----- Original Message -----
From: Christopher Crockett <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2000 4:04 PM
Subject: Coincidental Feasts, or Cluster Obituaries??
{snip]
is it certain that feast days were *always* the dates of death?
[snip]
has anyone else noted these "clusters" of obituary dates in the documents
from
other places?
any literature on the phenomenon?
This has been exercising my mind too, since one of my problems identifying
Astralabe, son of Abelard with Astralabe, Abbot of Hauterive is that the
death of the former is commemorated in the Necrology of the Paraclete as
30/31 October and the latter died (Necrology of Hauterive) 5 August.
Consequently I have spent a lot of time brooding over both Necrologies and I
have come to the conclusion that, whereas if the person commemorated died
"on the premises" then the chances are that the day of commemoration and the
day of death are (virtually) identical, but that where the person lived some
distance away then the death was commemorated on the anniversary of the day
on which the news of the death reached the institution, ie the day on which
the first requiem mass was celebrated - one would hardly wait ten or so
months to celebrate a requiem on the 'correct' day. We know that obituary
scrolls were taken from institution to institution so would it be correct to
assume that the arrival of a monk with an obituary scroll would be the
signal for a requiem to be held the next day ?
However, I am very much an amateur and would welcome professional feedback.
It is clear that families are commemorated in groups on the same day and
there is NO WAY that all could have died together - even in a plague year !
My best example is this from the necrology of the Paraclete:
16 April ...Robertus, miles de Nentouleio; Joanna et Elisa, uxores sue.
[Or could he have had two wives at the same time ? And been commemorated in
a respectable Abbey like the Paraclete ? :-)]
I too have searched the literature for some advice on this problem - a guide
to genealogists on how to interpret information in necrologies -, but
without success.
IIRC Patrick Geary's "Phantoms of remembrance" while about Necrologies, does
not tackle this problem at all.
If you are interested I can quote a number of examples of discrepancies in
dates when the same person is commemorated in two different Necrologies. The
explanation seems to me to lie in the time taken for news to travel.
But I would welcome help on this one.
BMC.
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