medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
According to his largely legendary, elegantly written Vita (BHL 4931), Lifardus (d. ca. 570; also Lifart, Lifhard, Lifhart, Liphard, Liphart, Lyphard, etc.) came from a distinguished family of Orléans, where he served for many years as a just and honorable judge. At the age of forty-eight he was inspired to become a cleric and was forthwith ordained deacon by his bishop. Lifardus then retired with his disciple St. Urbitius to the hill of Meung and there founded a monastery, where he lived very ascetically and where through prayer and the application of his staff he caused the death of a huge, fire-breathing serpent that had been terrifying the locals. He was ordained priest by the bishop of Orléans, operated miracles, saw the soul of abbot St. Theodemir of Micy being carried up to heaven, oversaw the latter's obsequies and gave Micy his disciple St. Maximinus (in French, St. Mesmin) to be its abbot. Lifardus died at the age of 73, was buried by the bishop of Orléans (who erected new buildings at the monastery), and was succeeded by St. Urbitius. Thus far his Vita, which seems to have been written in the ninth century.
In 1068 Lifardus' monastery was converted to a canonry; in 1104 he was accorded an Elevatio in its church, which at this time was dedicated to him. He is the traditional patron saint of Meung-sur-Loire (Loiret), of Bucy-Saint-Liphard (Loiret), of Oinville-Saint-Liphard (Eure-et-Loir), and of Terminiers (Eure-et-Loir), all in the diocese of Orléans, of Saint-Lyphard (Loire-Atlantique) in the diocese of Nantes, and, in the diocese of Paris, of Villetaneuse (Seine-Saint-Denis), where a succession of churches dedicated to him goes back to the thirteenth century. In Jean de Meun(g)'s part (ca. 1275) of the _Roman de la Rose_, the Old Woman swears by Lifardus at line 13160: "par saint Lifart de Meün!" Today is Lifardus' day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Lifardus of Meung-sur-Loire:
a) as depicted (at far right; slaying the dragon) in the earlier fourteenth-century grisaille panels (1328) in the lower registers of the Saint-Apollinaire Window (bay 36) in the basilique cathédrale Notre-Dame in Chartres:
http://tinyurl.com/6d54rd
b) as depicted (holding the dragon on a leash) by Jean Bourdichon in the early sixteenth-century _Grandes Heures d'Anne de Bretagne_ (ca. 1503-1508; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 9474, fol. 185v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52500984v/f379.item.zoom
Best,
John Dillon
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