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; in Latin, Martialis and Marcialis) 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. Alpinianus and Austriclinianus) 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 legendary Vitae making him a relative of St. Peter who had been present at 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. Alpinianus. Thus far the Vitae.
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
M. as depicted (lower right) on a Limousin châsse 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'Evêché:
http://www.premiumwanadoo.com/sahl/document.htm
M.'s relics (and V.'s) now reside in Limoges' église Saint-Michel des Lions. Here's a view of his altar-tomb there:
http://tinyurl.com/ntnco7
Subordinate pages on M.'s nineteenth-century châsse and head reliquary are accessible from here:
http://site.voila.fr/confrerie.st.martial
M. being baptized by St. Peter (Christ looking on) as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century collection of French-language saint's Lives illustrated by the Fauvel Master (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 183, fol. 131r):
http://tinyurl.com/2dlembp
M. consecrating Valeria as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century (ca. 1326-1350) collection of French-language saint's Lives (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 185, fol. 134r):
http://tinyurl.com/yhqogug
M. exorcising a demon from the daughter of the count of Toul as depicted in an earlier fifteenth-century (ca. 1414) breviary for the Use of Paris (Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2, fol. 218v):
http://tinyurl.com/249ebv5
Scenes of M.'s mission as depicted in a later fifteenth-century copy (1463) of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 50, fol. 324r):
http://tinyurl.com/232ke8r
M. receiving a loaf from Jesus at the Multiplication of the Loaves as depicted in a late fifteenth-century (after 1481) breviary of the Use of Langres (Chaumont, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 33, fol. 291v):
http://tinyurl.com/2ek4p38
An illustrated, French-language page on the abbaye Saint-Martial at Limoges:
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/grandmont/Saint_Martial.html
Two illustrated, French-language pages on the fourth(?)- to eighth-century crypte Saint-Martial at Limoges, occupying part of a late antique necropolis and long serving as the crypt of the abbey's now vanished church (consecrated, 1028):
http://www.eveha.fr/node/10
http://tinyurl.com/56hwdj
The sarcophagi shown here are sometimes said to be those of Sts. Alpinianus and Austriclinianus:
http://tinyurl.com/63937w
Near the abbey was Limoges' Gallo-Roman bridge over the Vienne. This was destroyed in 1181 or 1182 and was replaced on the same piers early in the thirteenth century by what quickly became known as the pont Saint-Martial. The Structurae page of views of this bridge is here:
http://tinyurl.com/mnq2wd
Some larger views:
http://tinyurl.com/lvlb3n
http://tinyurl.com/nxbj4l
http://tinyurl.com/25awhjn
A French-language account and some virtual panoramas of the bridge are here:
http://www.limoges360.com/place-41.php
A thirteenth-century cross that once stood on the bridge itself:
http://tinyurl.com/2cbhznp
Herewith a look at some of the surviving medieval dedications to M. in today's southern France (many of these churches once belonged to priories of the abbey):
a) Two exterior views of the originally ninth(?)- to fourteenth-century église Saint-Martial at Saint-Martial-d'Artenset (Dordogne):
http://tinyurl.com/km9mhs
http://tinyurl.com/lw4xxt
b) An exterior view and two interior ones of M.'s originally twelfth-century church at Saint-Martial (Gard):
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/12531088.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/muonns
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/185/428206631_f1a879f13a_o.jpg
c) An exterior view of M.'s originally twelfth-century church at Saint-Martial-de-Gimel (Corrèze):
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/brive2/st%20martialgimel
d) 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
e) Two exterior views of the originally twelfth-century église Saint-Martial at Chalais (Charente):
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chalais_eg.JPG
http://tinyurl.com/2v7myrz
f) Exterior views of the originally twelfth-century église Saint-Martial at Saint-Martial-de-Mirambeau (Charente Maritime):
http://tinyurl.com/nlnl6o
http://tinyurl.com/ld3o7z
http://tinyurl.com/lkdewz
http://tinyurl.com/lyarrw
http://tinyurl.com/m5zw54
g) A page of exterior and interior views of the originally twelfth-century and much rebuilt église Saint-Martial at Saint-Martial-sur-le-Né (Charente Maritime):
http://tinyurl.com/n7ajah
h) An exterior view of the originally twelfth-century église Saint-Martial-Laborie at Cherveix-Cubas (Dordogne):
http://tinyurl.com/nmdv4p
i) 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 exterior view:
http://tinyurl.com/3p6b78
The Structurae page on this church (with five views):
http://tinyurl.com/53p3cc
j) Exterior views of the originally twelfth- to fifteenth-century église Saint-Martial at Arnac-la-Poste (Haute-Vienne):
http://tinyurl.com/2373g49
http://tinyurl.com/2fp7qu3
http://tinyurl.com/286m93q
http://tinyurl.com/274ooc3
k) A page of expandable exterior and interior views of the originally late twelfth-/early thirteenth- to late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century église Saint-Martial at Lestards (Corrèze), said to be the only medieval church in France to have preserved its thatch roof:
http://tinyurl.com/5wb5ta
l) The Structurae page (with three views) on the originally fourteenth-century église Saint-Martial at Rudelle (Lot):
http://tinyurl.com/5228bw
m) 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
n) The Structurae page (with seven views of the building) 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, beginning with a closely posthumous Vita ascribed to Peter, abbot of Vangadizza (BHL 8031 ff.), 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 supporter 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.
An image of L. on one of his coins (specimen in the British Museum):
http://tinyurl.com/3k66dc
L. as depicted in the Hungarian _Chronicon Pictum_ of 1360:
http://tinyurl.com/5xt5g5
L. in a fresco of 1419 in 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
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
L.'s 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:
http://www.gyor.hu/index.php?hlid=73
5) Otto of Bamberg (d. 1139). An influential imperial servant and the apostle of Pomerania, O. was named bishop of Bamberg by Henry IV in 1102; previously he had directed the building of the cathedral of Speyer (the burial church of the Salian emperors) and, just prior to his investiture, had been Henry's chancellor. In 1106 O. was consecrated bishop by Paschal II at Anagni. He rebuilt Bamberg's cathedral (it had been badly damaged by a late eleventh-century fire), founded numerous monasteries, negotiated successfully between Henry V and the papacy in a series of missions and meetings leading up to the Concordat of Worms (1122), acted decisively to avoid famine in his diocese after a crop loss in 1125, and led evangelizing missions in Pomerania in 1124/25 and 1128.
O. is buried in Bamberg's abbey church of St. Michael. He has a closely posthumous Vita by a monk of Prüfening, one of his foundations, (BHL 6394) and two Vitae written in the next generation by monks of St. Michael's in Bamberg, Ebo (BHL 6395) and Herbord (BHL 6397). In addition to detailing his missionary work these emphasize the personal asceticism of this rich and powerful bishop and ascribe various miracles to him. O. was canonized in 1189. Today is his _dies natalis_ and his day of commemoration in the "new" RM (prior to 2001 the RM commemorated him on 2. July). In German dioceses he is celebrated on 30. September; in the diocese of Szczecin-Kamień he is celebrated on 1. October. Here's an English-language page of views of Pomeranian locations associated with O.:
http://www.baltic-lagoon.net/3373.html
O.'s fourteenth-century tomb (1340) in Bamberg's St. Michaelskirche:
http://tinyurl.com/l9c65p
O. reclining on the tomb's cover:
http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Fotos/Otto_von_Bamberg.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/kvkreu
Best,
John Dillon
(last year's post revised)
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