979, his body (later said to have been incorrupt) was formally translated to Shaftesbury Abbey, where on 20 June 1001 it was ceremoniously enshrined. In 1008 a law of king Æthelred mandated today as Edward’s feast day for the entire kingdom.
The town of Shaftesbury came to be known as Edwardstowe (a designation it lost during the Reformation). In the late eleventh century E. received a Life and Miracles. Visitors to his initial burial site near Corfe Castle, Dorset reported miracle cures, and 15 years after his death, in 979 or 980, his remains were moved to Shaftesbury Abbey (a Benedictine nunnery). When the cover of his grave began levitating, King Ethelred ordered the erection of a shrine: "I, King Ethelred, King of the English, with humble prayer, offer the monastery ... my brother Edward, whom the Lord
himself deigns to exalt in our days by many signs of virtue, after his blood was shed." This shrine, on the north side of the altar, was consecrated in 1001 and Edward was formally canonized in 1008.
Excavations in 1931 revealed a lead casket with the remains of an Anglo-Saxon adolescent boy. The Brookwood Cemetery site explains what happened next: "The Director of the Excavations, John Wilson-Claridge (1905-1993), whose family then owned the site, began years of painstaking negotiations with all the major churches in order to find a suitable resting place for the relics. He imposed two conditions: (1) that they were recognised as the relics of a saint, and (2) that a shrine would be established for their reception. These conditions were met only by the Russian Orthodox Church in Exile, which entered into detailed negotiations with Mr Wilson-Claridge in the late 1970s.
"At the same time the Orthodox Church purchased the site now owned by the St Edward Brotherhood, with the intention of using the larger of the two mortuary chapels for the reception of St Edward's bones. The formal ceremony of enshrinement took place on 15/16 September 1984. Thus for the first time in nearly 450 years the remains of St Edward (arguably England's least important king) have a fitting resting place within a Church whose doctrine is closest to that which he knew in his lifetime." This second enshrinement was not without controversy, for Wilson-Claridge's brother objected to the transfer to theOrthodox Church, and it took a High Court decision in 1984 to allow it. However, extra security measures were ordered, and the relics then found a home in a bank vault until 1993 when, as the St. Edward Brotherhood reported, "on the feast of St. Aethelgifu, the first Abbess of Shaftesbury, we brought the relics back to the church where, glory be to God, they remain to this day." Brookwood Cemetery is 4 miles west of Woking, Surrey.
---***---
Fra Angelico (d. 1455) Fra Angelico (Guido da Vicchio) was born near Florence. When about 20 years old, he and his brother became Dominicans at Fiesole. "Brother John of the Angels" (or "Fra Angelico" as he became known outside of the convent) became one of the great artists of the quattrocento, especially noted for his fresco cycles in Rome and his frescos at San Marco in Florence, where he served as prior for several years.
Yes, that Fra Angelico!
---***---
Edward the Martyr (d. 978) The older son of the Anglo-Saxon king Edgar the Peaceable and his first wife, Aethelfleda, Edward (Eadweard) succeeded to the throne in 975 at about the age of twelve. His stepmother arranged his assassination while he was on a visit to his half-brother and successor Æthelred at Corfe Castle in Dorset. Edward's murdered body was thrown into a swamp, but it was discovered by a miraculous light shining down on it and the archbishop of Canterbury, St. Dunstan, proclaimed his sanctity. On 13 February 979, his body (later said to have been incorrupt) was formally translated to Shaftesbury Abbey, where on 20 June 1001 it was ceremoniously enshrined. In 1008 a law of king Æthelred mandated today as Edward’s feast day for the entire kingdom.
The town of Shaftesbury came to be known as Edwardstowe (a designation it lost during the Reformation). In the late eleventh century E. received a Life and Miracles. Visitors to his initial burial site near Corfe Castle, Dorset reported miracle cures, and 15 years after his death, in 979 or 980, his remains were moved to Shaftesbury Abbey (a Benedictine nunnery). When the cover of his grave began levitating, King Ethelred ordered the erection of a shrine: "I, King Ethelred, King of the English, with humble prayer, offer the monastery ... my brother Edward, whom the Lord
himself deigns to exalt in our days by many signs of virtue, after his blood was shed." This shrine, on the north side of the altar, was consecrated in 1001 and Edward was formally canonized in 1008.
Excavations in 1931 revealed a lead casket with the remains of an Anglo-Saxon adolescent boy. The Brookwood Cemetery site explains what happened next: "The Director of the Excavations, John Wilson-Claridge (1905-1993), whose family then owned the site, began years of painstaking negotiations with all the major churches in order to find a suitable resting place for the relics. He imposed two conditions: (1) that they were recognised as the relics of a saint, and (2) that a shrine would be established for their reception. These conditions were met only by the Russian Orthodox Church in Exile, which entered into detailed negotiations with Mr Wilson-Claridge in the late 1970s.
"At the same time the Orthodox Church purchased the site now owned by the St Edward Brotherhood, with the intention of using the larger of the two mortuary chapels for the reception of St Edward's bones. The formal ceremony of enshrinement took place on 15/16 September 1984. Thus for the first time in nearly 450 years the remains of St Edward (arguably England's least important king) have a fitting resting place within a Church whose doctrine is closest to that which he knew in his lifetime." This second enshrinement was not without controversy, for Wilson-Claridge's brother objected to the transfer to theOrthodox Church, and it took a High Court decision in 1984 to allow it. However, extra security measures were ordered, and the relics then found a home in a bank vault until 1993 when, as the St. Edward Brotherhood reported, "on the feast of St. Aethelgifu, the first Abbess of Shaftesbury, we brought the relics back to the church where, glory be to God, they remain to this day." Brookwood Cemetery is 4 miles west of Woking, Surrey.
