medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
We first hear of a Saint Sollemnis (also Solemnis, Solennis, etc.; in French, Solenne, Solein, Solen, etc.; d. late 5th or very early 6th cent.) from St. Gregory of Tours, who narrates (_In gloria confessorum_, 21) his inventio at a monastery at today's Luynes (Indre-et-Loire) followed by healing miracles at his tomb.
In apparently the eighth century a Sollemnis whom some identify with Gregory's saint of this name and whom others do not received a legendary Vita (BHL 7816) presenting him as a royally appointed bishop of Chartres who blesses the still pagan Clovis with the sign of the cross to insure that he will be able to conquer his enemies and who when Clovis returns victorious baptizes him, thoughtfully associating St. Remigius of Reims in the ceremony that he (Sollemnis) conducts. After a lengthy episcopate during which he cures a man born deaf, dumb, and blind and converts many to the faith through his preaching, Sollemnis dies on a day that according to which witness to the Vita one is reading is either 24. or 25. September. At his death it seems to some that they saw a dove fly out from his mouth. A thief proclaims Sollemnis a saint, a miracle occurs at Sollemnis' bier, and miracles continue at his tomb. Thus far this Vita.
How the body of Sollemnis of Chartres subsequently wound up at the future Luynes in the diocese of Tours is never explained. A rather evasive Translation account (BHL 7820) whose oldest witnesses are dated to the fourteenth century purports to recount Sollemnis' subsequent translation from the future Luynes back to the diocese of Chartres, where they are interred at Blois in a church of St. Peter. In the early eleventh century -- to judge from the archaeology of the site -- a small church at Blois believed to house Sollemnis' relics was expanded and converted into the church of a canonry dedicated to him, Blois' collégiale Saint-Solenne. The latter received modifications in the twelfth and fifteenth centuries and was rebuilt in 1544 and in 1678; in 1697, with the erection of the diocese of Blois, it changed its titulature along with its rank and became the cathédrale Saint-Louis.
In the later Middle Ages Sollemnis was often celebrated on 24. September. Today (25. September) is his day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Sollemnis of Chartres:
a) as depicted in a panel of an early thirteenth-century glass window (bay 138c; ca. 1205-1215; restored, 1881) in the nave of the basilique cathédrale Notre-Dame in Chartres:
http://therosewindow.com/pilot/Chartres/w138c-whole.htm
http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/Chartres/images/w138_a_0892.JPG
b) as portrayed in relief (at left, blessing Clovis) on the right pillar of the right portal of the early thirteenth-century south porch (by 1210) of the basilique cathédrale Notre-Dame in Chartres:
http://tinyurl.com/zxyfp6a
Best,
John Dillon
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