medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (30. June) is the feast day of:
1) Martial of Limoges (d. later 3d cent.?). M. (also, esp. in Spanish, Marcial) is the protobishop of Limoges. Our first written evidence of his existence comes from St. Gregory of Tours in the later sixth century, who tells us that M. was a member of the group of missionaries sent to Gaul from Rome in the third century that also included Sts. Saturninus of Toulouse, Trophimus of Arles, and Dionysius (Denys) of Paris. Together with two priests of eastern origin (Sts. Alpinian and Austriclinian) he evangelized the Limousin. His extramural tomb became a cult site for pilgrims as well as townspeople. In the early Middle Ages the abbey of Saint-Martial arose on the site.
In the late ninth or early tenth century and again towards the beginning of the eleventh M. received Vitae making him a relative of St. Peter present for various lifetime miracles of Christ. After the Ascension M. followed Peter to Antioch on the Orontes where he met his aforementioned companions and after proceeding to Rome was sent with them by Peter to evangelize in Gaul. Arriving at Limoges, M. converted the population. One of those converted was a young virgin named Valeria who was betrothed to the duke of Aquitaine and who now made a vow of chastity. The enraged duke had V. decapitated and M. erected a church over her tomb. When M. died he was buried by his successor, St. Alpinian.
The eleventh-century historian and forger Adémar of Chabannes, a monk of Saint-Martial, was a major proponent of M.'s apostolicity. Richard Landes, whose book on Adémar requires no introduction to this list, has a brief and vividly written overview here:
http://www.mille.org/people/rlpages/ademar-story.html
Belief in M.'s apostolic status lasted right through the Middle Ages. See the entry for today in this later fifteenth-century calendar for the Use of Limoges as transcribed and put on the Web by Erik Drigsdahl:
http://www.chd.dk/cals/limogeskal.html
Here's M. as depicted (lower right) on a Limousin chasse of ca. 1150 from the church of Saint-Martial, Champagnat (Creuse) and now in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art:
http://tinyurl.com/5xh6kc
The image here is greatly expandable:
http://tinyurl.com/3zt7fk
At the bottom of this page is a view of a later thirteenth-century reliquary once shared by M. and by St. Valeria and now in Limoges' musée municipal de l'Evęché:
http://www.premiumwanadoo.com/sahl/document.htm
M.'s relics (and V.'s) now reside in Limoges' church of Saint-Michel des Lions. Subordinate pages on his nineteenth-century châsse and head reliquary are accessible from here:
http://site.voila.fr/confrerie.st.martial
Herewith a look at some of the many surviving medieval dedications to M. in today's southern France:
Two illustrated, French-language pages on the fourth(?)- to eighth-century crypte Saint-Martial at Limoges, occupying part of a late antique neccropolis and long serving as the crypt of the now vanished church (consecrated, 1028) of Limoges' abbey dedicated to M:
http://www.eveha.fr/node/10
http://tinyurl.com/56hwdj
The sarcophagi shown here are sometimes said to be those of Sts. Alpinian and Austriclinian:
http://tinyurl.com/63937w
Two interior views of M.'s originally twelfth-century church at Saint-Martial (Gard) in Languedoc:
http://tinyurl.com/65gc8d
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ursus_steelus/428206631/
The church occupies the highest point in a crowded village of narrow streets. These are the best exterior views that I could find:
http://tinyurl.com/4fe6rq
http://www.lesnabieres.fr/StMartial.JPG
A view of M.'s originally twelfth-century church at Saint-Martial-de-Gimel (Corrčze):
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/brive2/st%20martialgimel
A page of expandable exterior views of the originally twelfth-century église Saint-Martial at Assas (Hérault):
http://www.decouverte34.com/Eglise-Saint-Martial-Assas
Four larger expandable views are here:
http://tinyurl.com/6j266l
Views of the originally twelfth-century église Saint-Martial at at Chalais (Charente):
http://tinyurl.com/4okzsu
http://tinyurl.com/4qxuhf
A page of expandable views of the originally late eleventh- or twelfth- to fourteenth-century église Saint-Martial at Paunat (Dordogne):
http://www.romanes.com/Paunat/
Another view:
http://tinyurl.com/3p6b78
The Structurae page on this church (with five views):
http://tinyurl.com/53p3cc
A page of expandable views of the originally late twelfth-/early thirteenth- to late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century église Saint-Martial at Lestards (Corrčze), said to be the only medieval church in France to have preserved its thatch roof:
http://tinyurl.com/5wb5ta
The Structurae page on the originally fourteenth-century église Saint-Martial at Rudelle (Lot):
http://tinyurl.com/5228bw
The chapelle de Saint-Martial (chapelle du Tinel) in the Palace of the Popes at Avignon, frescoed by Matteo Giovannetti of Viterbo in 1344-45 with scenes from M.'s life and miracles:
A multi-page, French language site with expandable views:
http://tinyurl.com/6r6ctc
Other views
http://www.palais-des-papes.com/pages/saintmartial.html
http://tinyurl.com/3gtoqq
http://tinyurl.com/4ugbp6
http://tinyurl.com/4o66xk
http://tinyurl.com/4475fp
The Structurae page on the late fourteenth-/early fifteenth-century temple Saint-Martial at Avignon:
http://tinyurl.com/3zolo2
Other views:
http://tinyurl.com/4bnazq
http://tinyurl.com/4ztcvu
http://tinyurl.com/4eyr77
http://tinyurl.com/4spr62
M.'s cult traveled widely in Spain. Herewith an illustrated, Spanish-language page on the late eleventh- or early twelfth-century ermita de San Marcial near Salinas de Sin (Huesca):
http://tinyurl.com/5t5kdk
Two other views:
http://usuarios.lycos.es/gistain/sanmarcialher.jpg
http://usuarios.lycos.es/gistain/sanmarcial1.jpg
2) Bertrand of Le Mans (d. ca. 623). B. (in Latin, Bertichramnus) is said to have come from a wealthy family in the vicinity of Rouen, to have received the tonsure at Tours, and to have been ordained priest at Paris, where St. Germanus made him archdeacon. In 568 he was named bishop of Le Mans. An adherent of the Neustrian king Clothar II, B. was twice deprived of his see and was imprisoned at least once by the Austrasian king Theudebert. He regained his see permanently in 613. B. enriched his diocese, founded monasteries, and in the year 616 dictated a will that one can still read in the MGH.
Today is B.'s _dies natalis_. His remains repose in the crypt of Le Mans' église de la Couture:
http://tinyurl.com/2alf4m
http://tinyurl.com/2z5fke
where a cloth that was once used to wrap them is preserved under the name of le suaire de St Bertrand ('St. Bertrand's sudarium').
3) Theobald of Provins (d. 1066). T. was a scion of the counts of Champagne who became a Camaldolese saint. According to the traditions of this Order, at the age of twenty he opted for a life of rural asceticism. Taking with him his squire Walter (even desert fathers have needs, no?), he retreated into the Ardennes, where the two of them eked out a living by begging and by making and selling charcoal. T. attracted other followers, got too popular once he had caused a spring to emerge to slake his companions' thirst, and moved on to the woods of Pettingen in today's Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, where he hired himself out to a peasant who for two years treated him and Walter very brutally.
T. next went on pilgrimage to Compostela and then settled in the diocese of Trier. His father having discovered his whereabouts, T. fled to Italy to avoid a reconciliation and ultimately settled in the territory of Vicenza. The faithful Walter died there within a few years but T. lingered on to the ripe old age of thirty-three, when, having finally reconciled with his parents. he succumbed to a disease that was called leprosy. His cult was immediate and in 1073 Alexander II proclaimed him a saint. T.'s relics are preserved in the abbey of Polesine in today's Rovigo province of the Veneto.
4) Ladislas of Hungary (d. 1095). L. (in Hungarian, László) was Hungary's first king of that name. He came to power in 1077 and spent much if his reign in enlarging his kingdom and in quelling internal opposition. A strong backer of Christianity, he did much to strengthen the position of the church in his country. He also secured the canonization of Hungary's first five saints. An ally of Gregory VII against Henry IV of Germany and a renowned warrior who defeated the Cumans in 1089, L. had agreed to be a leader of the First Crusade but died before it was called. He was canonized in 1192.
Here's an image of L. from one of his coins (specimen in the British Museum):
http://tinyurl.com/3k66dc
Here's L. as depicted in the Hungarian _Chronicon Pictum_ of 1360:
http://tinyurl.com/5xt5g5
And here he is in a fresco of 1419 from the fortified Unitarian church at Dârjiu (Hungarian: Székelyderzs) in today's Romania:
http://mek.oszk.hu/02100/02109/html/img/sz-012.jpg
http://www.ongo.hu/index.php?t=851&id=132131
Expandable views of other scenes from this fresco cycle of L.'s legendary conflict with the Cuman raider who had abducted a Hungarian girl are here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A2rjiu
Images of other treatments of this legend are here:
http://groups.msn.com/20ARPADVEZERCscs/sztlszlkp.msnw
L.'s relics are in the Héderváry Chapel of the Basilica at Györ:
http://www.gyor.hu/adatok/bazilika-n.jpg
http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01949/html/index1421.html
Views of his fifteenth-century reliquary bust there:
http://www.gyor.hu/adatok/szentlaszlo.jpg
http://mek.oszk.hu/01800/01885/html/index926.html
http://tinyurl.com/6324zr
An English-language account of the Basilica and of the reliquary bust is here:
http://www.gyor.hu/index.php?hlid=73
Best,
John Dillon
(Martial of Limoges, Bertrand of Le Mans, and Theobald of Provins revised from last year's post)
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