19 August 2009

S Pelagius

In the late medieval glass in New College Chapel (you can't do much better than Oxford for late medieval glass; by the time the bastards had got the Reformation to stick in Oxford, the age of the Learned Georgian Antiquaries had arrived to preserve on the grounds of Antiquity what the Reformers would have destroyed on the grounds of Idolatry) there is a window with a figure wearing a papal tiara and carrying a cross, labelled "S Pelagius".

Can anybody throw any light on this?

6 comments:

Jacob Hicks said...

On Wikipedia (yes, I know!) both Popes Pelagius have "S. Pelagius" under their pictures. Neither makes reference to feast days, etc., though. So no, no light, I'm afraid.

JamesIII said...

The following may shed some light:

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/golden330.htm

Figulus said...

He's mentioned in the old Roman Martyrology for May 7, as the translator of the relics of St Stephen, not as a saint himself. No Google search of pelagii, pelagi, pelagius, nor pelagio reveals any other mention of him in the Martyrology. The new martyrology, alas, does not yet appear to be online.

Pastor in Monte said...

There are two Ss Pelagius in the new Martyrology; both martyrs, and neither popes.

Anonymous said...

Father,
The old Roman Martyrology (I think I am looking at the 1749 revision)has three Saints named Pelagius.

March 25: Laodicéæ, ad Líbanum, sancti Pelágii Epíscopi, qui, ob fidem cathólicam, témpore Valéntis, exsílium et ália passus est; ac tandem, in sedem suam restitútus, quiévit in Dómino.

June 26: Córdubæ, in Hispánia, natális sancti Pelágii adolescéntuli, qui, ob confessiónem fídei, Regis Saracenórum Abdaraméni jussu forcípibus férreis membrátim præcísus, martyrium suum glorióse consummávit

and Aug. 28: Constántiæ, in Germánia, sancti Pelágii Mártyris, qui sub Numeriáno Imperatóre et Evilásio Júdice, cápite amputátus, martyrii corónam accépit.

Anonymous said...

The 1526 translation of the Sarum Martyrology, after teh Pelagius martyred under Numerian, lists both Popes Pelagius as saints, as follows (spelling kept, abbreviations expanded):

At rome, the feest of an other saynt Pelagy the fyrst pope of that name a noble man and a grete corrector of heretikes. The feest also of the thyrde saynt Pelagy the second pope of that name a pyteous man and much devoute that ordeyned all the prefaces that ben sayd in the masse except the preface of our lady whiche saynt gregory his nexte successour added.

P. 135 in the Bradshaw edition.