medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
As is fairly well known, the Christian sanctoral firmament includes not a few individuals whose names signify one or another large carnivore: there are are many Wolves (e.g. Lupus of Anjou, Lupus of Lyon, Lupus of Soissons, and Lupus of Troyes), Bears (e.g. Ursus of Aosta, Ursus of Ravenna, and Ursula with her thousands of virgins venerated at Köln), Leopards (Leopardus of Osimo, Leopardus of Rome, Pardus of Larino), and Lions (e.g. Leo of Bova, Leo of Catania, Leo Luke of Corleone, and several popes St. Leo). But there seems to be only one Tiger: St. Tigris (d. later 6th or earlier 7th cent., supposedly; in French: Tigre, Thècle). St. Gregory the Great recounts (_In gloria martyrum_, 13) how, at an unspecified time, a woman who had made an oath to procure a relic from the limbs of St. John the Baptist left Maurienne for a place that had the body of this saint. Having reached her destination and having been informed by locals that no such relic was to be had, she remained there for close to three years, praying before John's tomb that her wish be granted. Finally, when she was weak from fasting, a shining thumb appeared over the altar. Recognizing this as a divine gift, the woman took the thumb, put it in a small reliquary of gold, and returned home. Thus far Gregory, who then quotes Luke 11:8 on the value of perseverance and who goes on to relate how later three bishops collected from this relic drops of a blood onto a cloth which latter they then divided amongst themselves.
An early tenth-century narrative of the founding of the cathedral of Maurienne, the so-called _Auctoritas Moriensis_, names this woman Tigris and tells a more detailed version of the story in which the saint's tomb is located at Sebaste and the acquisition of the thumb is said to have taken place in the reign of king Guntram (561-592), who used the relic to sanctify his newly built cathedral dedicated to St. John the Baptist (its town is now Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne). In his later eleventh-century chronicle Sigebert of Gembloux summarizes Gregory's version (so Tigris is not named here) and dates the acquisition of the thumb and the production of the blood relics to 613. In his thirteenth-century chronicle Albert of Stade calls the woman Thecla. She has a traditional cult in Maurienne with a feast on this day (i.e. the one immediately following that of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist) documented at least as far back as 1251. Today is also her day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Tigris' relic of St. John the Baptist on display in the cathedral of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne:
http://tinyurl.com/2czuvpx
An illustrated, French-language page on the cathedral itself (largely eleventh-century):
http://tinyurl.com/748ms2n
Best,
John Dillon
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