Karlsgrab: The Site and Significance of Charlemagne’s Sepulcher in Aachen
By John F. Moffitt
Quidditas, Vol. 30 (2009)
Abstract: The intention of what follows is to clear up one of the mysteries still surrounding the Charles the Great, now most commonly known by his later appellation “Charlemagne.” Born in 742, the son of King Pepin the Short (ca. 714-768), Charlemagne ruled as king of the Franks after 768; he additionally ruled as Emperor of the West, from 800 until his death in 814. Sources in his time presented him as an emulator and successor of Constantine the Great, and successive Western Emperors presented their own personae as successors of Charlemagne.
In 1165, 350 years after Charlemagne’s death, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa induced his anti-Pope, Paschal III, to canonize Charlemagne as a saint, just as the Eastern Church canonized Constantine. The actual context of Charlemagne’s canonization was, however, rather more political than spiritual.
Some observations on martyrdom in post-conversion Scandinavia
By Hari Antonsson
Saga-Book, Vol.28 (2004)
Introduction: The Irish Cogadh Caedhal re Gallaibh (‘The War of the Irish with the Foreigners’), composed in the early twelfth century, tells in an epic fashion of the battle of Clontarf which was fought in 1014 between the followers of Brian Boru, king of Munster, and the Vikings of Dublin and their Irish allies. The latethirteenth-century Njáls saga also tells in detail of the same encounter, possibly following here a lost Brjáns saga which may have dated from the late twelfth century. For a study of the two texts I refer to Goedheer’s monograph, but for the present purpose I wish only to draw attention to a single comparative feature: their presentation of King Brian’s death in battle.
In the Cogadh Brian stays away from the battle and instead occupies himself with prayers in his tent. There is no explicit reason given for Brians conduct although it is implied that he is kept from fighting by old age. Nevertheless, when Brian is attacked by the Viking Bróðir the king is still able to wield his sword. In the ensuing combat both Brian and his assailant are slain. Njáls saga, on the other hand, is more forthcoming about Brian Borus absence from battle. The king will not join the fight because the day is Good Friday; even when Bróðir has fought his way through the kings shield-wall, Brian refuses to draw his sword. Instead he is defended by the young Taðkr, but to no avail; Bróðirs sword slices through the boys hand and the same stroke decapitates the king of Munster. In turn, the Viking is killed by Brians retinue. Two miracles are noted: the kings severed head re-attaches itself to his body and Brians blood heals Taðkrs wound.
Landscape with Two Saints: How Genovefa of Paris and Brigit of Kildare Built Christianity in Barbarian Europe
By Lisa Bitel
Oxford University Press, 2009
ISBN: 9780195336528
At a time when Europeans still longed to be Roman and were just learning to be Christian, two extraordinary holy women-Genovefa of Paris (ca. 420-502) and Brigit of Kildare (ca. 450-524) -began to roam their homelands. One of these saints raised an apostolic church in the imperial city that would become Paris. The other scavenged fragments of that dwindling empire for the foundations of a grand Roman basilica built deep in barbarian territory. Both brought Christianity and romanitas (Roman-ness) to their people. By examining the ruins of their cities and churches, the workings of their cults, and the many generations of their devotees, Lisa Bitel shows how Brigit and Genovefa helped northern Europeans map new religion onto familiar landscapes. Landscape with Two Saints tells the twin stories of these charismatic women but also explains how ordinary people lived through religious change at the very beginning of the Middle Ages.
Tales of ancient conversions on distant landscapes have much to teach us about lived and built religion, why people choose new beliefs, and how they act out those beliefs in meaningful ways. The combined history of Brigit and Genovefa explains not just how a couple of legendary peripatetic women could become targets of devotion, but how and where Europeans became Christian, and what it meant to them on a daily basis. The story of these two saintly cults-not just in the pages of manuscripts, but on the streets of cities, in the stones of cemeteries, and in the walls of churches-also demonstrates the pervasive influence of gender and ethnicity, as well as regional culture and material environment, on the whole process of religious change. Bitel contends that in the building blocks of their churches and the tracks they once traveled, Genovefa and Brigit show us what the written words of missionaries and theologians never can: the active participation of converts in the history of their own conversion.
A Companion to Clare of Assisi: Life, Writings, and Spirituality
By Joan Mueller
Brill, 2010
ISBN: 978 90 04 18216 5
Clare of Assisi: Life, Writings and Spirituality examines Clare not merely as an obedient footnote to the friars, but as a Franciscan founder in her own right who kept primitive Franciscan ideals alive into the middle of the thirteenth century and transposed them into a woman’s key. Bringing together the best of international research, the text examines Clare’s importance within the early Franciscan milieu and her contribution to the thirteenth-century women’s movement. It studies the radicalism of Clare’s Franciscan choice, her life within the Monastery of San Damiano, her politicking with Agnes of Prague for the ‘privilege of poverty,’ and her uniqueness among other women in Gregory IX’s Damianite ordo. Following this historical study are critical translations and literary analyses of Clare’s four letters to Agnes of Prague as well as a new translation and commentary on Clare’s Forma Vitae.
Art and Identity in an Amulet Roll from Fourteenth-Century Trebizond
By Glenn Peers
Church History and Religious Culture, Vol.89:1-3 (2009)
Abstract: This article examines a unique survival from the Middle Ages: an amulet roll, now divided between libraries in New York City and Chicago, which now measures approximately 5 m in width and 8–9 cm in width, which has Greek texts on the obverse and Arabic on the reverse, and a series of very fine illustrations on the Greek side. Analysis of the roll reveals that it originated in Trebizond in the second half of the fourteenth century, and the roll is therefore considered within the cultural and political context of that small but active Greek kingdom.
The article pays particular attention to the text and representation of a rare figure, Evgenios of Trebizond, who is included among a series of saints and prophets in order to enact that saint’s protection of the (evidently elite) patron of the roll. And through the series of texts and images about the letter and self-portrait of Christ, the Mandylion, the roll also stated the sacred destiny of Trebizond. The roll generated identity through its Greek Christian texts and images, and made clear the special role God had chosen for Trebizond.
Quest, the Online Journal of Queens University, Belfast, Vol.6 (2009)
Introduction: The ‘sisters’ of Ely were among the most venerated saints of Anglo-Saxon England, regularly rivalling even the Canterbury cults in the number and value of donations received from supplicants, and Æthelthryth, the leading figure in this esteemed family, was the most celebrated native woman of the pre-Conquest era, with a cult that continued, seemingly uninterrupted, from the time of her death in 697 until the dissolution of the monasteries.
During the centuries in which these cults flourished, the characters of the saints at their centre were to evolve from pious virginal ladies to strident, oftentimes violent, protectors of Ely lands and privileges, adapting to the needs of the community that venerated them.
Paper given at the Norwegian Institute in Rome (2004)
Introduction: Few cities in the Christian world can boast such a deep connection to the cult of Mary as can the city of Rome, and none can claim a longer history of depicting her in art, stretching back in time at least to the early years of the third century in the catacomb of Priscilla on the via Salaria. Indeed it would not be too outrageous to claim that the true patron saint of the Roman church is Mary, not Peter or Paul, and one suspects that such a sentiment might certainly be shared by the current pontiff. Of the many Marian images which have graced Rome’s churches over the past 1500 years or more, and which in many instances continue to do so, there is one iconographic type in particular which has come to be associated with the arts of the city, and perhaps more specifically with the patronage of the papacy, and that is the image of Mary crowned as queen (or empress) of heaven: usually known by the Latin epithet “Maria regina”. This phrase actually appears in the arts for the first time in a Roman context: flanking the head of Mary in a now sadly dilapidated mural formerly in the atrium of S. Maria Antiqua, and datable to the reign of pope Hadrian I (772-795), who appears with a square “halo” at the far left of the composition. Thus, from the beginning, it would appear that the concept of Maria regina and the Roman papacy go hand in hand, and this linkage was first made some 80 years ago in a famous article by Marion Lawrence, published in The Art Bulletin.
Indeed, it is probably no coincidence that the two images chosen to illustrate the programme of this very conference depict Mary in this fashion, one from the lower church of San Clemente (on the cover), and a second (inside) from the 12th-century apse mosaic of S. Maria in Trastevere — the latter constituting one of the two examples of this imagery in the closest physical proximity to the very room in which we are now sitting. This paper will explore the origins of the concept of Mary as queen, primarily although not exclusively in the visual arts.
While accepting that Rome, and in particular the papacy, adopted this iconography wholeheartedly and made it their own, I shall propose nonetheless that the origins of the concept lay principally elsewhere — and most likely should be attributed to the Byzantine court in Constantinople. This may not be a popular view for an audience gathered in Rome, but I believe it is the only view that is consistent with the evidence on hand, scanty as that may be.
Rewriting history in the cult of St Cuthbert from the ninth to the twelfth centuries
Crumplin, Sally
University of St Andrews, 2005
Abstract
St Cuthbert’s literary cult was conceived in the late seventh and early eighth century with the production of three vitae, most importantly Bede’s prose Vita sancti Cuthberti. Over the ensuing centuries, the cult stimulated the production of a great wealth of hagiographic material: this thesis analyses the key Cuthbertine works that were written by his Church during a turbulent but also prosperous time, between the ninth century and the end of the twelfth. Each chapter takes as a specific focus one of these texts, using it as a basis for exploring a number of themes pertaining to the cult of St Cuthbert, wider developments in the cult of the saints, and the changing and variable uses of hagiographic and historical writing. The first chapter takes the Historia de sancto Cuthberto as an example of a text combining property records with miracles, and written episodically over a period spanning more than a century, establishing the thesis’ triumvirate of themes: the fluidity of texts and of the representation of saints, and the enduring power of the Cuthbertine Church. Chapter Two explores the multifaceted identity that the Cuthbertine Church sought to convey for itself in Symeon of Durhamâs Libellus de exordio. The third and fourth chapters focus on two highly flexible and manipulated texts, Capitula de miraculis sancti Cuthberti and Brevis relatio de sancto Cuthberto, which appear in manuscripts together, and often amalgamated: they are used to examine how a saint’s image could be changed, and to question our often static notion of a text’s identity. The final chapter takes Reginald’s Libellus de admirandis beati Cuthberti virtutibus to compare the miracle profiles of all the Cuthbertine texts, contextualising them with formative studies in the cult of saints such as the work of Sigal (1985) and Vauchez (1981). The thesis ends by suggesting that Cuthbert’s cult was still thriving at the end of the twelfth century, and continued to do so, in the semi-independent socio-political and cultural sphere of northern England and southern Scotland. The discussions in these chapters are supplemented by four appendices: a table giving detailed synopses and a thematic breakdown of Reginald’s Libellus, and a table categorising and comparing the miracles that appear in all these Cuthbertine works provide the basis for exploring Cuthbert’s changing miraculous persona; a map charting the locations pertinent to Reginald’s Libellus shows the vibrant geographical extent of Cuthbert’s cult; a table of manuscripts illustrates the various permutations into which these texts may be worked.
Hagiography and the cult of saints in the diocese of Liège, c. 700-980
Zimmern, Matthew
University of St Andrews, 21-Jun-2007
Abstract
This thesis takes the hagiographical texts written in the diocese of Liège between approximately 700 and 980 and examines them in their political, social and cultural context. It analyses the texts by paying particular attention to how the authors expressed their concerns about issues that were important to them through the medium of hagiography and the saints’ cults, the purposes for which the texts were employed and how these aims were reflected in the retelling of saints’ legends. By taking this approach, analysing a substantial body of valuable but under-studied source material over a period of 3 centuries, for an important region, it provides a new perspective on a range of issues, significant people and places. The regional approach helps to show the close interconnectedness between many of these people, places and texts, including those connections that exist over a period of centuries as well as those networks vital to early mediaeval society that existed between contemporaries. Close examination of the body of texts highlights the importance of the cult of saints at all levels of society and demonstrates the value and versatility of hagiography as a means of storytelling.
An analysis of the correspondence and hagiographical works of Philip of Harvengt
By Lynsey E. Robertson
PhD Dissertation, University of St Andrews, 2007
Abstract: For every famous author of the twelfth-century renaissance, there are numerous lesser-known writers. Despite being overshadowed by more brilliant scholars or those closer to the centre of important events, their voices add depth to the study of the intellectual history of this period. A founding member of one of the earliest Premonstratensian houses; a highly-educated and prolific author, much in demand as a hagiographer; and a vigorous defender of the clerical order, Philip of Harvengt is one such writer, and a worthy subject for study. This thesis examines two bodies of Philip’s works – his letters and his hagiographical writings – analysing the predominant and recurrent concerns and ideals expressed in them, and the means by which they are expressed. The letters are carefully crafted works, examples of the literary labour which Philip writes is incumbent upon the cleric.
The first part of this thesis approaches these letters in chapters on four themes: the role of the ecclesiastical prelate; the importance of learning; the relationship between religious orders; and Philip’s use of the motif of friendship. His hagiographical works, too, are examples of literary artistry, to move as well as to educate the audience. In the second part of the thesis, these will be discussed individually, with the first chapter analysing his vita of Oda, a nun attached to his own house, whom he portrays as a martyr.
The succeeding chapters consider Philip’s rewritings of earlier vitae, and show how he managed his sources in order to produce vitae depicting their subjects according to his ideal model of sanctity. Philip’s letters express concerns shared by contemporaries, reflecting anxieties surrounding roles and ideal forms of living in a period immediately following the first fervour of religious renewal. His hagiographies articulate ideals of sanctity, clarifying these when they are not made sufficiently explicit in earlier works, for the better edification of an audience pursuing this vita perfecta. Both letters and hagiographies are designed to exhort and instruct the reader or listener: above all, Philip is a teacher.
Karlsgrab: The Site and Significance of Charlemagne’s Sepulcher in Aachen
