Four anonymous poems, recorded in the Martinellus, about places associated with *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050) at his monastery of Marmoutier, near Tours (north-west Gaul); once inscribed or painted at the site. Written in Latin, at Marmoutier, probably early 5th c.
E08117
Literary - Hagiographical - Other saint-related texts
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Poems recorded in the 'Martinellus', nos. 1-4
N° 1
Incipiunt versus in foribus primae cellae sancti Martini.
Venimus en isthuc: hic nemo personat, eheu!
Venimus en isthuc et crucis arma silent.
Vere bellator Domini dormit: sonet, eheu!
Bellator dormit, desiderandus homo.
Intremus tamen et fletu precibusque precemur 5
Sanctorum Dominum, Martinique Deum;
Sternamurque loco quem Sanctus flendo rigabat:
Auxilium nobis spiritus ejus erit.
Bellator dormit; sed tu nos protege, Christe;
Qui non dormitas, protege Israhelem. 10
'The verses begin at the entrance to the first cell of St. Martin.
Behold, we come here; alas, no one shouts out.
Behold, we come here, but the weapons of the cross are silent.
Truly the warrior of the Lord is asleep; alas, would that he might shout out!
The warrior sleeps, a man who must be missed.
But let us enter and with our weeping and our prayers beseech 5
the Lord of the saints, the God of Martin.
Let us kneel at the place that the saint moistened with his weeping:
his spirit will be our assistance.
The warrior sleeps; but you, Christ, protect us.
You who do not sleep, protect Israel. 10
N° 2
Item in cella alia.
Hic inhabitavit Domini vestigia lambens;
Hic inhabitavit vir crucis arma gerens;
Hic inhabitavit sanctus purusque sacerdos;
Hic inhabitavit corpore, corde probus;
Hic inhabitavit scutum cui sancta fides est, 5
Umbo crucis, verbo spendidus atque micans;
Hic inhabitavit felix eremita sub antro;
Hic inhabitavit quem paradisus habet.
'Next in another cell.
Here lived the man who kissed the footsteps of the Lord;
here lived the man who carried the weapons of the cross;
here lived the bishop who was holy and pure;
here lived the man who was chaste in body and in heart;
here lived the man whose holy faith was a shield, 5
the shield of the cross, resplendent and shining in his eloquence;
here in a cave lived the propitious recluse;
here lived the man whom Paradise now holds.'
N° 3
Item in cellula interiore.
Sancte Deus, miserere loci quem semper amasti;
Dilige, multiplica, protege, semper ama,
Quando completo pastorem tempore nostrum
Ad loca migrasti lucida, sancta, bona;
Nos quoque velamento alarum sancte tuarum 5
Protege, conserva, dilige, semper ama.
Suppliciter petimus: dones tribuasque benignus
Ut nosmet Sanctus ac simul ille juvet.
'Next inside the cell.
Holy God, have pity on the place that you have always loved.
Cherish, enhance, protect, and always love [it],
when at the completion of his life you have transferred our shepherd
to those bright, holy, and wonderful places.
Holy [God), in the shelter of your wings 5
protect, preserve, cherish, and always love us too.
We entreat you as suppliants: may you give generously and grant
that the saint too might also assist us.
N° 4
Item illic super locum lecti ejus.
Qualia sint isthic bellantis tela frequenter
Vidimus, absentem cum fuit esse virum:
Carbones atros cerneres, horrentia quaeque,
Pulveris et nebulas, squalida cuncta nimis.
Cilicium, subter capiti lapis et cinis altus 5
Exesis membris hic, videbare, torus.
Sellula namque fuit requies in nocte silenti,
Pro scamno aut cathedra huic haec quoque sella die.
'Next there over the location of his bed.
Here we have often seen what were the weapons of this warrior,
[even] when it happened that the man was absent;
note the black coals, each of them horrifying,
and the clouds of dust, all most foul.
A cloak, a stone beneath his head, and a pile of cinders, 5
you were considered a bed here for his weary limbs.
A small stool was his resting place during the silent night;
during the day this stool [served] him in place of a chair or a throne.
Texts: Pietri 1983, 803-804.
Translations: Van Dam 1993, 310-311, lightly modified.
Cult building - monastic
Place associated with saint's life
Non Liturgical ActivityPilgrimage
RelicsContact relic - saint’s possession and clothes
Contact relic - other object closely associated with saint
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Source
The so-called Martinellus is a set of texts, all associated with saint Martin, which are preserved as an appendix in a number of manuscripts of the works of Sulpicius Severus, the earliest manuscript being of the 9th century (Pietri 1983, 801). Within the Martinellus are seventeen, possibly eighteen, texts, for the most part in verse, that were written to be inscribed or painted in or around the basilica of Martin at Tours (nos. 5-18), or at Martin's monastery at Marmoutier (nos. 1-4).For a full discussion of the Martinellus inscriptions, see Pietri 1983, 800-822; also Van Dam 1993, 308-317.
Discussion
The wording of these four short poems (all elegiac distichs), and their brief headings recording where they were to be found, establish beyond doubt that these were tituli, explanatory texts telling worshippers about the importance of the places where they were displayed – in the case of these four, this was certainly Martin's monastery at Marmoutier, on the opposite side of the Loire to Tours and at some two miles from the city.Pietri (1983, 816-817) argues convincingly that these four texts, with their sense of immediate grief and loss, are earlier than the majority of the Martinellus inscriptions (those from Tours, nos. 5-18), which date from the period c. 467/470; she argues that they were written soon after Martin's death in 397, probably by a monk of Marmoutier.
Bibliography
Editions:Gilardi, F.J., The Sylloge epigraphica Turonensis de S. Martino (Ph.D. thesis, Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., 1983), 203-205, nos. 1-4 (with translation at 218-220).
Le Blant, E., Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule antérieures au VIIIe siècle, Vol. 1 (Paris 1856), 228-230, nos. 166-169.
Pietri, L., La ville de Tours du IVe au VIe siècle: naissance d’une cité chrétienne (Collection de l’École française de Rome 69; Rome 1983), 802-804, nos. 1-4 (with French translation).
Translation:
Van Dam, R., Saints and their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul (Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1993), 310-311.
Bryan Ward-Perkins
11/01/2021
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Martinus | Certain |
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