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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


Cummian, in his letter On the Easter Controversy, reports how in 631 a testimony concerning the dating of Easter was sworn over relics of unspecified martyrs in Rome; and that, when these relics had been brought back to Ireland, healing miracles were performed through them. Written in Latin in southern Ireland, 632/3.

Evidence ID

E07432

Type of Evidence

Literary - Letters

Cummiani Hiberni epistola ad Segienum Hiensem abbatem de controversia paschali, lines 273-88

[...] Deinde uisum est senioribus nostris iuxta mandatum, ut si diuersitas oborta fuerit
inter causam et causam, et uariauerit iudicium inter lepram et non lepram, irent ad locum quem elegit Dominus; ut "si causae fuerit maiores", iuxta decretum sinodicum, "ad capud uribium sint referendae." Inde misimus quos nouimus sapientes et humiles esse, uelut natos ad matrem, et prosperum iter in uoluntate Dei habentes, et ad Romam urbem aliqui ex eis uenientes, tertio anno ad nos usque peruenerunt. Et sic omnia uiderunt sicut audierunt, sed et ualde certiora utpote uisa quam audita inuenerunt. Et in uno hospicio cum Greco et Hebreo, Scitha et Aegiptiaco in aecclesia sancti Petri simul in pascha, in quo mense integro disiuncti sumus, fuerunt. Et ante sancta sic testati sunt nostris, dicentes: "Per totum orbem terrarum hoc pascha, ut scimus, celebratur." Et nos i<n re>eliquiis sanctorum martyrum et scripturis quas attulerunt probauimus inesse uirtutem Dei. Uidimus oculis nostris puellam caecam omnino ad has reliquias oculos aperientem, et paraliticum ambulantem, et multa demonia eiecta [...]

'... Then it seemed proper to our elders, according to the command, that if disagreement arises
between one side and another, and judgement vary between leper and non-leper, they should go to the place which the Lord has chosen; and that "if the matters are major," according to the sinodical decree, "they should be referred to the chief of cities." Hence we sent those whom we knew to be wise and humble as children to their mother, and having had a prosperous journey through the will of God, some of them arrived at Rome, and returned to us in the third year. And they saw all things just as they had heard about them, but they found them more certain inasmuch as they were seen rather than heard. And they were in one lodging in the church of St Peter with a Greek, a Hebrew, a Scythian and an Egyptian at the same time at Easter, in which we differed by a whole month. And so they testified before the holy relics, saying "As far as we know, this Easter is celebrated throughout the whole world." And we have tested that the power of God is in the relics of the holy martyrs and in the writings which they brought back. We saw with our own eyes a totally blind girl opening her eyes at these relics, and a paralytic walking and many demons cast out... '


Text and translation: Walsh and Ó Cróinín 1988, 92-5.

Cult Places

Cult building - independent (church)
Cult building - secondary installation (fountain, pilgrims’ hostel)

Non Liturgical Activity

Oath

Miracles

Miracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
Exorcism
Miraculous intervention in issues of doctrine

Relics

Unspecified relic

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics – unspecified
Demons
Women
Foreigners (including Barbarians)

Source

Cummian's addressed his letter On the Easter Controversy to Abbot Ségéne of Iona (623-652) and the hermit Béccán. Although Cummian himself is unidentifiable, his stance on the Easter dating versus that of the Ionan monks indicates that he wrote from a southern Irish context. On internal and external evidence, the letter may be dated to 632/633. It survives in a single, early twelfth-century copy in an English hand, now part of London, BL, Ms Cotton Vittelius A. xii.

Discussion

This apparent readiness of the Roman see to win over Insular clerics during the Easter controversy with (probably contact) relics should be viewed alongside the near-contemporary papal gifts of 'blessings' and relics to Anglo-Saxon kings recorded by Bede (E06040, E06041, E06042), and the presence by the later seventh century of Roman martyr-relics at Armagh (E06256, E06933) (see further Sharpe, 2002; on the Paschal controversy, Charles-Edwards, 2000).

Bibliography

Edition and translation

Cummian's Letter De controversia paschali, ed. M. Walsh and D. Ó Cróinín (Toronto, 1988).

Further reading

T.M. Charles-Edwards,
Early Christian Ireland (Cambridge, 2000), 391-415.

R. Sharpe, 'Martyrs and Local Saints in Late Antique Britain,' in A. Thacker and R. Sharpe, eds.,
Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West (Oxford, 2002), 150-51.


Record Created By

Benjamin Savill

Date of Entry

09/03/2019

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00060Martyrs, unnamed or name lostmartyresCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Benjamin Savill, Cult of Saints, E07432 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07432