medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (31. October) is the feast day of:
Quintinus of Vermand (d. late 3d cent., supposedly). Q. (Quintin, Quentin) is the martyr of today's St-Quentin in Picardy, where his cult is already recorded by Gregory of Tours in the sixth century. The earliest of his many legendary Passiones (BHL 6999-7012) is commonly dated to the eighth century. According to this account, he was cruelly tortured and then decapitated at 'Agusta Veromandorum' (i.e. Augusta Viromanduorum, a Roman-period predecessor of St-Quentin) on the orders of a Roman official under Maximian. His body was secretly deposited in the river Somme, where it remained for about fifty-five years. Subsequent accounts relate the miraculous recovery and burial of Q.'s still fleshy head and body, the translation of Q.'s remains over a century later to a basilica where their location was in time been forgotten, and their rediscovery by St. Eligius in the seventh century. You can read about the latter event in Jo Ann McNamara's English-language translation of
Dado of Rouen's Life of St. Eligius (scroll down to II, 6):
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/eligius.htm
And an illustrated, French-language summary of Q.'s legend is here:
http://stqvillhist.free.fr/068Legende.htm
Q.'s cult spread widely in Francia. Its chief monument today is the twelfth- and (chiefly) thirteenth-century formerly collegiate church dedicated to him at St-Quentin. A page of views is here:
http://www.gargouilles.be/st-quentin-bas/a.htm
Multiple views (seven pages):
http://www.gargouilles.be/st-quentin-bas/images1/imgcol/contact_1.htm
Other views:
http://tinyurl.com/y5943q
http://tinyurl.com/yxdl94
http://www.festivaldescathedrales.com/files/salles/stquentin.jpg
Some views of Q.'s tomb and of his head and hand reliquaries (the latter in cases that no loger exist) are here:
http://stqvillhist.free.fr/071Tombeau.htm
For other views of these reliquaries, along with much other information on the church and the cult, see Ellen M. Shortell, "Dismembering Saint Quentin: Gothic Architecture and the Display of Relics", _Gesta_ 36 (1997), 32-47.
Here's a view of Q.'s originally later twelfth-century church at Saint-Quentin-de-Chalais (Charente), Poitou-Charente:
http://www.chalais.net/alentours_photos/saint_quentin.jpg
Q.'s church at Soumont-Saint-Quentin (Calvados), Normandy:
English-language account:
http://tinyurl.com/y68ga7
Page of views:
http://tinyurl.com/y97wxv
A church dedicated to Q. is first attested at Mainz from 815. Here's an illustrated, German-language account of his present church there (1288-1330; extensive damage from Allied bombing in 1942; restoration completed, 1996):
http://tinyurl.com/ybzb25
Views:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3d3f
http://www.mainz-bingen-foto.de/pages/MZ-Mitte/page-0004.html
http://tinyurl.com/yxl5h4
Tomorrow (1. November) this church will be the scene of a musical performance based on one of Q.'s Passiones:
http://www.dompfarrei-mainz.de/?p=253
Best,
John Dillon
PS: Q. is called "of Vermand" in accordance with the belief that St-Quentin's present _canton_ of that name (some twelve kilometers way from the city center) occupies the site of Augusta Viromanduorum. For an illustrated, multi-page, French-language presentation of what's there, see:
http://tinyurl.com/yxo9nn
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