San Miniato – Christian martyr

Romans struggled to kill devout young man

San Miniato may have been a soldier who
tried to spread Christianity in the Roman army 

The feast of San Miniato, who is venerated as the first Christian martyr of Florence, is celebrated on this day throughout Italy, marking the anniversary of his execution in 250AD by the Romans.

According to legend, Miniato was an Armenian king, or prince, who had decided to become a religious hermit on a hill near Florence. It is believed that he had either been serving in the Roman army at the time, or was in the process of making a penitential pilgrimage to Rome.

Miniato was denounced as a Christian and captured and brought before the Roman Emperor Decius, who was notorious for persecuting Christians. The unfortunate young man was put through a series of torments because he refused to bow to and worship the Roman gods. He was said to have been thrown into a furnace, stoned, and afterwards thrown to a wild animal in an amphitheatre, which was reputed to have been either a lion or a panther, but did not harm him.

After he emerged unscathed from these ordeals, Miniato was beheaded on a site near the present-day Piazza della Signoria in Florence, which has become one of the most important sites in the history of the city.

According to the legend, Miniato picked up his own head and then crossed the River Arno and returned to his hermitage, which was on a nearby hill known as Monte di Firenze, before he died in the cave where he had lived as a hermit.

The relics of San Miniato have been conserved in the crypt of the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte in Florence, which has been built over his original burial site and dedicated to him.

Work on the church began in the 11th century, at the instigation of the Bishop of Florence at the time and it was paid for by the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry II, who was also later made a Saint. 

The background to San Miniato’s life is uncertain and it is possible that he may have been simply a soldier who was executed for spreading Christianity in the Roman army. 

San Miniato is thought to have been
executed in Florence in 250AD

His cult may have developed because it became known that a relic from a country in the east had been brought to the Church of San Miniato in Florence. 

The story of him picking up his own severed head after his own execution was first recorded in the 14th century by Giovanni Villani, a Florentine banker and diplomat, who wrote Nuova Cronica (New Chronicles) about the history of Florence.

In paintings, San Miniato is often portrayed as a young prince carrying a crown, or as a figure carrying his own severed head.

A town and comune about 41km (25 miles) to the west of Florence, in the province of Pisa, is named San Miniato. Archaeological evidence indicates that the site and its surrounding area would have been a settlement since the Paleolithic era and it would have been well known to the Etruscans as well as the Romans, for whom it was a military post called Quarto. 

The first mention of it in historical documents is of a small village organised around a chapel dedicated to San Miniato, which was built by the Lombards in 783. By the end of the 10th century, San Miniato had a sizeable population enclosed behind a moat and protected by a castle. 

The Basilica sits on one of the
highest points in Florence

Travel tip:

The Bishop of Florence had the present Basilica of San Miniato built in 1018 on the site of a fourth century chapel. The lower part of the facade is decorative but the upper part is simpler and has a 12th-century mosaic of Christ between the Madonna and San Miniato. The basilica has an unfinished 15th century campanile that was damaged during the siege of Florence in 1530. The Bishop's Palace, the fortifications, the monumental cemetery and the basilica all stand at the top of a hill called Monte alle Croci, one of the highest points of the city, which overlooks Piazzale Michelangelo and the city of Florence. The interior of this magnificent example of Florentine Romanesque architecture has a trussed timber roof and the walls retain fragments of 13th and 14th century frescoes. In the crypt, the altar preserves the bones of San Miniato.  Among the artworks in the basilica are the beautiful freestanding Cappella del Crocefisso - Chapel of the Crucifix - designed by Michelozzo in 1448. The terracotta decoration of the vault is by Luca della Robbia, who is also thought to be responsible for the crucifix above the high altar.

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Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus is one
of the statues in Piazza della Signoria

Travel tip:

San Miniato’s execution in Florence on this day in 250AD is said to have taken place close to the present-day Piazza della Signoria, which is an L-shaped square in the centre of the city. The piazza is important as the location of the 14th century Palazzo Vecchio, the focal point for the government in Florence. Citizens would gather here for public meetings and the religious leader, Girolamo Savonarola, was burned at the stake in the piazza in 1498. Nowadays it is a unique outdoor sculpture gallery filled with statues, some of them copies, commemorating major events in the city’s history.  They include Giambologna’s equestrian monument of Cosimo I, the Fountain of Neptune by Bartolomeo Ammannati, Donatello’s Judith and Holofernes and Bandinelli’s Hercules and Cacus. There is a copy of Michelangelo's David at the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio, the original being housed in the Galleria dell'Accademia. Within the Loggia dei Lanzi is Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Cellini and The Abduction of the Sabine Women by Giambologna.

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More reading:

San Vito, victim of Diocletian persecution 

Sant’Eustachio, Christian martyred by Hadrian

Filippo Brunelleschi, architect of the dome of Florence cathedral

Also on this day:

1647: The birth of physicist Evangelista Torricelli

1815: The birth of violinist Camillo Sivori

1874: The birth of actress Emma Gramatica

1902: The birth of military chaplain Carlo Gnocchi

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