On Tue, 20 Aug 1996, CA. Muessig wrote:
> Louis of Anjou, bishop of Toulouse (1297): Grand-nephew of Louis IX of
> France. Pope John XXII canonized him at Avignon in 1317, at which ceremony
> Louis's mother was present. (Are there any other saints whose parents were
> present at their canonizations?)
Dionisia, mother of the hermit Galgano of Chiusdino (d. 1181), gave
evidence at the process for his canonisation in 1185, which I think is the
earliest formal canonisation process whose acta have survived. (Galgano,
however, was not formally canonised, so maybe it is better to keep your
mother away from that kind of thing.)
It's interesting, by the way, how many hagiographical topoi occur in
Dionisia's testimony about her son's life. When Arbesmann made his
comparative study of three vitae of Galgano, he seems not to have been
aware of the close similarities between the vitae and the depositions at
the canonisation process. He dismissed as hagiographical conventions
details which seem to be drawn directly from Dionisia's testimony: a
vision of St Michael with which hagiographers were supposed to have
clothed a "severe inner crisis"; the Roman pilgrimage, perhaps "a later
fiction" modelled on that of St Francis; the round hermitage, which
Arbesmann thinks an etiological story to explain the round church which
later rose over the grave; the omens, voices and miracles which he
considers merely "stock incidents of medieval hagiography", etc. Even if
conventional elements had shaped his mother's memory of the saint, they
were apparently not the conventions of hagiographers alone. Perhaps a warning
to make our scepticism more measured, or at least more careful and more
precisely focussed?
References, in case anyone is interested: R. Arbesmann, "The Three
Earliest _Vitae_ of St Galganus", in S. Prete, ed., _Didascaliae: Studies
in Honour of Anselm M. Albareda_, New York, 1961, 1-38. The acta are
edited by F. Schneider, "Die Einsiedler Galgan von Chiusdino und die
Anfa"nge von San Galgano", _Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen
Archiven und Bibliotheken_ 17 (1914-24): 61-77.
--
Paul Chandler || Yarra Theological Union
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