medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: John Dillon <[log in to unmask]>
> 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.
and, of course, it was never, ever called "Saint Père" in the m.a.
Gilduin's vita speaks of it as "S. Petri monasterium."
the account of his "inventio" and miracles (cited below) refers to the place
as "...in Carnotensi sanctorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli ccenobio congregati
ad serviendum Deo monachi..."
also common in the 11th-13th sources are some variants on the formula
"monasterii S. Petri in Vallea," the "Vallea" being, of course, the valley of
the Eure, below the scarp on which the cathedral and Haute Ville are situated
(and the collegial of St. John, in the "valley," on the opposite side of the
city, is also styled in the documents as "in Vallea").
>According to his Vita by a monk of that house (BHL 3545),
Acta Sanctorum, Jan. II, XXVII. IANVARII. Pp. 291-3 (i can send a copy to
anyone who wants one.)
>he was a highly born Breton noble... On his return journey G. detoured first
to the Orléanais to visit his mother's family
interesting that his mother was from the Orléanais --that the "Breton
influence" spread that far.
>and then to Chartres on pilgrimage.
i believe that Jim's questioning of the source speaking of a "pilgrimage" here
is due to some dispute amongst chartrainners about when the "pilgrimage" to
Chartres actually got going.
i think that Jim favors a relatively late date.
myself, i'm agnostic on the question.
>G. died on this day at Saint-Père and was buried in a stone chamber beneath
the choir of the abbey church.
does the Vita speak of a "stone chamber"?
maybe i'm not reading closely enough:
Sepultus vero fuit VI. Kalendas Februarij in medio ecclesiæ nostræ choro, &
tanto, vt dictum est, [honorifice sepelitur.] studio atque honorificentia
humata fuerunt ipsius sacratissima membra, vt circa ea profundiore terræ loco
erecta fuerit non paruæ amplitudinis saxea camera.
> G.'s remains are reported to have been accorded an Elevatio in 1165.
[l’abbé M. Bulteau?], “Historia Inventionis et Miraculorum S. Gilduini,
uno cum prologo, nunc primum edidta,” Analecta bollandiana, I, 1882, pp.
149-177.
available on Googlebooks (or from me):
http://tinyurl.com/ylk6zr4
>In 1793, one reads, they were hidden in the church of Champhol (Eure-et-Loir)
site of a priory of St. Peter's from the middle of the 11th c. (given to the
abbey by the Leves family, from which Bishops Godfrey [II] and Goslen of the
first half of the 12th c. hailed).
the little church of Champhol, with its quite huge spire,
http://www.communes.com/images/orig/centre/eure-et-loir/champhol_28300/Champhol_34410_L-eglise.jpg
is the one on the plain across the valley of the Eure which is visible from
the Bishops' "garden" off the east end of the cathedral.
small as it is, it preserves a rather nice 11th c. hemicycle apse above a
small crypt, and a very curious, very simple doorway (now bouchée) on the
north side of the exterior of the nave --precious survivals of the 11th c. in
a region which doesn't have many left.
>to prevent their profanation in the Revolution; there they were forgotten
until their discovery after a bombing in 1944.
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/forcedlanding/champhol.jpg
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/forcedlanding/champhol2.jpg
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/forcedlanding/champhol1.jpg
Champhol, up on the plain of the Beauce, is near a tiny airfield --which
happened to be the target of the disastrous air raid in March and May of 1944
which went Terribly Wrong ("269 bombes de 250 livres tombés en dehors de
l'objectif"), ending up with a few bombs falling on the city, one of which
scored a direct hit on the town library, resulting in the destruction of over
800 manuscripts:
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/forcedlanding/smith9.jpg
my understanding is that it "rained" fragments of burned paper and vellum for
hours, all over the city.
in the mid-60s of the last century of the last millennium tourists from, say,
Southern Indiana could see that airfield being used to launch gliders, which
sometimes soared quietly over the cathedral, in a wonderfully silent and
benign sort to way.
From: Dr Jim Bugslag <[log in to unmask]>
> 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,
there are not-infrequent mentions of "bretons" in the charters of the 11th &
12th cc., and, i believe, of some lieu-dit called "La Brittoniere" (or
somesuchlike) near the town of Gallardon, a few miles north of Chartres.
>and there was a whole slew of relics of Breton saints in the cathedral...
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.
nor have i.
perhaps the 9th c. Bretons who fled east formed enough alliances with families
in the chartrain to have lasted into the 11th-13th cc.?
doesn't seem likely, does it?
>...the Virgin's Tunic...was enclosed in a reliquary, the Sainte-Chasse, that
was never opened;
well, we don't really know for certain that it was "never opened," do we?
c
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