Dear Kate
Does a hagiographic motif of a missionary saint _working_ as a gardener have
any usefulness for you?
St Maurille, bishop and patron saint of Angers, was said to have gone into
voluntary exile as a missionary among the English, where he worked as a
gardener for a nobleman. Consequently he was regarded as a patron of gardeners,
and a scene from a fifteenth-century tapistery in Angers shows him at work in
the garden and then, dressed in clerical garb, presenting the fruits of his
labours to his employer and his wife (both shown wearing crowns).
[The cause of the exile was M's failure to give sacramental attention to a
dying child. On his return, M brings back to life the child, who is then called
Renatus and succeeds him as bishop.]
The motif seems to be from an early tenth-century Life, perhaps associated with
one or other translations of M and rebuilding of Angers cathedral in the ninth
and tenth centuries. Historically, M was bishop of Angers in the early 5th c.
References: Acta SS. Septembris IV; Vies des Saints XI, pp. 63-70; Biblioteca
Sanctorum 9.
Best wishes
Graham Jones
Leicester
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Dr Graham Jones
Leverhulme Special Research Fellow
University of Leicester
Department of English Local History
Marc Fitch House
5 Salisbury Road
Leicester LE1 7QR
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)116-252-2765 (direct)
252-2762 (dept.)
e-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.le.ac.uk/elh/grj1/
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> > Dear list-members, especially the hagiography experts among you...>>Iwonderif you could help me by either pointing me in the right > direction
forreferences, or by disabusing me of my half-memory that one> of the typical
ways of describing the saint is as a kind of spiritual> horticulturalist? *cultor dei* is the phrase that is haunting me, but
> some latinate bit of my subconscious might have made that up. I'm
> particularly interested in references to patristic texts and
> early medieval saints' lives, but any information would be helpful.
> Imagery of an organic nature associated with the saint, with evangelical
> activity or with narratives of conversion is the kind of
> thing I'm after - there seems to be a lot of in C8 Northumbrian
> hagiography, which is what has sparked my interest. Here's a brief
> example of the kind of thing I mean...
>
> Vir quoque temporibus sanctus fulgebat in illis,
> angelicam Cuthbertus agens in corpore vitam...
> ...doctor apostolicus fuit hinc et presbyter almus,
> et loca fructiferis implens inculta virectis
> fontibus aeternis sitientia prata rigebat;
> divina et cunctos firmans virtue sequaces
> dogmatis aetherei radios spargebat ubique
> discutiens tenenbras errorum luce serena
>
> Another holy man shone at that time, Cuthbert, who led the life of an
> angel while still on this earth...he was a teacher of the gospel and an
> holy priest, filling the wastelands with flowering greenness, watering
> the dry meadows with eternal fountains and strengthening all his
> followers in virtue; he spread everywhere the rays of heavenly teaching,
> dispelling the shades of error with serene light.
>
> Alcuin: Versus de Patribus,Regibus et Sanctis Euboricensis Ecclesiae,
> ll. 646...56, ed. P Godman (Oxford, 1982)
>
> Thank you in advance for your help.
>
> Kate Rambridge
> University of Bristol
>
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