medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Wednesday, January 27, 2010, at 7:43 pm, Jim Bugslag wrote, quoting me:
> >
> >5) Gilduin (d. 1077). G. is a saint of the Benedictine abbey of
> Saint-Père (Saint-Pierre) at Chartres, now often called
> Saint-Père/Pierre-en-Vallée. According to his Vita by a monk of that
> house (BHL 3545), he was a highly born Breton noble...
> >On his return journey G. detoured first to the Orléanais to visit his
> mother's family and then to Chartres on pilgrimage. At Chartres his
> sanctity was revealed when he expelled a devil. Struck down by a
> fever, G. practiced self-mortification all the same. Foreseeing his
> approaching death and kissing the Virgin's tunic, he commended himself
> to Mary and the saints in the cathedral. G. died on this day at
> Saint-Père and was buried in a stone chamber beneath the choir of the
> abbey church. Miracles were reported at his grave and his hair shirt,
> his tunic, and his dalmatic became precious relics. Thus far this Vita.
> >
> >
> There seems to have been quite a close Breton connection at Chartres
> during the Middle Ages. In the 13th century, there was a "Breton
> quarter" in the town, and there was a whole slew of relics of Breton
> saints in the cathedral, including those of St Turiaf, St Tugdual and
> St Piat, although the latter quite early got confused with a more
> famous St Piat from northern France. Most of these relics were
> reputed to have arrived at Chartres during the Norman invasions, but
> I've never quite understood why Chartres should have this strong
> Breton connection, that certainly transcended the Norman period. I
> would be interested to know the source for Gilduin's arrival at
> Chartres being "on pilgrimage".
As "on pilgrimage" was part of a narration that began "According to his Vita" and that ended with "Thus far this Vita", chances are that the source is the Vita. In the text of it that's printed in the AA.SS., after G. had been in the Orléanais for a while (and had already become seriously ill) _Transacto aliquanto tempore, cum plurima propinquorum nobilitate Carnotum, sicut in votis habebat, vel equorum, vel quolibet alio vehiculo deuectus, ecclesiam beatissimæ semper Virginis Dei a genitricis Mariæ oraturus intrauit_. That the Vita has him go on pilgrimage is an inference from _sicut in votis habebat_.
That said, I was rushing after many delays to meet a self-imposed deadline (midnight GMT) for sending out this daily post and through inadvertence misrepresented the Vita on these points: 1) in the Vita the encounter with the demon occurs before G. even gets to Orléans; 2) G.'s fatal illness begins to afflict him as he is nearing the Orléanais; 3) as Jim has guessed, G. kisses the châsse containing the Virgin's Tunic, not the relic itself (_Capsam præcipue, in qua eiusdem Dominæ nostræ pretiosissimam subtegmen contineri creditur, quod etiam multis sæpe probatum esse constat miraculis, sæpius deosculatus_).
Best again,
JD
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