Romanus of Rome

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Romanus with sword and jug on the left side altar of St. Romanus (Schweighausen)

Romanus of Rome was an early Christian martyr and is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches . The historical value of the reports about him is controversial.

Death and legend

According to the Liber pontificalis , Romanus died in the persecution of Christians under Emperor Valerian , together with the more well-known St. Lawrence of Rome and two other clerics - three (or four) days after Pope Sixtus II was beheaded:

"Et post passionem beati Xysti post dies III passi sunt Laurentius eius archidiaconus et Glaudius Severus presbiter et Romanus ostiarius et Crescentius lector."

"And three days after the martyrdom of St. Sixtus, his archdeacon Laurentius, the presbyter Glaudius Severus, the Ostiarius Romanus and the lecturer Crescentius were killed."

Since March 6, 258 is assumed for the death of the Pope, Laurentius, Glaudius Severus, Romanus and Crescentius would have died on March 9 (or 10) March 258. Romanus was buried in the Cyriaca catacomb on Via Tiburtina , accessible from the cloister of the church of San Lorenzo fuori le mura . The body is said to have been brought to Lucca later .

The diaconate , presbytery , ostiariat and lectorate were - and still are in part - degrees of ordination of the Christian religious communities, the ostiariat the lowest of them. The Ostiarius assigned the worshipers their places, an office similar to that of today's sexton or sacristan.

According to this source, if Romanus was an Ostiarius, according to other reports he was a soldier. The legend has further embellished his vita . In the Martyrologium Romanum 1586 it says about the saints whose feast was celebrated on August 9th:

"Romae, S. Romani militis, qui confessione beati Laurentij compunctus, petiit ab eo baptizari, et mox exhibitus, ac fustibus caesus, ad vltimum decollatus est."

"In Rome <is celebrated> the feast of the holy soldier Romanus, who, moved by the steadfast confession of St. Lawrence, demanded to be baptized by him and was immediately arrested, beaten with clubs and finally beheaded."

Johann Evangelist Stadler writes in his Complete Lexicon of Saints : Romanus threw himself, “a bowl of water in his hand, at the feet of St. Laurentius and with tears asked for St. Baptism. Laurentius blessed the water and baptized him. When Valerianus found out about this, he ordered the Romanus to be presented with a blow of a stick. When he appeared before the emperor, he immediately shouted, without being asked, in a loud voice: 'I am a Christian.' Immediately Valerianus pronounced the death sentence on him; he was beheaded outside the Salarian Gate and buried during the night [...] on the road to Tivoli [= the Via Tiburtina]. The mother of the saint, a steadfast Christian, was so delighted with the glorious death of her son that she [...] sang the psalm words: 'Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints'. "

Adoration

The day of remembrance of the saint is August 9 in the Roman Catholic Church and August 10 in the Orthodox Churches.

The vessel from which Romanus received the baptismal water is shown (according to Stadler in the second half of the 19th century) at San Lorenzo fuori le mura in Rome. In Lucca, where his body was believed to be in possession, the church of San Romano was built over the grave . Pope Leo IX , who came from Alsace . brought relics to Oelenberg Abbey in the Alsatian town of Reiningue . Its parish church of Saint Romain has three Roman reliquaries , one from the first half of the 12th century in the form of a house. Reiningue became a popular Roman pilgrimage site. The house reliquary is accessible on August 9th and August 10th, the feast day of St. Lawrence, so it can be touched.

The Black Forest village of St. Roman was also a Romanus pilgrimage site . According to Heinrich Hansjakob, they said : "Are you looking for a man to go on a pilgrimage to St. Roman." Hansjakob also noted two stanzas of a pilgrimage song:

For mercy I will stop,
O holy novel!
Let your protection prevail,
should I go away.

Do not want to forget
me,
When fear and death press me, When fear and death press me, O
holy novel! "

iconography

His pictures mostly show Romanus as a soldier with a lance and shield. He also wears a palm frond as a symbol and a sword as a tool of his martyrdom.

The Reiningen house reliquary is decorated on both narrow sides with Romanus reliefs. In one he is holding the baptismal font while Laurentius pours the baptismal water over his head; in the other he stands between his judge and the soldier who has just cut off his head.

In Lucca, Matteo Civitali depicted the saint on his sarcophagus in San Romano at the end of the 14th century .

Romanus (far right); Five seats in Merseburg Cathedral
Romanus (left) and Maximus; Reredos in Merseburg Cathedral

Several representations can be found in the Merseburg Cathedral, dedicated to John the Baptist and Laurentius . Romanus can be seen next to (from left) John the Baptist, St. Maximus of Avium, the Man of Sorrows and Laurentius in reliefs from a five-seated seat from the mid-15th century . Romanus and Maximus show the outside of the wings of a retable from the end of the 15th century. "Romanus appears <...> as a distinguished soldier with a lance and in armor and cloak. The headdress, a pearl barnacle , identifies him as a nobleman. His faith is symbolized by the cross pennant. The costume of the deacon, the tonsure, the book and the martyr's palm are reminiscent of Maximus' life. ”The altar wing of a pupil of Lucas Cranach the Elder around 1520 shows Romanus and Pope Sixtus II. On a barrier donated by the Merseburg Bishop Sigismund von Lindenau Finally, around 1540, Romanus stands between Sixtus and John the Baptist.

Romanus (center); Barrier in Merseburg Cathedral

Pictures in the Church of St. Romanus in Schweighausen in the Black Forest come from the Baroque period . A Schweighauser sculpture adds the jug with the baptismal water to its attributes.

Sancti Romani

In addition to Romanus of Rome, the Lexicon for Theology and Church lists five, and the Catholic Encyclopedia at least six other saints named "Romanus". In the lexicon for theology and the church they are:

literature

References and comments

  1. ^ Victor Saxer: Romanus, early Christian martyr in Rome . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 8 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1999, Sp. 1279 . against historicity; Johann Peter Kirsch:  Sts. Romanus . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 13, New York 1912. for historicity.
  2. ^ Louis Duchesne : Le Liber pontificalis. Texts, introduction and commentary. Volume 1-2. Thorin, Paris 1886–1892 (= Bibliothèque des Écoles Françaises d'Athènes et de Rome. Series 2, Volume 3, 1–2). Digitized.
  3. ^ Lexicon for Theology and the Church, Volume 9, Column 25, and Catholic Encyclopedia.
  4. ^ Anton Henze and others: Art Guide Rome. 5th edition, Reclam, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-010402-5 , p. 198.
  5. ↑ Lexicon for Theology and the Church, Volume 7, Column 1286.
  6. ^ Martyrologium Romanum, edition of 1586, p. 240: Quinto Idus Augusti. Digitized. On the edge of the print there is the Arabic number “9” next to the Roman date for clarification .
  7. ↑ see literature.
  8. ^ A b Gerhard Finkbeiner: Heimatbuch Schweighausen. Local history. Interest group Badischer Ortssippenbücher, Lahr-Dinglingen 2003, pp. 167–168.
  9. ^ Website of the pastoral care unit An Wolf and Kinzig : St. Roman. Digitized. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
  10. ^ Georg Kaufmann: Lucca, San Romano. In: Reclam's Art Guide Italy Volume 3, Part 1, Tuscany. Reclam-Verlag 1984. ISBN 3-15-010327-4 . P. 209.
  11. ^ Lexicon of Christian Iconography Volume 7, Column 620; also Stadler Volume IV, p. 375, Maximus No. 87; there he is called "Maximus apud Aviam", and it is said of him: "His holy body was transferred to Merseburg by Emperor Otto II."
  12. ↑ Deckert 1935, p. 25 and Fig. 42.
  13. ↑ Deckert 1935, p. 28; also Iris Ritschel: winged retable with a sculpture of Our Lady. In: Karin Heise and others (eds.): Between cathedral and world: 1000 years of Merseburg cathedral chapter. Exhibition catalog, Petersberg 2004, pp. 165–167 digitized. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
  14. ↑ Deckert: 1935, S: 32 and Fig. 64.
  15. ↑ Deckert 1935, p. 30.
  16. ^ Lexicon for Theology and the Church, Volume 9, Columns 24-25.
personal data
SURNAME Romanus of Rome
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Christian martyr
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century or 3rd century
DATE OF DEATH 3rd century