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 Saint-Quentin (Aisne) 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, Q. was cruelly tortured and then decapitated at 'Agusta Veromandorum' (i.e. Augusta Viromanduorum, a Roman-period predecessor of Saint-Quentin) on the orders of a Roman official under Maximian. His body was then 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.html
And an illustrated, French-language summary of Q.'s legend is here:
http://stqvillhist.free.fr/068Legende.htm
Parenthesis: One thing Dado does not tell us is how St. Eligius (Éloi) advised Dagobert I on matters pertaining to the king's wardrobe (or perhaps he did but it's in one of the lacunae). For that, one has to go to the song "Le bon roi Dagobert":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_bon_roi_Dagobert_%28song%29
Q. is called "of Vermand" in accordance with the belief that Saint-Quentin's present _canton_ of that name (some twelve kilometers distant from the city center) occupies the site of Augusta Viromanduorum.
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 Saint-Quentin:
http://perso.orange.fr/jean-claude.gallochat/new1/new2.htm
http://tinyurl.com/259g72
http://scaramouche.free.fr/basilique001.htm
http://tinyurl.com/23kpqt
http://tinyurl.com/y5943q
http://tinyurl.com/yognre
http://tinyurl.com/yxdl94
http://www.saint-evode.com/images/1.accueil/basquentin.jpg
http://www.festivaldescathedrales.com/files/salles/stquentin.jpg
Some views of its pavement labyrinth:
http://tinyurl.com/ysgnbq
Views of Q.'s tomb and of his head and hand reliquaries (the latter in cases that no longer 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 late twelfth-/fifteenth-century church at Doornik/Tournai in Belgian Hainaut can be seen just above center in this aerial view (the large church below it is the cathedral):
http://tinyurl.com/yr65zg
Other views:
http://tinyurl.com/2r3c8l
http://www.archeologia.be/Tournai-66.html
http://home.scarlet.be/~pin31008/didier.vdk/g_egl26.jpg
Q.'s thirteenth-/fourteenth-century church at Soumont-Saint-Quentin (Calvados), Normandy (replacing one consecrated in 1190):
English-language account:
http://tinyurl.com/y68ga7
Distance view:
http://www.fleurysien.com/communes/communes/soumont.php
Page of views of the originally late twelfth-century belltower:
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
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post revised)
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