Una translatio (quasi) invisibile

Abstract

An (almost) Invisible Translation. Moving the Relics of Saints Januarius, Festus, and Desiderius Within Benevento, during the Communitas Period (1129). This paper examines the translation of the relics of St. Januarius and his socii Festus and Desiderius from the cathedral to a new church in Benevento in 1129. This event is little documented and often overlooked by scholarship. By proposing a new dating for the principal hagiographic sources – the „Translatio Ianuarii, Festi et Desiderii“ (BHL 4140) and the „Translatio Festi et Desiderii“ (BHL 4118) – the study argues that both texts were reworked in the early 12th century, specifically in 1129, to serve contemporary political purposes. This revised chronology allows for a fresh reading of the translation within the turbulent context of the Beneventan communitas (1128–1131): this agreement was not an autonomous communal institution, but a coniuratio aimed at preventing the return of exiled élites after the murder of the papal rector. The hagiographic repurposing, and particularly the more prominent role given to Festus and Desiderius alongside Januarius, emerges as a strategy for reaffirming the political and symbolic centrality of the episcopal complex in papal Benevento.