John Dillon posted this piece on the Medieval Religion discussion group about another French saint whose feast falls today besides St Thérèse of Lisieux, St Remigius, whose baptism of King Clovis in 496 was the crucial event in the creation of a Christian Kingdom of France:

St Remigius of Reims (d. 532 or 533; in standard French, Rémi, Rémy; at Reims, usually but not always Remi or Remy), the "apostle of the Franks", is said in his Vita by "Fortunatus, bishop of Poiters" (BHL 7150; it is not by St. Venantius Fortunatus) to have been of noble birth and to have been elected bishop of Reims at the age of twenty-two. St. Gregory of Tours'Historia Francorum is our first narrative source for his having baptized the Frankish King Clovis. Gregory credits him with various miracles, one being the suppression of a fire threatening to consume his city. Remigius' originally ninth-century Vita by Hincmar of Reims (BHL 7152-7164) makes him a member of a prominent noble and ecclesiastical family and adds other miracles, including that of the ampule of chrism miraculously provided for Clovis' baptismal ceremony.

Florus of Lyon and Hincmar both give January 13th as Remigius'dies natalis; this is the date under which he is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology as revised in 2001. His traditional feast on October 1st, removed in 1969 from the general Roman Calendar but still observed in the diocese of Reims-Ardennes, commemorates his translation in 1099 from Reims' cathedral to the abbey church of Saint-Remi. Remigius' putative remains repose in the latter's largely eleventh to thirteenth-century successor, today's basilique Saint-Remi.

Some period-pertinent images of St. Remigius of Reims (the geographic suffix distinguishes him from a sainted archbishop of Rouen):

a) as portrayed (three miracles: restoring to life a girl from Toulouse; replenishing a wine barrel; the heavenly dove providing chrism for Clovis' baptism) on a later ninth-century ivory book cover in the Musée de Picardie, Amiens:



b) as depicted (at left, with St. Anselm of Canterbury and St. Audemarus / Omer) in one of four panels of a full-page illumination in the late twelfth-century so-called Bible of Saint Bertin (ca. 1190-1200; Den Haag, KB, ms. 76 F 5, fol. 29r):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76f5%3A029r_min_b2
The page as a whole:
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76f5%3A029r

c) as portrayed on an early thirteenth-century great seal (in use in 1219) of the abbey of Saint-Remi in Reims (cast from the Archives Nationales, Paris):

d) as depicted in the earlier thirteenth-century St. Rémi window (c. 1220-25) in Chartres' basilique cathédrale de Notre-Dame:
http://tinyurl.com/qedofzr - key and links to the scenes
http://tinyurl.com/yd5ens

e) as portrayed several times on the originally earlier thirteenth-century "Portail des Saints" (c. 1220-1230) of the north transept of Reims' cathédrale de Notre-Dame (NB: Many of the carvings on this building were reworked in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries):
1) Second register from top (operating miracles):

2) Just right of centre (at the baptism of Clovis):


f) as depicted in a panel of a later thirteenth-century glass window (c. 1270; w. 207) in Strasbourg's cathédrale Notre-Dame:



g) as depicted (upper register, fourth from left; baptizing Clovis) in a late thirteenth-century copy of a French-language version of a Vita of St. Dionysius / Denis of Paris and companions (c. 1280-1285; Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 1098, fol. 50r):
http://tinyurl.com/nuzcd9x
A closer view:


h) as portrayed (second from right in another scene of Clovis' baptism) in the "Galerie des Rois" on the originally fourteenth-century west front of Reims' cathédrale de Notre-Dame (NB: Many of the carvings on this building were reworked in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries):


i) as portrayed in high relief (exorcising the girl from Toulouse) in a fourteenth-century sculpture in the Musée Saint-Remi in Reims:



j) as depicted (at foot of page: second from right, baptizing Clovis) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of the Grandes Chroniques de France (between 1332 and 1350; London, BL, Royal MS 16 G VI, fol. 16r):
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=royal_ms_16_g_vi_fs001r

k) as depicted in a mid-fourteenth-century copy of a French-language version of Richer of Saint-Remi's tenth-century Vita of Remigius (Brussels, KB / BrB, ms. 5365, fol. 1r):


[Note the French Royal Arms and an early version of the arms of the Dauphin - Clever Boy]
For the locations in this now digitized ms. of other illuminations depicting Remigius see:
http://belgica.kbr.be/fr/coll/ms/ms5365_fr.html

l) as depicted (rear register, second from left) by Giottino in his later fourteenth-century Pietà of San Remigio (between 1360 and 1365) in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence:

m) as depicted (second from left, baptizing Clovis) in the later fourteenth-century Grandes Chroniques de France de Charles V (c. 1370-1380; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 2813, fol. 12v):



n) as depicted (third from right, baptizing Clovis) in another later fourteenth-century copy of the Grandes Chroniques de France (c. 1375-1400; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 10135, fol. 13r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84525476/f33.item.zoom

o) as depicted (at right, baptizing Clovis) in the second volume of a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century copy of Don Gonzalo de la Hinojosa's chronicle of Burgos in its French-language translation by Jean Golein (c. 1400; Besançon, Bibliothèques municipales, ms. 1150, fol. 85v):



p) as depicted in a lightly colored pen-and-ink illumination (at left, baptizing Clovis) in an early fifteenth-century copy of the Grandes Chroniques de France (c. 1401-1410; Valenciennes, Bibliothèque de Valenciennes, ms. 637, fol. 14v):



q) as depicted (left-hand column) in the early fifteenth-century Hours of René of Anjou (c. 1405-1410; London, BL, Egerton MS 1070, fol. 103v; image zoomable):
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=48375

r) as depicted in the early fifteenth-century Châteauroux Breviary (ca. 1414; Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, fol. 359r):


s) as depicted (in two scenes: at centre in the first, at right in the second) in a mid-fifteenth-century copy of Giovanni Colonna's Mare historiarum (between 1447 and 1455; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 4915, fol. 290v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000905v/f650.item.zoom

t) as depicted (at left, baptizing Clovis) by Jacques de Besançon in a late fifteenth-century copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (c. 1480-1490; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 245, fol. 122v):



u) as depicted in a late fifteenth-century breviary according to the Use of Langres (after 1481; Chaumont, Mediathèque de Chaumont, ms. 33, fol. 447v):



v) as depicted (second from left in main panel) in a late fifteenth-century copy of the Chroniques abrégées des Anciens Rois et Ducs de Bourgogne attributed to Olivier de la Marche (c. 1485-1486; London, BL, Yates Thompson MS 32, fol. 4v):
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=yates_thompson_ms_32_fs004v

w) as depicted (sixth from right, baptizing Clovis) by the Master of St. Giles in a late fifteenth or early sixteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1500) in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC:



http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/art-object-page.41597.html

x) as depicted (at centre, having miraculously replenished a wine barrel) in an early sixteenth-century panel painting of Swiss origin (c. 1500-1505) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:



y) as depicted in two early sixteenth-century tapestries (completed by or in 1509) in the Musée Saint-Remi in Reims:
1) at bottom centrre and bottom right (infancy scenes):

2) at bottom right (miracle of the fire of Reims):


z) as depicted (second from right, baptizing Clovis) in King François I's copy of Guillaume Crétin's early sixteenth-century Recueil sommaire des cronicques françoyses (1515-1516; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 2817, fol. 40r):

Last night we held the first meeting of our revived Benedictine Oblates group here in Oxford. For the last couple of years we have languished somewhat but over the summer we made plans to revive it, and have resumed meetings. Our aspiration is to be linked to the developing foundation at Norcia, St Benedict's birthplace.



Under the name of the Sodality of St Benedict and St Scholastica we aim to meet initially on the first Wednesday of each month at 7pm in the church of SS Gregory and Augustine; the meeting follows on from the 6pm Mass, and is designed to last for an hour. We are very grateful to Fr John Saward for his welcome and support.

Although only some of us were able to meet last night we found it a suitable, indeed successful format, and certainly achieved a prayerful quiet that to my mind savoured very much of the Benedictine ideal and spirit.

We followed the structure of an Oblate manual from 1937 which had been provided by one of our group, and are grateful to him for his work in producing a traditional and reflective office. Another member had the excellent idea of our turning the month's calendar of Benedictine saints into a litany, which worked well. We had two readings - one from Bishop Fulton Sheen on the Rosary ( it was, after all, the Feast of the Rosary ) and one from St Gregory the Great on the Gospel in the EF for last Sunday. This included an example from the life of his monastery on the Coelian Hill, which seemed eminently apposite. We ended by saying Compline in the traditional Benedictine form.

We hope this can become a regular part of the devotional life of Oxford, and anyone interested would be most welcome to join us at our next meeting on November 4th.

Last night I joined in the annual night walk to Littlemore to commemorate the reception into the Catholic Church of Bl. John Henry Newman by Bl. Dominic Barberi. The walk takes in places associated with Newman's life in Oxford and the events of October 8th 1845 when Bl. Dominic arrived here and travelled out to Littlemore. The following day - now Newman's feast day - Bl Dominic received him and others into the Church, the One Fold of the Redeemer. This was the 170th anniversary of those events.

Not only does the walk commemorate an historical anniversary but it also is designed as an act of prayerful witness, with stations for readings and collects along the way and ends with a Holy Hour in the Catholic church in Littlemore and then moves to the College where Newman and his friends were received in the oratory.

I have done the walk each year since my reception into the Church in 2005, and despite something of a gammy leg, - and after giving two walking tours of Oxford in the afternoon - I managed one again to do the walk. It is an occasion upon which one can have a series of intentions to offer as well as offering up any minor hardships.

I was asked to be the voice of Bl. John Henry in the readings at the various stops we made en route from the Oxford Oratory to Littlemore. This was a gesture I appreciated as not only a convert from Anglicanism but also a member of Oriel.

Following the reflections and benediction in the church of Bl. Dominic Barberi we processed into the College for the final readings in the library, and prayers and veneration of a relic of Bl. John Henry in the restored chapel.



As is customary on this occasion - and seemingly all other visits to the College - the pilgrims were provided with tea and cake by the Sisters of the Work who care for the building and provide an always warm and kindly welcome to this very special place. The College has a quiet holiness that derives from what Newman created there in the years leading up to his reception for himself and his companions - or perhaps I should say was provided for them by Higher Powers - and which so impressed Bl. Dominic - he remarked that the life of Newman and his friends there was much stricter than that of most contemporary orders.

Today is by tradition the feast of the mid-third century Bishop of Paris St Denis and his companions in martyrdom SS. Rusticus of Paris and Eleutherius of Paris. For his life and cult, and for details which explain some of the images which follow see the online account at (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis

Nowadays here in the Birmingham Archdiocese this is, of course, the feast of Bl.John Henry Newman, so St Denis and his companions, together with St John Leonardi, are commemorated on October 8th.

The Medieval Religion discussion group yielded a fine crop of images. Gordon Plumb posted some stained glass depictions:

Chartres, Cathedrale Notre Dame, Bay 116, St Denis gives the Oriflamme to Jean-Clement de Metz:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/8070019929

Lincoln Cathedral, sII, 1c, c.1225-35:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2259035172

York Minster, nXXXVI, 5b-6b, St Denis between two executioners:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4793957936

Winchester College, Fromond's Chapel, east window, A10:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3453937140
and detail:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3453937140

Bourges, Cathedrale Saint-Etienne, Bay 31, Story of St Denis, c.1517-18:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2218850130
and two details:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2218157075
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2219153140

Genevra Kornbluth added these examples from her files in stone and wood:
http://www.KornbluthPhoto.com/StDenis.html

John Dillon provided a splendid array of images, many of which show St Denis as a cephalaphore
( now you really should know what that means...) and how artists dealt with that subject.

a) as depicted (at left; at centre and left, Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius) in an early eleventh-century gradual according to the Use of the abbey of Saint-Denis near Paris (Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 384, fol. 117v):




b) as portrayed in a mid-eleventh-century relief in the entrance hall to the Kirche St. Emmeram in Regensburg, originally the church of a monastery claiming to possess his remains:



c) as portrayed in high relief (at centre between Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius, all achieving martyrdom) in the mid-twelfth-century sculptures on the tympanum of the Portail des Valois (rebuilt in the 1230s or 1240s; restored in the nineteenth century) of the basilique cathédrale Saint-Denis in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis):




d) as portrayed in high relief (at centre between Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius) in a mid-twelfth-century walrus ivory plaque from a portable altar in the Musée du Louvre, Paris:

http://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/90-006373-2C6NU0HLVYSG.html

e) as portrayed in high relief (at centre) in the jambs of the left portal of the south porch (between 1194 and 1230) of the basilique cathédrale Notre-Dame in Chartres:

http://tinyurl.com/4o6rjl

Detail view:



http://tinyurl.com/4zncmm

f) as depicted (at left) in an earlier thirteenth-century window (1228-1231) of the south transept clerestory of the basilique cathédrale Notre-Dame in Chartres (not to miss the important bibliography cited this page's "description" tab):


http://tinyurl.com/3v5epn

g) as portrayed in an earlier thirteenth-century statue on a choir screen in Bamberg's Dom St. Peter und St. Georg (consecrated, 1237):
http://tinyurl.com/69dhonr

h) as depicted (at right at the foot of the page; at left, St. Lambert of Maastricht) in a later thirteenth-century psalter and book for hours according to the Use of Liège (ca. 1251-1300; Den Haag, KB, ms. 76 G 17, fol. 82v):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76g17%3A082v

i) as depicted in a later thirteenth-century window (c. 1280) in the Stadtkirche St. Dionys in Esslingen am Neckar:

http://tinyurl.com/yfa8loy

j) as depicted (at centre betw. Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius, all achieving martyrdom) as in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the Legenda aurea (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 142v):
http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ds/huntington/images//000923A.jpg

k) as depicted (at left; at right, St. Piatus of Seclin [ Feast day Oct.1st] ) in the late thirteenth-century (c. 1285-1290) Livre d'images de Madame Marie (Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 16251, fol. 84v):

http://tinyurl.com/y8v48ko

l) as depicted on a panel of the fourteenth-century rood screen of St Andrew, Hempstead (Norfolk):

http://tinyurl.com/4q7jgt

m) as portrayed in a fourteenth-century pilgrim's badge in the Musée national du Moyen Âge (Musée de Cluny), Paris:


http://tinyurl.com/obtg2cb

n) as portrayed (with the better preserved Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius) in an earlier fourteenth-century marble sculpture (c. 1301-1326; formerly part of an altarpiece) in the Musée du Louvre, Paris:


http://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/13-550042-2C6NU05JQU03.html

Detail view:



http://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/13-550043-2C6NU05JQS9J.html

o) as portrayed in high relief (martyrdom; cephalophory) on an earlier fourteenth-century boss (c. 1301-1350) in the cloister of the cathedral church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in Norwich:



http://tinyurl.com/o4rgjxc

p) as depicted in the illuminated Vita et passio sancti Dionysii in Latin verse (with Boitbien's translation in French prose) presented to King Philip V in 1317 by an abbot of Saint-Denis (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 2090-2092):
1) seated; at left, Sts. Antoninus and Santoninus; at right, Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius (BnF, ms. Français 2091, fol. 125r):


http://tinyurl.com/yk9773y

2) appearing with Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius before the prefect Fescennius (BnF, ms. Français 2092, fol. 1r):


http://expositions.bnf.fr/fouquet/grand/f634.htm

q) as portrayed in a polychromed earlier fourteenth-century walnut-wood statue from Köln (ca. 1320) in that city's Schnütgen-Museum:



http://tinyurl.com/npqychy

r) as depicted (scenes of his life and and suffering; the last also depicting the martyrdom of Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (c. 1326-1350; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 185, fols. 202r, 203v, 204r, 204v, 205v, 206v, 207v):
http://tinyurl.com/ylrytq7
http://tinyurl.com/yllhhq9
http://tinyurl.com/ykgrryk
http://tinyurl.com/yfrz7hr
http://tinyurl.com/yzbemgu
http://tinyurl.com/yfnbkse
http://tinyurl.com/ylppvlk

s) as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century copy, from the workshop of Richard and Jeanne de Montbaston, of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1348; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 275v):


http://tinyurl.com/ykxkqol

t) as depicted in a panel of a later fourteenth-century glass window in the north transept of the Basilica St. Valentinus und Dionysius in Kiedrich (Lkr. Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis) in Hessen:


http://tinyurl.com/3pgesej

The panel's context in the window:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hen-magonza/4849130575/

u) as depicted in a later fourteenth-century missal for the Use of Paris (after 1375?; Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 411, C fol. 67r):


http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht17/IRHT_08472-p.jpg

v) as depicted (at left; at centre and right, Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius; all achieving martyrdom) in a later fourteenth-century copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1380; Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 1729, fol. 262v):


http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht16/IRHT_068254-p.jpg

w) as portrayed in a fourteenth- or fifteenth-century pilgrim's badge in the Musée national du Moyen Âge (Musée de Cluny), Paris:


http://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/97-011834-2C6NU0S38BSY.html

x) as depicted (betw. Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius) in the early fifteenth-century Hours of René of Anjou (ca. 1410; London, BL, MS Egerton 1070, fol. 104r; image expandable):
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=48351

y) as depicted in two illuminations in the early fifteenth-century Châteauroux Breviary (c. 1414; Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, fols. 364r and 367v):
1) Preaching (third from left, after Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius; fol. 367v):


2) Martyrdom (fourth from left, after Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius; fol. 364r):


z) as depicted (at left, receiving communion from Jesus while imprisoned; at right, undergoing martyrdom along with Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius) by Henri Bellechose on an early fifteenth-century altarpiece (paid for in 1416) in the Museé du Louvre in Paris:


http://tinyurl.com/3rey5zj

aa) as depicted in a full-page illumination of French or English workmanship, attributed to the Master of Sir John Fastolf's Hours, in an earlier fifteenth-century Book of Hours (ca. 1430-1440; Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, ms. 5, fol. 35v):


http://tinyurl.com/yhcuuh5

Detail view (D.'s severed head):

http://tinyurl.com/ylooxrf

bb) as portrayed in a later fifteenth-century polychromed limestone statue (c. 1460-1470) in the Bode-Museum, Berlin:

http://tinyurl.com/4gvkeg

cc) as depicted (martyrdom and, in the upper register, cephalophory) in a later fifteenth-century copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language translation by Jean de Vignay (c. 1480-1490; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 245, fol. 135r):



http://tinyurl.com/yg4vhdu

dd) as depicted (between Sts. Rusticus and Eleutherius) in a late fifteenth-century breviary according to the Use of Langres (after 1481; Chaumont, Mediathèque de Chaumont, ms. 33, fol. 456r):


http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_097055-p.jpg

ee) as depicted in a hand-colored woodcut in the Beloit College copy of Hartmann Schedel's late fifteenth-century Weltchronik (Nuremberg Chronicle; 1493) at fol. CIXv:



http://tinyurl.com/9ghdm8w

ff) as portrayed in high relief on a polychromed and gilt panel of a late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century altarpiece (ca. 1490-1510) in the Filialkirche Hl. Leonhard in Pesenbach (Oberösterreich):


http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7017908.JPG

gg) as depicted (at right; at left, St. Sebastian) on a panel of the late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century winged altar (c. 1497-1507) in the Pfarrkirche Hl. Remigius in Gampern (Oberösterreich):



http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7017792.JPG

hh) as portrayed in high relief (at far left) on the central panel of the late fifteenth-century Vierzehn-Nothelfer-Altar (1498) in the Münster St. Marien und Jakobus in Heilsbronn (Lkr. Ansbach):



http://tinyurl.com/pcnarog

Detail view:


http://tinyurl.com/qbceeza

ii) as portrayed in high relief on an early sixteenth-century stall end (between 1501 and 1507) in the choir of the St. Martins-Kirche in Memmingen:

http://tinyurl.com/nahwgj9

jj) as depicted (at left; at right, St. Margaret) by Vicente Macip in the central panel of his early sixteenth-century altarpiece (c. 1510) in the capilla de San Dionisio y Santa Margarita in Valencia's catedral de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora:


http://tinyurl.com/3bbdu8b

kk) as depicted by the Master of Messkirch on a panel from a dismembered earlier sixteenth-century altarpiece (c. 1535-1540) in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart:



http://tinyurl.com/pd6m447


John Dillon subsequently posted two additional images:

Dionysius as depicted in one of four panels of a full-page illumination in the late twelfth-century so-called Bible of Saint Bertin (ca. 1190-1200; Den Haag, KB, ms. 76 F 5, fol. 28v):
http://www.wga.hu/art/zgothic/miniatur/1151-200/3french/22french.jpg
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76f5%3A028v_min_a2

Dionysius (martyrdom) as depicted in an earlier fifteenth-century prayer book from Brabant (ca. 1430-1440; Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, ms. W.164, fol. 171r):




To all those I would add this image from the mid-fifteenth century east window of the church of St Denys in York



Image: pinterest/Roger Walton on Flickr

Meanwhile the New Liturgical Movement had an interesting post about the celebration of Mass in Greek by the monks of St Denis in honour of the Greek origin of their patron. The article is by Gregory DiPippo and can be read at The Greek Mass of St Denys of Paris

I have lifted this from John Dillon's post on the Medieval Religion discussion group, with a few minor alterations and additions:


Today, October 10th, is the feast day of St. Gereon and companions, legendarily members of the Theban Legion who were not at Agaunus with St. Maurice but who voluntarily submitted to the Emperor Maximian in Köln (Cologne) and were executed there.

Some views of their church in Köln, the Basilika Sankt Gereon:



http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/cologne-st-gereon
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Gereon
A virtual tour (use the links below the plan [at bottom of the page]):
http://www.stgereon.de/st-gereon-72.html

According to the late-eleventh or very early twelfth-century Vita sancti Annonis archiepiscopi Coloniensis, St. Helena had founded this church. Here is a view of an uncovered fresco from 1190/1191 over the entrance to the Confessio with Gereon at left and Helen at right (holding the earliest known representation of the church's polygonal nave, the Dekagon, completed in 1227):




Context within the church (the sarcophagi contain skeletal remains unearthed in an Inventio in 1121 and proclaimed to be those of Gereon and some of his companions):
c8.alamy.com/comp/DTAC4A/kln-st-gereon-krypta-DTAC4A.jpg


Further period-pertinent images of Gereon and companions:

a) Gereon (at left?) and another martyr of the Theban Legion (Maurice? Gregory Maurus?) as depicted in a mid-thirteenth-century fresco in the baptismal chapel of Köln's Basilika Sankt Gereon:



The fresco in an early twentieth-century grayscale drawing:


b) St Gereon and St Maurice as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century glass window in Köln's Hohe Domkirche Sankt Peter und Maria:



c) Gereon (second from left in central panel; at far left in the same panel, St. Gregory Maurus) as depicted in an earlier fifteenth-century altar of the BVM and saints of Köln (between 1410 and 1430) in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin:


Detail view (Gregory Maurus and Gereon):



This altar was formerly in the church (since 1920 a basilica minor) of St. Gereon in Köln. The two figures on the other side of the central panel are St. Helen, holding a model of the Dekagon, and Köln's bishop St. Anno, holding a model of the church's choir and east end.

The Clever Boy wonders if the figure of St Gereon is a tribute to king/Emperor Sigismund in that the face and beard are nor dissimilar to images of Sigismund and the hat like that shown in virtually all images of the Luxembourg king and later Emperor.

d) Gereon and companions as depicted by Stefan Lochner in an earlier fifteenth-century panel painting (c. 1440) on his Dreikönigsaltar in the cathedral of Köln:


The altarpiece as a whole:



e) Gereon (second from left) and companions as depicted by the Master of the Assumption (Meister der Verherrlichung Mariae) in a later fifteenth-century panel painting (c. 1460) in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/roelipilami/14931956501/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/roelipilami/14935025195/

f) Gereon as depicted (second from left -- counting Christopher and his charge as one) by the Master of the Assumption (Meister der Verherrlichung Mariae) in a later fifteenth-century panel painting (c. 1480) in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Köln:


The other figures are St Peter vested as Pope and the Virgin Mary with St Anne and the Christ Child - added by the Clever Boy.

g) Gereon as portrayed (at right; at left St. Ursula; at centre, the martyrdom of St. Barbara) in a wing of an early sixteenth-century pendant (1504) in the form of a silver gilt and enamel triptych in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:

http://tinyurl.com/ol97y83

h) Gereon as depicted in a panel of the early sixteenth-century Typological Window of the Nativity (Typologisches Geburt Christi-Fenster; c. 1508) in Köln's Hohe Domkirche Sankt Peter und Maria:
1) according to the cathedral's website (German-language) - St Maurice:


2) according to heligenlexikon.de and to the cathedral's website (English-language) - St Gereon:


Neither site indicates the source for its identifications of the four saints in this register.

The window as a whole:
German-language text:
http://koelner-dom.de/index.php?id=17382
English-language text:
http://koelner-dom.de/index.php?id=17382&L=1

i) Gereon as depicted (at right; at left, St. Helena; at centre, St. Maternus of Köln) in an earlier sixteenth-century glass window panel (c. 1520-1530) in the church of St. Maria Lyskirchen in Köln:

Today I began the Novena for the canonisation of Bl. Charles of Austria as part of the lead up to his feast day on October 21st. For convenience I have downloaded it to my mobile phone.

The Novena and other prayers as well as a biography and background information together with a gallery of photographs can be found on the Emperor Karl League of Prayer website, at
emperorcharles.org/English/leagueofprayer_english.shtml

I have again been compiling a list of History books for the Library Committee of the Oxford Union to consider for purchase, and I thought readers might be interested to see what I recommended.

Jonathan Harris "The Lost World of Byzantium"
Yale U P
ISBN 978-0300178573
RRP £l0.99
A well reviewed book which looks at specific case histories tio illustrate teh life of the Empire and its culture

Bryan Sykes "Blood of the Isles: Exploring the genetic roots of our tribal history"
Corgi
ISBN 978-1407400228
RRP £9.99

Stephen Oppenheimer "The Origins of the British"
Robinson
ISBN 978-1845294823
RRP £12.99
Two books on recent research into what makes us who we are and what makes us think and act as we have done over the centuries depending on our ancestry and background

Philip Parker "The Northmen's Fury: A History of the Viking World"
Vintage
ISBN 978-0099551843
RRP £9.99
A good and readable account of a topic with wide appeal to readers

Michael Pye "The Edge of the World: How the North Sea made us who we are"
Penguin
ISBN 978-0241963834
RRP £9.99
A new take on some of the themes in the previous three books. Years ago I suggested the concept of a common North Sea littoral culture in the middle ages to my academic supervisor who was inclined to dismiss it. Michael Pye makes a good case for there being one, and has written in the process a very entertaining book

Frank McLynn "Ghengis Khan:The Man who Conquered the World"
Bodley Head
ISBN 978-0224072900
RRP £25.00
World history, but also very important to that of Europe. Kievian Russia collapsed under the Mongol advance, and in the 1240s central Europe barely survived the onslaught *

E. A. Jones "England's Last Medieval Monastery: Syon Abbey 1415-2015"
Gracewing
ISBN 978-0852448724
RRP £9.99
I have already posted about this book, a history of the Bridgettine house which survived - against so many odds -until a few years ago

Jonathan Sumption "Divided Houses:The Hundred Years War III " and "Cursed Kings: The Hundred Years War IV"
Faber and Faber
ISBN 978-0571274543
RRP £40.00
We already have the first two volumes of Lord Sumption's magisterial history of the war and these are established as major studies

Helen Castor "Joan of Arc"
Faber
ISBN 978-0571284639
RRP £9.99
Always a popular topic and Dr Castor is a well known authority on the period

Roger Crowley "Conquerors: How Portugal seized the Indian Ocean and Forged the First Global Empire"
Faber and Faber
ISBN 978-0571290895
RRP £20.00
The rise to global prominence of a small kingdom in the far west of Europe, and reinforces our Iberian history section

Alexander Roob "Alchemy and Mysticism: The Hermetic Museum"
Taschen
ISBN 978-38365449363
RRP £12.99
A topic of interest to historians of the early modern period in particular and to students of literature, art, theology and the history of science

Tim Blanning "Frederick the Great King of Prussia"
Penguin
ISBN 978-0141039191
RRP £ 10.99
2016 pbk
Timothy Blanning always writes with great insight and skill about the eighteenth century, and this is one of its central figures

Jonathan Fenby "The History of Modern France: From the Revolution to the Present Day"
Simon and Schuster
ISBN 978-1471129308
RRP £9.99
2016 pbk
Likely to become a standard work on the country

Edward J Coss "All for the King's Shilling: The British Soldier under Wellington 1808-1814"
University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN 978-0806151779
RRP £16.44
A study of the make up and functioning of the army which fought through the Peninsula campaigns to the eve of final victory at Waterloo, and pointing to the resilience and versatility of the troops

Barney White-Spunner "Of Living Valour: The story of the soldiers of Waterloo"
Simon and Schuster
ISBN 978-1471102912
RRP £25.00
A similar theme, this time looking at the army which won two centuries ago

David Laven and Lucy Riall (eds) "Napoleon's Legacy: Problems of Government in Restoration Europe"
Berg
ISBN 978-1859733496
RRP £18.99
A set of revisionist essays showing the vitality and subtlety of early to mid-nineteenth century European governments  

Ben Wilson "Empire of the Deep: The Rise and Fall of the British Navy"
Phoenix
ISBN 978-0753829202
RRP £12.99
A single volume history of the Royal Navy illustrating its place in making Britain the imperial power she was 

Alfred Mitchell "Recollections of one of the Light Brigade"
Crimean War Research Society/Lulu. CWRS special Publication 31
No ISBN
RRP £6.75
A reprint of what is said to be the best memoir by a soldier of service in the Crimea

Richard Bassett "For God and Kaiser: The Imperial Austrian Army 1619-1918"
Yale U P
ISBN 978-0300178581
RRP £25.00
The first study of this important institution and a significant contribution to the re-evaluation of the history of the Habsburg Empire

David Stone "The Kaiser's Army: The German Army in World War I"
Conway
ISBN 978-1844862351
RRP £30.00
A detailed history of the army and how it functioned, eminently suitable in the time of centenary commemorations

Georgina Howell "Queen of the Desert : The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell"
Pan
ISBN 978-1447286264
RRP £9.99
A recent Book of the Week on Radio 4 - the life of the British Arabist woman who more or less created the post-Ottoman Iraqi state

At the meeting yesterday the Library Committee accepted the list, but a few books were deferred until they will be available in paperback next spring or summer.

* And before anyone thinks it, when I have, on at least one occasion, been told "John, you are to the Right of Ghengis Khan" my reply was, and is, " Of course I am, as should be any civilised person. Ghengis Kkan is a typical Leftie, destroying everything in his path."

Today is the feast of the Translation of St Edward the Confessor.

This evening the Oxford Oratory marked the day with Compline, a sermon and Benediction. we were encouraged in advance to pray for the conversion of England. St Edward is not only a national patron and patron of the monarchy, but he is also a local man, having been born at Islip, which lies to the north-east of Oxford.



Compline was sung in the traditional Latin form by the clergy and the choir. The sermon was preached by Fr Jerome, who began by querying, but very respectfully, Mgr. Ronald Knox's assessment of St Edward as being, in temporal terms, a failure - the Mgr's sermon on St Edward is the second reading in today's Office of Readings.



As King the Confessor reigned for almost as long as his four predecessors, died in possession of his throne, set an example of good government and pious care for the poor - symbolised by the story of his giving his ring to a beggar, who was in reality St John the Evangelist - and was married faithfully to his Queen, Edith. This example of a sustained if childless marriage was something Fr Jerome highlighted, with no doubt all the reports and rumours swirling round the current Synod in Rome in mind.

Gordon Plumb posted these stained glass images of St Edward on the Medieval Religion discussion group:

York Minster, Great East Window, 1d, left-hand figure c.1408:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/17079983721
and detail:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/17079223292

York Minster, Great East Window, 1d, arms of Edward the Cofessor c.1408:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/17080737435

North Luffenham, St John the Baptist, 2c, early 14thC.:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/21110955533

Cockayne Hatley, St John the Baptist, Bedfordhire, nIII, 1a early 14thC.:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2285002785

Wrangle, St Mary and St Nicholas, nVII, A 4, c.1410-30:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/8170499758

York Minster, sXXXIV, 5c early 14thC, head 15thC.:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4934716140

Oxford, Balliol College Chapel, sIII, 1c, c.1529:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/5901643848

Harpley, St Lawrence, Norfolk, wI, A6, 15th C.:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3320361898

Long Melford, Holy Trinity, Suffolk, nXVII (right-hand figure):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2230905801

Heydour, St Michael, Lincolnshire, nVI, 2a, c.1360:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3450473166

All of which makes me think that I really ought to get around to reading Frank Barlow's full biography of the King rather than just the shorter pieces by the Professor.

From Supremacy and Survival - adapted:

From Friday, October 16, 2015, through Monday, April 11, 2016, Auckland Castle will present an exhibition titled "Plots and Spangles":

The Guy Fawkes story comes to life through the resplendent embroidered vestments created by Helena Wintour, daughter of a Gunpowder Plot conspirator.
On the eve of the Gunpowder Plot's planned date 410 years ago, there will be a presentationat the castle:

Jan Graffius, Curator at Stonyhurst, will present an examination of Helena Wintour's embroidered vestments and their Catholic iconography. The talk will look at the religious and cultural resources available to recusant laity in the decades after the failed Plot of 1605, and Helena's close association with Jesuit spirituality. The complex iconography of her beautiful embroideries draws on many sources, from botanical prints to Counter-Reformation confraternities and English metaphysical poetry.

Helena's remarkable life story and that of the creation and survival of a unique set of 17th century embroideries is a compelling, romantic and tragic tale, which culminates in the triumphal re-uniting of her divided life's work at Auckland Castle, in the exhibition 'Plots and Spangles: The Embroidered Vestments of Helena Wintour’ that opens in October 2015.

October 14th is the feast day of Callistus I, Pope (also Calixtus; d. 222).

John Dillon posted about him on the Medieval Religion discussion group as follows:

Callistus was elected Bishop of Rome in 217, succeeding pope St. Zephyrinus. Our chief sources for him are the tendentious Philosophoumena or Refutatio omnium haeresium of an Hippolytus who tends be called Hippolytus of Rome [ for whom see Hippolytus-of-Rome] and the not altogether reliable Liber pontificalis. According to Hippolytus, Callistus had been born into servile status and had twice been punished for crimes. In the second instance he had been sentenced to the mines in Sardinia and probably at that time ceased to be the property of his former master, a Christian of the imperial household. Some nine or ten years after Callistus' release from the mines Zephyrinus put him in charge of the Christian cemetery at Rome that still bears Callistus' name. Herewith an illustrated, Italian-language page on the cemetery of Callistus:
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacombe_di_San_Callisto

In his brief pontificate Callistus condemned the theologian Sabellius for heresy and had to endure accusations of similar purport from the aforementioned Hippolytus, who set himself up as a rival bishop of Rome. Callistus died under Alexander Severus, who is not reliably known to have persecuted Christians, his activity in that regard being transmitted solely in Passiones of legendary character.

Kevin Jones of the Dome of Home website also posted about St Callistus as follows:

Most of what we know of Callistus comes from attacks by his contemporaries, notably Tertullian and the antipope Hippolytus.

As a young slave Callistus was put in charge of a bank by his master Carpophorus, in which the brethren and widows lodged money. Callistus lost it all, and fled. When his master caught up with his ship Callistus jumped overboard to escape capture but was saved from drowning. He was given the punishment reserved for slaves, that of turning the pistrinum or hand-mill. His creditors got him released in the hope that he could retrieve some of their money, but when he tried to get back some of the money he had lent to Jews the result was a fight for which he was re-arrested. He was denounced as a Christian and was condemned to work in the mines of Sardinia (thus, incidentally, ceasing to be the slave of Carpophorus). Marcia, a mistress of the Emperor Commodus, obtained the release of the Christians including Callistus. His health was so weakened that he was sent to Antium to recuperate and was given a pension by Pope Victor I.

Somehow, from a weakened ex-slave in receipt of a invalidity pension, Callistus rose to be archdeacon, had charge of the Roman catacomb which now bears his name, and ended up as Pope. The oppressed Church of the early third century had more important things to do than keep detailed archives of its decision-making processes, but we can be sure that Tertullian’s story that Callistus obtained influence over the ignorant, illiterate and grasping Pope Zephyrinus through bribes is just polemical fiction.

What so irritated Tertullian and Hippolytus and made them so keen to vilify Callistus is what made him such an important figure in the history of the Church. The question of what to do about repentant sinners was a matter of intense debate and dissension, and many of the violent splits in the Church of the early centuries hinged on this very point. What were you to do if someone committed a serious sin? The rigorists – we might call them the “slip once and you’re damned” school – held that once you had done such evil acts you were for ever separated from the true, the pure Church, and there was no way back. Callistus decreed that sinners – for example, fornicators and adulterers – could be readmitted to communion if they repented and did penance for their sin. Callistus based the theology of his decree on the power that Christ gave to Peter and his successors, both to bind and to loose. Tertullian and Hippolytus argued that this power had been given to Peter personally and could not be passed on, so that Callistus’ decree was an innovation, and invalid. They similarly accused him of reprehensible laxity in other matters of Church discipline.

Callistus’ gift to the Church was crucial in the arguments of the fourth century, where the Donatist schism in Africa arose precisely over the question of what should be done about those who, during the persecutions of Domitian, had given up the sacred Scriptures to the authorities – or, conversely, about those who had flaunted their Christianity so as to attract prosecution, imprisonment, and consequently notoriety and admiration among the Christians. The calm good sense shown by orthodox bishops (sometimes patchily but ultimately successfully) has its roots in this manifestation of charity and mercy by Callistus.

Not much is known about how Callistus died. He is the earliest pope found in a fourth-century martyrology, but details are scarce. Since he lived in a time of peace under the Emperor Alexander Severus, whose mother was a Christian, he may have been killed in a riot.

Catholic Online has an article about him at St. Callistus I

John Dillon had this to say about the development of the cult of St Callistus and the distribution of his relics:

By the earlier fourth century he had come to be considered a martyr. The Depositio martyrum of the Chronographer of 354 enters under today Callistus' laying to rest at a milestone that accords with the location of the cemetery of Calepodius. The latter is given as the site of Callistus' burial by both the Liber pontificalis_ and Callistus' legendary Passio (BHL 1523; oldest witness is of the ninth century; a condensed version in hexameters is in the earlier to mid-tenth-century De triumphis Christi in Italia of Flodoard of Reims). Callistus' remains are said to have been translated, perhaps by Pope Gregory III (731-741), to Rome's church of Santa Maria in Trastevere where later Pope Gregory IV (827-844) gave him the honor of a re-burial in the church's apse.

In 854 relics believed to be those of Callistus were translated by Count St. Evrardus (Everardus) of Friuli to the monastery he had founded at today's Cysoing (Nord) in French Hainaut. The monastery, which took Callistus' name and which lasted until 1792, became a dependency of the church of Reims in 892. Callistus' relics, teste Flodoard in his Historia ecclesiae Remensis, were translated thither in the same year and were laid to rest in the then cathedral next to those of St. Nicasius of Reims.

Since the early fifteenth century a head thought by some to be that of Pope St. Callistus I has been in St. George's Chapel of Český Krumlov Castle, Český Krumlov (in German: Böhmisch Krumau) in what's now the Czech Republic:
http://tinyurl.com/3935dbt



Some period-pertinent images of Pope St. Callistus I:

a) as portrayed in an earlier thirteenth-century statue on the trumeau of the central portal of the north transept of the cathédrale Notre-Dame in Reims:



The scene over the door on the right is the Baptism of Clovis, which I wrote about in my recent post about St Remigius - Clever Boy



The Clever Boy thinks this is a very interesting figure, showing how an earlier thirteenth century Pope in full vestments would appear. The Papal tiara has only one circlet and rises as a cone to its finial. On his breast the figure is wearing a rationale, an episcopal ornament deriving. I think I am right to say, from OT High Priests, and now worn by only four diocesans, including the Archbishop of Cracow. If he is wearing the distinctive Papal fanon that is not visible, and presumably would have been worn under the chasuble.

b) as depicted (martyrdom) in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the Legenda aurea (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 143v):
http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ds/huntington/images//000922A.jpg

c) as depicted (third from left) in the late thirteenth-century apse mosaic (c. 1290; attributed to Pietro Cavallini) of Rome's Santa Maria in Trastevere:


d) as depicted (promulgating his supposed decree mandating fasting in all four seasons [a spurious text transmitted in the False Decretals]) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (c. 1326-1350; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 185, fol. 201r):



e) as depicted (at right, promulgating his supposed decree on fasting in all four seasons) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy, from the workshop of Richard and Jeanne de Montbaston, of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1348; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 60r):
http://tinyurl.com/2dc984p

f) as depicted in a later fourteenth-century Roman missal of north Italian origin (ca. 1370; Avignon, Bibliothèque-Médiathèque Municipale Ceccano, ms. 136, fol. 276r):



g) as depicted (martyrdom) in an early fifteenth-century copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay followed by the Festes nouvelles attributed to Jean Golein (ca. 1401-1425; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 242, fol. 234v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8426005j/f484.item.zoom

h) as depicted in the early fifteenth-century Châteauroux Breviary (c. 1414; Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2, fol. 371r):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_054230-p.jpg

i) as depicted (martyrdom) in an early fifteenth-century copy of the Elsässische Legenda aurea (1419; Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Pal. germ. 144, fol. 159v):



j) as depicted (holding a large stone) in an earlier fifteenth-century breviary from Bruges (ca. 1420; New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library, MS. M.374, fol. 144v):
http://ica.themorgan.org/icaimages/3/m374.144vc.jpg

k) as depicted (martyrdom) in a mid- or slightly later fifteenth-century copy from Bruges of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1445-1465; New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.672-675, vol. IV, fol. 145r):



l) as depicted (at left, baptizing) in a later fifteenth-century copy of Vincent of Beauvais'Speculum historiale in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1463; Paris, BnF ms. Français 51, fol. 9r):


m) as depicted (right margin at bottom) in a hand-colored woodcut in the Beloit College copy of Hartmann Schedel's late fifteenth-century Weltchronik (Nuremberg Chronicle; 1493) at fol. CXIIIIv):
http://www.beloit.edu/nuremberg/book/6th_age/left_page/18%20%28Folio%20CXIIIIv%29.pdf

The Clever Boy will add that In the east window of the chapel of St Calixtus in the south transept of Wells cathedral is a handsome early twentieth century figure of the saint complete with Papal tiara. The dedication of the chapel may well reflect the presence at the nearby abbey at Glastonbury of relics of St Callistus in the middle ages.

Today is the feast day of that wonderful blend of profound and insightful mysticism with robust practical common sense, St Teresa of Avila.

Following on from the post on the Medieval Religion discussion group which I copied about St Denis Theresa Gross-Diaz posted this comment

"That ten kilometers [ the distance St Denis walked carrying his severed head and preaching as he went ] provoked my favorite Enlightenment bon mot:
Upon hearing this story told by Cardinal de Polignac. Mme du Deffand (friend of Voltaire) replied, "en de telles affaires, il n'y a que le premier pas qui coute.""

I think we can all agree with that, be we n'er so Enlightened.

Last Saturday was Matriculation here in Oxford, when new students were presented to the University by their colleges and halls to be added to the roll - the matricula - of students.

As this is a University ceremony those participating are required to dress in academic dress - the gown appropriate to their status, mortar board or ladies' cap and to wear sub-fusc, that is for men a version of clerical dress as formalised in the nineteenth century ( members of the University have still, in that respect, Benefit of Clergy ) and the female equivalent designed when women were admitted.

Last year whilst watching the new students going off to the Sheldonian I was startled to see some men wearing with their dark suits and white shirts a black bow tie rather than the traditional white one.

Subsequently I discovered this was a consequence of the passage by the University of gender equality regulations regarding sub fusc - as long as it is sub-fusc anyone can wear what they like.There is another blogger's comment on the change at:  
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/oxford-university-abolishes-gender.html
OUSU periodically tries to get rid of sub-fusc, but students always vote massively to retain it.

This did not accord with my idea of tradition ( no surprise there ) and as I recall it wearing a black bow tie ( rather than the usual black ribbon tie ) was the preserve of a certain type of lesbian who ends up as a college chaplain.

The black bow tie with sub-fusc on a man looks bad, very bad. He looks as if he is wandering back after an all night black tie event ( there is nothing wrong in that of course, if that is what you have been doing ) and not as someone standing on a venerable and clear tradition.

I suspect those men, and they are a small minority, are overseas graduates to whom the customs of Oxford have not been explained in advance and who don't know better or bother to find out.

Interestingly I have not seen black bow ties on examination candidates and I have not seen them being worn at graduation ceremonies.

This last weekend the Oxdord Oratory held its annual Forty Hours devotion, as I advertised last week

On Friday evening we began with the Solemn Mass of Exposition, and the temporary gradine which had been installed - a new one was created for last year's event - had almost ninety candles on it.

After having supper with two friends we returned to the church in time for Compline sung by the Dominicans, who used their distinctive chant for the Salve Regina.

Following Benediction the Vigil resumed, interspersed with the recitation of the mysteries of the rosary, and breaks for refreshments in the Parish centre. As someone who can spend the night in vigil it is something I feel I can offer both in adoration and prayer and also on behalf of parishioners who cannot give time in the middle watches of the night.

At 5am we had Mattins and Lauds for Corpus Christi sung by the Oratorian community, followed at 6am by a celebration of Mass of the day - St Ignatius - in the EF.

After more time before the Blessed Sacrament I left at breakfast time.

I returned at 6.30 for the Mass for Peace - an intention that seems more than ever necessary - and then, in an addition to the programme of previous years, at 8 the choir sang Mendelssohn' s Lauda Sion.

On Sunday Exposition resumed after the morning Masses. I spent another hour before the Sacrament, then went to the meeting of the Brothers of the Oratory, then back into church for a final quarter of an hour before Solemn Vespers in the traditional form, a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament around the church and Benediction.

The Forty Hours is one of the high points of the year and once again the thanks of those who attended must go to the Oratorians, Sacristan, musicians and volunteers who made it all possible. It is over for another year, but one can look forward to it all happening again next year...

The day before yesterday, had it not been Sunday, would have been the feast of St Luke. John Dillon posted this impressive selection of images of St Luke on the Medieval Religion discussion group:

Herewith some period-pertinent images of Luke, Apostle and Evangelist. Though these do not include images of Luke's tetramorphic symbol that are essentially zoomorphic in nature, they do include a few images of the evangelist in which he is shown with human hands and feet but with the head -- and / or the wings -- of his celestial figure. Reflecting different underlying textual sources for the construction of the tetramorph, that figure sometimes appears as a calf and sometimes as an ox. Whereas it is easy to distinguish between a calf and an ox, many medieval versions of the symbol present an intermediate form that probably could best be described as a steer (or even as a young steer). To avoid having to make such distinctions, I refer throughout to the bovid in question as Luke's "calf / ox". Also not included are images of Luke painting the BVM or presenting a portrait of her that he is presumed to have painted. But I have included one image showing on an easel in Luke's study a daub of the BVM making one all the more grateful for the existence of Antonello da Messina.

a) as depicted (second from bottom at right; below him, St. James) among the roundels of apostles framing the Theotokos and Christ Child in a sixth-century tapestry icon from Egypt in the Cleveland Museum of Art:


Detail view:



b) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in an earlier sixth-century mosaic (between 527 and 548) on the north wall of the presbytery of Ravenna's basilica di San Vitale:



c) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in the late seventh- or early eighth-century Lindisfarne Gospels (London, BL, Cotton MS Nero D IV, fol. 137v):
http://imageweb-cdn.magnoliasoft.net/britishlibrary/supersize/pod86.jpg

d) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in a full-page illumination in the late eighth-century Godescalc Gospels (between 781 and 783; Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition latine 1203, fol. 2r):
http://tinyurl.com/proz2av
Detail view:
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/bytype/manuscripts/survey/0001/150.JPG

e) as depicted in a later eighth- or earlier ninth-century pocket Gospels from Ireland (London, BL, Add. MS 40618, fol. 21v):
http://tinyurl.com/npr73rp

f) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in the Luke and John portion of the very late eighth- or early ninth-century Lorsch Gospels (before 814; Città del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Pal. lat. 50, fol. Iv):
http://bibliotheca-laureshamensis-digital.de/bav/bav_pal_lat_50/0008

g) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in a ninth-century Gospels of Breton origin (Alençon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 84, fol. 66v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_052521-p.jpg

h) as depicted (in the leaf at left at upper left, with his calf / ox and facing St. John the Evangelist) on the early ninth-century Harrach Diptych (c. 810; a Carolingian ivory from Aachen) in the Schnütgen Museum in Köln (on long-term loan from the Sammlung Ludwig):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27305838@N04/8405620365
Detail view of the uppermost registers of those two leaves:
http://rationalfaiths.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/IMG_0857b2.jpg

i) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in the earlier ninth-century Ebbo Gospels (betw. 816 and 835; Épernay, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 1, fol. 90v):
http://tinyurl.com/nw2nc3a

j) as depicted in a full-page illumination in a late ninth- or early tenth-century Gospels from Landévennec (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. D. 2. 16, fol.101v):
http://image.ox.ac.uk/images/bodleian/ms.auct.d.2.16/101v.jpg

k) as depicted in a tenth-century Gospels from Constantinople (Paris, BnF, ms. Coislin 195, fol. 240v):
http://tinyurl.com/299thvo

l) as depicted in an early tenth-century Gospels of Breton origin, perhaps from Landévennec (908-909; Troyes: Médiathèque Grand-Troyes [until very recently: Médiathèques de l'Agglomération Troyenne], ms. 960, fol. 71v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_052416-p.jpg

m) as depicted in a partly preserved mid-tenth-century New Testament probably from Constantinople (London, British Library, MS Add 28815, fols. 76v and 162v):
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_28815_f076v
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_28815_f162v
Another portion of the same manuscript is now BL, Egerton MS 3145

n) as portrayed in high relief (second from right) on one side of a later tenth-century ivory reliquary casket, probably from Constantinople, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/464238?img=3

o) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in the late tenth- or early eleventh-century Gospels of Otto III (Munich, BSB, clm 4453, fol. 139r):



p) as depicted in a full-page miniature in the late tenth- or eleventh-century Codex Theodosianus (a Gospels lectionary) belonging to the Holy Monastery of the God-trodden Mount Sinai in St. Catherine (South Sinai governorate) in Egypt (cod. gr. 204, fol. 12r):
http://www.icon-art.info/hires.php?lng=en&type=1&id=2466

q) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in an eleventh-century Gospels of northern French origin (Paris, BnF, ms. Arsenal 592, fol. 105v):
http://tinyurl.com/qjphnha

r) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in the early eleventh-century Limburg Gospels (Köln, Dombibliothek, Codex 218, fol. 108v):
http://tinyurl.com/p6czmca

s) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in the early eleventh-century Reichenau Gospels (Munich, BSB, clm 4453, fol. 127v):
http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/bsb00004502/image_264

t) as depicted in the earlier eleventh-century mosaics (restored between 1953 and 1962) in the narthex of the church of the Theotokos in the monastery of Hosios Loukas near Distomo in Phokis:
http://tinyurl.com/nphh2vm

u) as depicted in an earlier eleventh-century Gospels from Constantinople (Paris, BnF, ms. Grec 64, fol. 101v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b105157462/f212.image

v) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in a later eleventh-century Gospels seemingly from southeastern France, perhaps Arles (Reims, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 13, fol. 92v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_097742-p.jpg

w) as depicted in the later eleventh-century mosaics (c. 1065) in the niches in front of the main door in the narthex in Venice's basilica cattedrale patriarcale di San Marco:

Detail view:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28433765@N07/5319481115

x) as depicted in the later eleventh-century Cologne Gospels (c. 1076-1100; London, BL, Harley MS 2820, fol. 120r):
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=harley_ms_2820_f120r

y) as depicted in the eleventh- and twelfth-century frescoes of the Elmali Church (Apple Church) at Göreme (Nevşehir province) in Turkey:
http://www.pbase.com/dosseman/image/41536848

z) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in a fragmentary leaf from a late eleventh- or early twelfth-century bible (c. 1100) from the abbey of Cluny in the Cleveland Museum of Art:


aa) as depicted in a twelfth-century Gospels, perhaps from Constantinople, with commentary (Paris, BnF, ms. Grec 189, fol. 206v):
http://tinyurl.com/ojfbdcb

bb) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in a twelfth-century Gospels from Metz (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 9395, fol. 93r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b103088868/f187.item

cc) as depicted (at lower right) in one of the early twelfth-century roundels of the evangelists on the central panel, commissioned in Constantinople in 1105 and bearing inscriptions in Latin, of the Pala d'Oro ("Golden Altar-frontal") in Venice's basilica cattedrale patriarcale di San Marco:


Detail view (Luke's roundel):



dd) as depicted in an earlier twelfth-century Gospels from Agen or from the abbey of Moissac (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 254, fol. 46v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8426051s/f96.item.zoom

ee) as depicted in an earlier twelfth-century Gospels lectionary from the abbey of Saint-Évroult d'Ouche (betw. 1113 and 1133; Rouen, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 31, fol. 88r):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_100216-p.jpg

ff) as depicted in an earlier twelfth-century Gospels from the abbey of Saint-Bénigne in Dijon (c. 1126-1150; Dijon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2, fol. 429v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_093452-p.jpg
Detail view:
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_093453-p.jpg

gg) as depicted (upper register at right) in the mid-twelfth-century apse mosaics (completed in 1148) of the basilica cattedrale della Trasfigurazione in Cefalù:


 

hh) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in a later twelfth-century Bible from the abbey of Saint-Sulpice in Bourges (betw. 1176 and 1200; Bourges, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 3, fol. 323v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht8/IRHT_146690-p.jpg

ii) as depicted in a pendentive of the later twelfth-century Crossing Cupola / Ascension Cupola (betw. 1176 and 1200) in Venice's basilica cattedrale patriarcale di San Marco:
http://tinyurl.com/onxulat

jj) as portrayed (at right, below his calf / ox; at left, St. Mark) in a late twelfth-century jamb statue on the Galluspforte (the north portal; c. 1180-1190) of the Basler Münster:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/martin-m-miles/7110881499/

kk) as depicted (at right, after Sts. Philip and Bartholomew) in the late twelfth-century mosaics (ca. 1182) in the sanctuary of the basilica cattedrale di Santa Maria Nuova in Monreale:
http://www.christianiconography.info/sicily/philipBartholomewLuke.smal.jpg

ll) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in two places in the late twelfth-century Souvigny Bible (Moulins, Médiathèque Communautaire de l'agglomération de Moulins, ms. 2, fols. 329v and 342):
1) At the beginning of his gospel:
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht4/IRHT_080149-p.jpg
2) At the beginning of St. Jerome's commentary on Luke:
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht4/IRHT_080152-p.jpg

mm) as depicted (with two oxen) in the twelfth- or thirteenth-century Red Gospels of Ganjasar (Chicago, University of Chicago Library, Goodspeed Manuscript Collection, ms. 949, fol. 139v):
http://goodspeed.lib.uchicago.edu/view/index.php?doc=0949&obj=282

nn) as depicted in a thirteenth-century bible possibly of Italian origin (Le Puy-en-Velay, Bibliothèque du Puy en Velay, ms. 1, fol. 315v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht4/IRHT_080585-p.jpg

oo) as portrayed in an earlier thirteenth-century vault boss (c. 1215-1225?) in an apsidial chapel in the église Saint-Serge in Angers:
http://tinyurl.com/p4o7fdh

pp) as depicted (at far left) in the earlier thirteenth-century apse mosaic (1220) of the basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome:


qq) as depicted in a later thirteenth-century fresco (between 1260 and 1263) in a pendentive in the church of the Holy Apostles in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/d269b75

rr) as depicted on a pendentive of the third cupola of Joseph in the later thirteenth-century mosaics (c. 1260-1270) of the north narthex in Venice's basilica cattedrale patriarcale di San Marco:
http://tinyurl.com/otgswrd
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/pnjbhph

ss) as depicted by Toros Roslin in the later thirteenth-century Walters T'oros Roslin Gospels (a.k.a. Sebastia Gospels of 1262) from Armenian Cilicia (1262; Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, ms. W.539, fol. 200v):
http://tinyurl.com/qjcen74

tt) as depicted (lower register at left; with his calf / ox) by Cimabue in a later thirteenth-century fresco (between 1277 and 1283) in the crossing vault of the upper church of the basilica di San Francesco in Assisi:
http://tinyurl.com/qd4xaz2
Detail view (Luke):
http://tinyurl.com/pqvquzd

uu) as depicted in the late thirteenth-century Burney Gospels (1285; London, BL, MS Burney 20, fol. 142v):
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=burney_ms_20_f142v

vv) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in the late thirteenth-century Livre d'images de Madame Marie (c. 1285-1290; Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 16251, fol. 74r):
http://tinyurl.com/n9c8h9r

ww) as depicted (at lower left; with his calf / ox) by Duccio di Buoninsegna in his relatively recently restored late thirteenth-century great window (1287-1288) for Siena cathedral (now in the Museo dell'Opera della Metropolitana):



xx) as portrayed in high relief (with his calf / ox) by Arnolfo da Cambio on his late thirteenth-century ciborium (1293) in the basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere in Rome:



yy) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in a fourteenth-century bible (Bible des Célestins / Bible of Charles V; Paris, BnF, ms. Arsenal 590, fol. 447r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84581342/f901.item.zoom

zz) as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century fresco (between c. 1312 and 1321/1322) in a pendentive in the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending on one's view of the matter, Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/33shq5u

aaa) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (between c. 1317 and 1324) in a pendentive in the church of St. Demetrius in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/nnfom4q

bbb) as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1326-1350; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 185, fol. 68v):
http://tinyurl.com/oud2tng

ccc) as depicted (at left, flanking the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus; at right, St. Cleophas / Clopas) in an earlier fourteenth-century panel (later 1320s or 1330s) in a window (W 14 [also s VI]; "Vie surnaturelle du Christ" or "After the Passion") in Strasbourg's cathédrale Notre-Dame:
http://www.cathedrale-strasbourg.fr/popgallery.aspx?pic_id=2595&cat_id=118

ddd) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in an earlier fourteenth-century French-language legendary of Parisian origin with illuminations attributed to the Fauvel Master (c. 1327; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 183, fol. 73r):
http://tinyurl.com/p6nm8g5

eee) as depicted (with his calf / ox) by Simone Martini in an earlier fourteenth-century panel painting (1330s) in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles:
http://tinyurl.com/nmmlw2f
http://www.wga.hu/art/s/simone/7last/5luke.jpg

fff) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy, from the workshop of Richard and Jeanne de Montbaston, of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1348; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 280r):
http://tinyurl.com/o7ebse7

ggg) as depicted (top centre) in a mid-fourteenth-century copy (c. 1355) of Ulrich of Lilienfeld's Concordantiae caritatis (Lilienfeld, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 151, fol. 220v):
http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7005011.JPG

hhh) as depicted in a later fourteenth-century Gospels from the monastery of Gamałiēl in Xizan (Paris, BnF, ms. Arménien 333, fol. 124v):
http://tinyurl.com/objf9o3

iii) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in a later fourteenth-century panel painting (between 1357 and 1367) by Theodoric of Prague and workshop in the Holy Cross Chapel, Karlštejn Castle (near Prague):


http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7014179.JPG

jjj) as depicted (at right; at left, St. John the Baptist) by Giovanni da Milano in a later fourteenth-century panel painting (c. 1360; from his dismembered Ognissanti Polyptych) in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence:



kkk) as depicted in the later fourteenth-century frescoes (1360s and 1370s; restored, 1968-1970) in the church of St. Demetrius in Marko's Monastery at Markova Sušica:
http://tinyurl.com/o6mf7wv

lll) as depicted by the Master of the Misericordia in a later fourteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1365-1370) in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan:


NB: As those who have looked closely at what Luke appears to be writing will have guessed, this image is reversed. An expandable grayscale image is here:
http://tinyurl.com/ooows8t

mmm) as depicted by Jacopo di Cione and workshop in a later fourteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1365-1370) in the National Gallery, London:
http://tinyurl.com/q9sj5e4

nnn) as depicted on a later fourteenth-century single leaf from Lake Tana in Ethiopia (between 1375 and 1400; Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, Ms. W/840):
http://tinyurl.com/ode87jk

ooo) As depicted on a pendentive in the late fourteenth-century frescoes of the cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior in Tsalenjikha, Georgia:
http://www.truechristianity.info/img/churches/georgia/tsalenjikha_cathedral_4.jpg

ppp) as depicted by Giovanni di Benedetto and workshop in a late fourteenth-century Franciscan missal of Milanese origin (ca. 1385-1390; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 757, fol. 206v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8470209d/f416.image.r=

qqq) as depicted (with his calf / ox) by Spinello Aretino in two late fourteenth-century vault frescoes in Florence and vicinity:
1) in the chiesa di San Miniato al Monte in Florence (1387-1388):
http://tinyurl.com/phygyhs
2) in the oratorio di Sante Caterina delle Ruote in Bagnoli a Ripoli (ca. 1388; restored, 1996-1998):
http://tinyurl.com/oe5jcn8

rrr) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in an early fifteenth-century copy of Guiard des Moulins'Bible historiale (Paris, BnF, ms. Arsenal 5058, fol. 476v):
http://tinyurl.com/nt89ndw
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8458142m/f362.item.zoom

sss) as portrayed by Nanni di Bianco in an early fifteenth-century statue (c. 1408-1415) formerly on the facade of Florence's cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore and now in the Museo dell'Opera del duomo there:
http://tinyurl.com/owdz729
As seen from below:
http://tinyurl.com/nkqr4qb

ttt) as depicted (with a companion that looks more like the lion of St. Mark than either a calf or an ox) in the early fifteenth-century Hours of René of Anjou (ca. 1410; London, BL, MS Egerton 1070, fol. 104v; image expandable):
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=egerton_ms_1070_f104v

uuu) as depicted in an early fifteenth-century copy of the Elsässische Legenda aurea (1419; Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Pal. germ. 144, fol. 163r):
http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/cpg144/0341

vvv) as depicted in a full-page illumination in the earlier fifteenth-century Radoslav Gospel from Serbia (1428-1429; Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, ms. РНБ. F.I.591, fol. 3r):
http://tinyurl.com/q872my7

www) as portrayed in high relief (with his calf / ox) by Donatello in an earlier fifteenth-century terracotta roundel (between 1428 and 1445) in the old sacristy of Florence's basilica di San Lorenzo:
http://www.wga.hu/art/d/donatell/2_mature/sacristy/1sacri11.jpg

xxx) as depicted (with his calf / ox) by Piero della Francesca in a mid-fifteenth-century vault fresco (ca. 1450-1460) in the cappella dei Santi Michele e Pietro in Rome's basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore:
http://tinyurl.com/qxwmdpj

yyy) as depicted by Andrea Mantegna in his mid-fifteenth-century St. Luke altarpiece (commissioned in 1453) in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan:

Detail view:



zzz) as depicted by Filippo Lippi in a mid-fifteenth-century vault fresco (c. 1454) in the sanctuary of Prato's cattedrale di Santo Stefano:
http://www.wga.hu/art/l/lippi/filippo/1450pr/01stluke.jpg

aaaa) as portrayed in high relief in a mid-fifteenth-century glazed terracotta roundel, variously ascribed to Luca della Robbia and workshop or to the aged Donatello, on a pendentive in the Cappella dei Pazzi (completed in 1460) in the Santa Croce complex in Florence:
http://www.florentinermuseen.com/foto/cappella%20pazzi/image/2.jpg

bbbb) as depicted (with his calf/ ox) in a later fifteenth-century panel painting (c. 1460-1470) on a Sunday-side wing of an altar in the Katholische Wallfahrtskirche Sankt Wolfgang in St. Wolfgang, a locality of Velburg (Lkr. Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz) in Bayern:


cccc) as depicted (at left, with his calf / ox; at right, St. Mark) on a section of the later fifteenth-century rood screen (c. 1480) in the church of All Saints, Morston (Norfolk):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulodykes/7482944470
Detail view (at left, the calf / ox):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulodykes/7482805504

dddd) as depicted (with his calf / ox and with a painting of the BVM) in a later fifteenth-century copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language translation by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1480-1490; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 245, fol. 141r):
http://tinyurl.com/nooaell

eeee) as depicted (with his calf / ox) in a late fifteenth-century panel painting (c. 1480-1500) on an outer wing of the Siebenhirter Altar (a.k.a. Apostle Altar) in the Pfrarrkirche of Lieseregg, a locality of Seeboden am Millstätter See (Land Kärnten):



ffff) as depicted (with his calf / ox) by Domenico Ghirlandaio in a late fifteenth-century vault fresco (c. 1485-1490) in the cappella Tornabuoni in Florence's chiesa di Santa Maria Novella:



gggg) as portrayed by Tilman Riemenschneider in a late fifteenth-century glazed limewood statue from the St. Mary Magdalene altarpiece in Münnerstadt (1490-1492), now in the Bode-Museum in Berlin:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/grahamfellows/8141405053

hhhh) as depicted (at left, followed by St. John and by St. Mary Magdalene) on the probably early sixteenth-century rood screen in the church of St. Andrew, Bramfield (Suffolk):


Detail view:



iiii) as portrayed (with his calf / ox) in an earlier sixteenth-century polychromed wooden statue (c. 1500-1520) in the Kirche St. Thomas in Hirschzell, a _Stadtteil_ of Kaufbeuren:



Subsequently John Dillon added two more images:
An even earlier image of St. Luke:
α) as depicted in the recently re-dated late fourth- to later sixth-century Garima 2 Gospels in Ge'ez (c. 390-570) from the Abba Garima monastery in northern Ethiopia, seemingly the oldest Christian book bearing paintings on its pages:



And for those already sated with images of St. Luke, herewith a view of his earlier fourteenth-century depiction (1330s) on a pendentive in the church of the Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo:
http://tinyurl.com/ohg8jmv

George Ferzoco has posted the following note on the Medieval Religion discussion group about an item on the Cambridge University website:

He wrotes "It does the heart good to see that such major discoveries continue to be made.

It’s from the early 900s (not 1900s, but 900s), and it’s a chant dedicated to St Boniface."

As the post explains the source appears to be in a monastery in NW Germany.

The article can be viewed at:
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/earliest-known-piece-of-polyphonic-music-discovered

Scroll down the contents page to the link, which includes a video of a performance of the music.

Laura Jacobus added these images of polyphony:
Colleagues might also enjoy these images of polyphonic singers (as far as I know, the first times polyphony has been depicted) - both are at Assisi



upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Simone_Martini__St._Martin_is_Knighted_(scene_3)_-_WGA21370.jpg
(showing secular minstrels in corner )


Simone Martini St. Martin Chapel- monastic singers are also shown in the Funeral of St Martin, though not obviously polyphonic



Bonnie Blackburn explained the visual imagery as follows:

We can't be sure that they are singing polyphony (i.e. different melodies at the same time) rather than chant. When we see angels with choirbooks, then we know it is polyphonic, because chant was traditionally learnt by heart by the clergy, and we have no records of notation, let alone polyphony, before the early 9th century (this is why Giovanni Varelli's discovery is so spectacular). By the fourteenth century polyphony came to be valued as something special, and angels singing polyphonically became fashionable for artists (see the painting of Mary Queen of Heaven by the Master of the St Lucy legend in the National Gallery in Washington, where we can read the music, a known Marian motet by Walter Frye, Ave regina caelorum).

John Dillon has followed up his selection of images of St Luke on the Medieval Religion discussion group with another series of depictions of the Evangelist painting Our Lady. They all appear as a late- medieval theme,and may reflect a changing or developing awareness of the place of the painter in society. Not only are they pleasing in themselves but they are also an insight into how artists worked - or saw themselves as working - in the period.

a) as depicted in an early fifteenth-century Russian icon in the Ikonen-Museum Recklinghausen:


b) as depicted in the early fifteenth-century Châteauroux Breviary (c. 1414; Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2, fol. 373v):



c) as depicted by Michelino Molinari da Besozzo in an earlier fifteenth-century prayer book from Milan (c. 1420; New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum; Morgan MS M.944, fol. 75v):
http://www.themorgan.org/collection/medieval-and-renaissance/manuscript/145545

d) as depicted in one of the earlier fifteenth-century paintings added to the Malet-Lannoy Hours probably at the time of an early owner's wedding (1430s; Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery and Museum, Ms. W.281, fol. 17r):
http://tinyurl.com/oyxxxd3

e) as depicted by Rogier van der Weyden in an earlier fifteenth-century panel painting (c. 1435-1470) in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:



Other versions of this painting exist. Three are shown here:
http://tinyurl.com/6czabs

f) as depicted in the mid-fifteenth-century by the  Master of the Duke of Bedford Hours (c. 1440-1450; Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, MS. LUDWIG IX 6, fol. 209r):



g) as depicted by Dieric Bouts the Elder in a mid- or later fifteenth-century panel painting (c. 1440-1475; transferred to canvas) in Penrhyn Castle, Bangor, North Wales:



h) as depicted in grisaille by Jean le Tavernier in the mid-fifteenth-century Hours of Philip of Burgundy (ca. 1451-1460; Use of Paris; Den Haag, KB, ms. 76 F 2, fol. 255r):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76f2%3A255r_min

i) as depicted by Simon Marmion in a cutting, from a later fifteenth-century book of hours (c. 1465-1470), in the British Library, London:
https://www.pubhist.com/w5513

j) as depicted in a later fifteenth-century glass window in the cathédrale Notre-Dame in Évreux (c. 1467-1469; w. 4);
http://tinyurl.com/nvadcjt
Detail view:



k) as depicted in a later fifteenth-century Gospels for the Use of the Parlement de Bourgogne (c. 1470; Besançon, Bibliothèques municipales, ms. 93, fol. 018):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht5/IRHT_083574-p.jpg

l) in a later fifteenth-century book of hours according to the Use of Saintes (c. 1470-1480; Besançon, Bibliothèques municipales, ms. 150, fol. 57v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht5/IRHT_084380-p.jpg

m) as depicted by Gabriel Mälesskircher in a later fifteenth-century panel painting (1478) in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid:
http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/ficha_obra/330

n) as depicted by Derick Baegert in a late fifteenth-century painting (c. 1485) in the LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster (Westfalen):



o) as depicted (left margin at top) in a hand-coloured woodcut in the Beloit College copy of Hartmann Schedel's late fifteenth-century Weltchronik (Nuremberg Chronicle; 1493) at fol. CVIIIr):
http://www.beloit.edu/nuremberg/book/6th_age/right_page/12%20%28Folio%20CVIIIr%29.pdf

p) as portrayed in two places on the late fifteenth-century Lukasaltar in the Evangelisch-lutherische Hauptkirche St. Jakobi in Hamburg (1499):
1) in a carving in high relief in the central panel of the opened altar (lower register at right; at left, Anna Selbdritt):



Detail view:


2) in a panel painting on an outer wing:



q) as portrayed in high relief by Jacob Beinhart in an early sixteenth-century wood sculpture (1506) in the National Museum in Warsaw:



r) as depicted by Niklaus Manuel in an early sixteenth-century panel painting (1515; from a dismembered altar of St. Anne) in the Kustmuseum Bern:



s) as depicted by a follower of Quentin Matsys (Massys, Metsys) in an earlier sixteenth-century panel painting (c. 1520) in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University:



t) as depicted in the earlier sixteenth-century Hours of Françoise Brinnon (1524; Den Haag, Museum Meermanno, cod. 10 F 33, fol. 15v):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_mmw_10f33%3A015v_min


And a few period-pertinent images of St. Luke displaying a painted portrait of the BVM:

aa) as depicted in a late fifteenth-century book of hours according to the Use of Tours (Tours, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2042, fol. 8r):



bb) as depicted by Jean Bourdichon in the early sixteenth-century Grandes Heures d'Anne de Bretagne (c. 1503-1508; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 9474, fol. 19v):



cc) as depicted by Vincenzo Foppa in an early sixteenth-century vault fresco (1510s) in Milan's chiesa di San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore:

Today is the 590th anniversary of the death in 1425 of Ralph Neville, first Earl of Westmorland.

The Oxford DNB life of him by Anthony Tuck can be read at  Neville, Ralph, first Earl of Westmorland (c.1364–1425), and there is another online life at Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland

The Earl was a major figure in the politics of the country as well as of northern England. He is buried in Staindrop church, close to his family seat at Raby Castle in county Durham. His tomb, with effigies of him and his his two wives - who are buried at the church in Brancepeth and in Lincoln cathedral respectively - has been moved from its original place in the middle of the choir to the west end of the church where it is next to the monuments of the later lords of Raby and nineteenth century Dukes of Cleveland.


The anniversary of his death give me an opportunity to post images of him and his second wife and all his children at prayer - images of considerable charm and also not as well known as they should be. To understand them it will help if I also reproduce from the second link above a list of his numerous progeny - the Earl was clearly a dutiful husband:


Neville married firstly, Margaret Stafford (d. 9 June 1396), the eldest daughter of Hugh Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford, and Philippa Beauchamp, the daughter of Thomas Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick, by Katherine Mortimer, the daughter of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March. They had two sons and six daughters:

• Sir John Neville (c.1387 – before 20 May 1420), who married Elizabeth Holland, fifth daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, and Alice FitzAlan, and by her had three sons, Ralph Neville, 2nd Earl of Westmorland, John Neville, Baron Neville, and Sir Thomas Neville, and a daughter, Margaret Neville.

• Sir Ralph Neville (d. 25 Feb 1458), who married, before 1411, his stepsister, Mary Ferrers, daughter of Robert Ferrers, 2nd Baron Ferrers, and Joan Beaufort^.

• Maud Neville (d. October 1438), who married Peter de Mauley, 5th Baron Mauley.^.

• Alice Neville, who married firstly Sir Thomas Grey, beheaded 2 August 1415 for his part in the Southampton Plot, and secondly Sir Gilbert Lancaster.

• Philippa Neville, who married, before 20 July 1399, Thomas Dacre, 6th Baron Dacre of Gilsland (d. 5 January 1458).

• Elizabeth Neville, who became a nun.

• Anne Neville (b. circa 1384), who married, before 3 February 1413, Sir Gilbert Umfraville, son of Sir Thomas Umfreville (d. 12 February 1391) and Agnes Grey (d. 25 October 1420), daughter of Sir Thomas Grey of Heaton (d. before 22 October 1369). He was slain at the Battle of Baugé in Anjou on 22 March 1421.

• Margaret Neville (d. 1463/4), who married firstly, before 31 December 1413, Richard Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Bolton, and secondly, William Cressener, esquire.

Neville married secondly, before 29 November 1396 Joan Beaufort, the widow of Robert Ferrers, 2nd Baron Ferrers. Joan was the legitimated daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, by his mistress and later third wife, Katherine Swynford. They had nine sons and five daughters:

• Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury (1400–1460), married Alice Montacute, 5th Countess of Salisbury. Their son was Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (1428–1471), 'The Kingmaker'.
• Henry Neville.
• Thomas Neville.
• Cuthbert Neville.
• Robert Neville, Bishop of Salisbury and Durham.
• William Neville, 1st Earl of Kent.
• John Neville.
• George Neville, 1st Baron Latimer.
• Edward Neville, 3rd Baron Bergavenny.
• Joan Neville, who became a nun.
• Katherine Neville, married firstly, on 12 January 1411 to John Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, secondly to Sir Thomas Strangways, thirdly to John Beaumont, 1st Viscount Beaumont, fourthly to Sir John Woodville (d. 12 August 1469).
• Eleanor Neville (1398–1472), married firstly to Richard le Despencer, 4th Baron Burghersh, secondly to Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland.
• Anne Neville (1414–1480), married firstly to Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, secondly to Walter Blount, 1st Baron Mountjoy.
• Cecily Neville (1415–1495), married to Richard, 3rd Duke of York. She was the mother of King Edward IV and King Richard III.

A very well connected family indeed, with links to so many of the leading families of the time.



Alas the adage that the family that prays together stays together was not true for the Nevilles - as the ODNB life shows the Earl all but disinherited the family he had with his first wife in favour of his second family, and in the later conflicts of Lancastrians and Yorkists the two branches were on seperate sides more often than not, with the elderWestmormnd branch remaining loyal to the Lancastrian dynasty, and the second family, despite their Beaufort ancestry, being Yorkist - including, of course, Duchess Cicely herself.