Saint Severus
Wednesday, 29 August 2007 05:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
siguneWhenever I am busy with something really important in RL, I get ideas for fanfic. Yay. If the bad news is that I really can't afford to sit down and write fic at this moment, the good news is that the WIP of Doom - Post DH Remix is making more sense every day and pieces of the puzzle are slowly falling in their right place.
One of the things I am trying to do is to paint a picture of the Snape family that does not contradict canon but nevertheless rejects 'wife-and-child-beating Tobias' and 'victimised Eileen'. I am glad to say that this is finally beginning to work. Without going into detail, one thing I needed was an explanation of little Severus's first name. It's an odd name for a British boy (I wonder whether there are any real little Severuses in Britain, actually), so my first thought was that it must be a wizard name that Eileen had chosen. Only - now that I am re-imagining the Snape family, it really doesn't suit me at all that Eileen should give her child a name from the wizarding world, so I had to look for an alternative explanation.
I found one :-).
Those of you who are familiar with my fics know that I have consistently imagined Severus Snape as a Catholic. Well, there are several Catholic saints called Severus; and it is not uncommon (or usen't to be until society secularised so much) to call a child after a saint. Because I like to pad my stories and characters, I don't assign names completely at random - if possible, I like them to say something about a character. In this case, Severus has been named already; but I still wanted to check up on the saints Severus to see if I could find anything of use in terms of symbols and such. What I found is so very striking that I wonder if JKR knows XD.
There is a Saint Severus of Avranches, who is invoked against migraine XD (that's good to know!); Saint Severus of Barcelona, martyred under the Visigoths who drove nails into his temples; Saint Severus of Trèves, a Gaul who became a bishop in Germania; Saint Severus of Androcca, who raised a dead man to life in order to be able to administer him the last rites. There is a Saint Severus church in Erfurt (Thüringen, Germany). But the best one is...
Severus of Ravenna
He is celebrated not on the ninth of January, but on the first of February, so there is something amiss, you could say. But read his story!
Died c. 348. Severus was a poor weaver of Ravenna, Italy, who never dreamed that God would one day call him from his weaver's loom to rule a diocese, but God has strange ways of calling His servants and sometimes lays His hand upon them in the least likely places: from the plough and the bench have come some of the greatest of His apostles.
So it happened that when the bishopric of Ravenna fell vacant in 283 and the cathedral was filled with those who had gathered to elect a new bishop, Severus said to his wife, Vincentia, that he would visit the minister and see what was going on. She replied that he had much better remain at home and not show himself in his working clothes among the nobles and well-dressed citizens. "What harm is there in my going?" he asked. "Why, you have work to do here," she answered, "instead of gadding about sightseeing." When he persisted, she said, "Go, and may you come back with a good box on your ear," and added sarcastically: "Go, then, and get elected bishop."
Severus, accustomed to her sharp tongue, set out and, entering the crowded cathedral, stood at the back, ashamed of his working clothes covered with flocks of wool. When, in the course of the service, the power of the Holy Spirit was invoked in prayer, there appeared in the cathedral a white dove that attracted the attention of the assembly, and which after flying around fluttered at the ear of the poor spinner. He beat it off, but it returned and finally came to rest upon his shoulder. Every eye was now turned in his direction, and the people, regarding it as a heavenly sign, with one accord chose him to be their bishop.
Vincentia was still at home, and when a neighbor came running, breathless, to her door with the news, she laughed and would not believe it. "What a tale," she said, "that a man who tosses a shuttle should be made a prelate!" But when another came with the same story, and yet another, and a crowd gathered at her door, and she found it was true, she was speechless.
Thus, it came to pass that Severus the weaver became bishop of Ravenna and who can doubt that he was a good weaver, well respected for his work and character, and that he was chosen not only because of a good omen but also for his own fine qualities. For these he was chosen to accompany the papal legate to the synod of Sardica in 344.
He made a good bishop, and when at last he came to die, he said his last Mass before all the people, then quietly dismissed them with his blessing. When all had departed save a single boy who served at the altar, he bade the boy close the doors, and clothing himself in his episcopal robes, went to the tomb of his wife and daughter, who had died before him. There with the help of the boy he raised the stone, and descending into the grave, laid himself down, and after a prayer closed his eyes and fell asleep. After his death he was canonized a saint, and is usually portrayed in his bishop's robes and with a weaver's shuttle (Benedictines, Gill).
It may be that the dove was a common phenomenon, or that it was simply a pious addition to the story of unlikely bishops, but it occurs in several stories.
In art, Severus is a bishop weaving. He may have a loom and weaver's tools and, possibly, a dove on his shoulder. He is the patron of glove makers, hatters, and weavers.
***
So, yay. Not sure how I'm going to integrate the dove, but... ;-)
One of the things I am trying to do is to paint a picture of the Snape family that does not contradict canon but nevertheless rejects 'wife-and-child-beating Tobias' and 'victimised Eileen'. I am glad to say that this is finally beginning to work. Without going into detail, one thing I needed was an explanation of little Severus's first name. It's an odd name for a British boy (I wonder whether there are any real little Severuses in Britain, actually), so my first thought was that it must be a wizard name that Eileen had chosen. Only - now that I am re-imagining the Snape family, it really doesn't suit me at all that Eileen should give her child a name from the wizarding world, so I had to look for an alternative explanation.
I found one :-).
Those of you who are familiar with my fics know that I have consistently imagined Severus Snape as a Catholic. Well, there are several Catholic saints called Severus; and it is not uncommon (or usen't to be until society secularised so much) to call a child after a saint. Because I like to pad my stories and characters, I don't assign names completely at random - if possible, I like them to say something about a character. In this case, Severus has been named already; but I still wanted to check up on the saints Severus to see if I could find anything of use in terms of symbols and such. What I found is so very striking that I wonder if JKR knows XD.
There is a Saint Severus of Avranches, who is invoked against migraine XD (that's good to know!); Saint Severus of Barcelona, martyred under the Visigoths who drove nails into his temples; Saint Severus of Trèves, a Gaul who became a bishop in Germania; Saint Severus of Androcca, who raised a dead man to life in order to be able to administer him the last rites. There is a Saint Severus church in Erfurt (Thüringen, Germany). But the best one is...
Severus of Ravenna
He is celebrated not on the ninth of January, but on the first of February, so there is something amiss, you could say. But read his story!
Died c. 348. Severus was a poor weaver of Ravenna, Italy, who never dreamed that God would one day call him from his weaver's loom to rule a diocese, but God has strange ways of calling His servants and sometimes lays His hand upon them in the least likely places: from the plough and the bench have come some of the greatest of His apostles.
So it happened that when the bishopric of Ravenna fell vacant in 283 and the cathedral was filled with those who had gathered to elect a new bishop, Severus said to his wife, Vincentia, that he would visit the minister and see what was going on. She replied that he had much better remain at home and not show himself in his working clothes among the nobles and well-dressed citizens. "What harm is there in my going?" he asked. "Why, you have work to do here," she answered, "instead of gadding about sightseeing." When he persisted, she said, "Go, and may you come back with a good box on your ear," and added sarcastically: "Go, then, and get elected bishop."
Severus, accustomed to her sharp tongue, set out and, entering the crowded cathedral, stood at the back, ashamed of his working clothes covered with flocks of wool. When, in the course of the service, the power of the Holy Spirit was invoked in prayer, there appeared in the cathedral a white dove that attracted the attention of the assembly, and which after flying around fluttered at the ear of the poor spinner. He beat it off, but it returned and finally came to rest upon his shoulder. Every eye was now turned in his direction, and the people, regarding it as a heavenly sign, with one accord chose him to be their bishop.
Vincentia was still at home, and when a neighbor came running, breathless, to her door with the news, she laughed and would not believe it. "What a tale," she said, "that a man who tosses a shuttle should be made a prelate!" But when another came with the same story, and yet another, and a crowd gathered at her door, and she found it was true, she was speechless.
Thus, it came to pass that Severus the weaver became bishop of Ravenna and who can doubt that he was a good weaver, well respected for his work and character, and that he was chosen not only because of a good omen but also for his own fine qualities. For these he was chosen to accompany the papal legate to the synod of Sardica in 344.
He made a good bishop, and when at last he came to die, he said his last Mass before all the people, then quietly dismissed them with his blessing. When all had departed save a single boy who served at the altar, he bade the boy close the doors, and clothing himself in his episcopal robes, went to the tomb of his wife and daughter, who had died before him. There with the help of the boy he raised the stone, and descending into the grave, laid himself down, and after a prayer closed his eyes and fell asleep. After his death he was canonized a saint, and is usually portrayed in his bishop's robes and with a weaver's shuttle (Benedictines, Gill).
It may be that the dove was a common phenomenon, or that it was simply a pious addition to the story of unlikely bishops, but it occurs in several stories.
In art, Severus is a bishop weaving. He may have a loom and weaver's tools and, possibly, a dove on his shoulder. He is the patron of glove makers, hatters, and weavers.
***
So, yay. Not sure how I'm going to integrate the dove, but... ;-)
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Date: Wednesday, 29 August 2007 04:53 pm (UTC)I'm surprised there's a st. severus church here in germany LOL
oh and perhaps this might help, too:
some time ago I looked up the name tobias and it's supposed to mean god is good. well, I'm still more on the 'tobias was mean to severus and eileen' - side and I thought that the name could mean that tobias was religious, a catholic even. this could explain why he disliked magic (christians weren't really nice to 'witches', as we know) and hence disliked the fact that severus and eileen could use magic.
now.. you brought this 'severus is a catholic'/saint search up and I thought you could use this info about tobias' name to your advantange :)