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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture In the tradition of Reims Nicasius (in French, Nicaise) was its eleventh bishop. What little is known about him comes from the _Historia Remensis ecclesiae_ of Flodoard of Reims (d. 966; the passage in question is at 1. 6). According to Flodoard, Nicasius built a new cathedral dedicated to the BVM, replacing one that had been dedicated to the Holy Apostles. The change in titulature was more recent than that and the usual assumption is that Flodoard, aware that there had been a change, projected it back in time to the traditional builder of the cathedral he knew as that of the BVM. Still according to Flodoard, when during the Vandal invasion of Gaul (early fifth century) Reims came under siege, Nicasius persuaded its inhabitants to accept as martyrdom the fate they were expecting at the hands of the enemy. When the raging pagans did enter the city they found Nicasius and his sister Eutropia singing hymns before the cathedral; Nicasius was decapitated forthwith. Frodoard next relates a pious story for which he does not himself vouch. As the fatal blow was about to descend upon Nicasius, the bishop uttered the beginning of Psalm 118, verse 25, _Adhaesit pavimento anima mea_ (some modern editions read _pulveri_ instead of _pavimento_). As it was falling his severed head completed the verse: _vivifica me secundum verbum tuum_. Returning to his own version of events, Frodoard says that Eutropia's beauty had caused her to be spared and, as it were, reserved for the pagans to fight over (a nicely arch way of putting things). But she attacked Nicasius' killer, slapping his face so hard that by divine force his eyes fell out, and achieved martyrdom by having her throat cut. Others of the clergy and the laity joined Nicasius and Eutropia in their fate; named as representatives of these bodies are Florentius the deacon and blessed Jocundus. When the barbarians' fury had passed they were seized with a great fear of divine retribution, threw away their booty, and fled the city. Nicasius and Eutropia were buried in a church in the cemetery of St. Agricola; miracles were reported at their graves. St. Remigius was in the habit of spending time in their company. Thus far Flodoard, whose strikingly well written and richly meaningful narrative strongly influenced subsequent medieval constructions of these saints. Some modern scholars have proposed, not altogether persuasively, that the siege in question actually occurred during the Hunnic invasion of 451. In 1060 the old basilica of St. Agricola in which Nicasius and Eutropia reposed was replaced by a monastic church dedicated to Nicasius. That in turn was replaced in the thirteenth century by a new church of the same dedication. That too is gone except for some underground portions preserved in Taittinger's Caves et crayères de Saint Nicaise, some views of which are here: http://download.viamichelin.com/images/gv/FRA5100454_1.jpg http://ee.france.fr/sites/default/files/taittinger2.jpg http://tinyurl.com/gtx7puq Throughout most of the thirteenth century and into the fourteenth Reims rebuilt its cathédrale Notre-Dame. Nicasius and Eutropia each have an ambulatory chapel there; both are represented in the building's sculptural programmes. Here, reading from the right, are scenes of Nicasius' martyrdom, with a distraught Eutropia looking on, and of his placing his head upon an altar, as portrayed in the lowest register of the tympanum of the north facade's central portal (Portal of Saints): http://kunsthistorie.com/galleri/albums/Frankrike/Reims/Reims%20%20039.jpg The central figure in the left-hand embrasure below is often identified as Nicasius, though he could instead be Saint Dionysius / Denis of Paris. The figure to his left is often identified as Eutropia: http://tinyurl.com/jgg55sc In the west facade, the central figure in the central door's left-hand embrasure lacks a cranium and also is often identified as Nicasius: http://catreims.free.fr/images/pho004.jpg The three facing figures on the right-hand embrasure have been hesitantly identified as Eutropia and the companions Florentius and Jocundus: http://catreims.free.fr/images/pho008.jpg In its revision of 2001 the Roman Martyrology altered its entry for Nicasius, Eutropia, and companions to one for Nicasius alone, naming Eutropia, Florentius, and Jocundus in the elogium but not including them in the formula of commemoration. Eutropia, Florentius, and Jocundus are still venerated in the archdiocese of Reims. Further period-pertinent images of Nicasius of Reims and companions: a) as depicted (Nicasius' martyrdom; Eutropia's martyrdom) in two earlier thirteenth-century glass window panels, said to have come from a chapel of the cathédrale Saint-Gervais-et-Saint-Protais in Soissons, and now in the Louvre: http://ndoduc.free.fr/vitraux/htm7601/ci_Louvre_StNicaise.php b) as depicted in a later thirteenth-century missal for the Use of the abbaye Saint-Nicaise at Reims, depicting his decapitation (Reims, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 230): 1) Nicasius' martyrdom (fol. 108v): http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_098554-p.jpg 2) Nicasius placing his head on an altar (fol. 126v): http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_098558-p.jpg c) as depicted (Nicasius places his head on an altar; Eutropia scratches out his murderer's eyes) in the late thirteenth-century Livre d'images de Madame Marie (ca. 1285-1290; Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 16251, fol. 79r): http://tinyurl.com/ycp4oxg d) as depicted (Nicasius holding his severed cranium) in the mid- to later fourteenth-century Breviary of Charles V (betw. 1347 and 1380; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 1052, fol. 296v): http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84525491/f602.item.zoom e) as depicted (Nicasius' martyrdom) in an early fifteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay followed by the _Festes nouvelles_ attributed to Jean Golein (ca. 1401-1425; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 242, fol. 291r): http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8426005j/f599.item.zoom f) as depicted (Nicasius at left, about to be decapitated) in a mid-fifteenth-century copy of Giovanni Colonna's _Mare historiarum_ (betw. 1447 and 1455; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 4915, fol. 284r): http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000905v/f637.item.zoom g) as depicted (Nicasius and companions; martyrdom) in a later fifteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1470; Mâcon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 3, fol. 135v): http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_095347-p.jpg Best, John Dillon ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion