Epitaphs on the tomb of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050), as recorded in the Martinellus, set up in the saint's new basilica at Tours (north-west Gaul) by Perpetuus, bishop of Tours, in 467/470; a small fragment of one inscription survives. Written in Latin in Tours.
E08120
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions
Epitaphs on the tomb of Martin, recorded in the 'Martinellus', nos. 13-15
N° 13
Circa tumulum ab uno latere.
Hic conditus est sanctae memoriae Martinus episcopus cujus anima in manu Dei est; sed hic totus est praesens, manifestus omni gratia virtutum.
[The letters in bold are preserved, in whole or in part – see Discussion.]
'Around the tomb, on one side.
Here is buried Bishop Martin of sacred memory, whose soul is in the hand of God. But he is wholly present here, made manifest to all by the grace of his miracles.'
N° 14
Item in alio latere.
Certamen bonum certavit; cursum consumavit; fidem servavit. De cetero reposita est illi corona justitiae quam reddet illi Dominus in illa die Justus judex.
'Next on the other side.
'He has fought the good fight, he has completed the race, he has kept the faith. And so there is reserved for him a crown of righteousness that the Lord, the just judge, will restore to him on that day.'
[This inscription alludes to Paul's description of himself at 2 Tim. 4:7.]
N° 15
Item desuper.
Confessor meritis, martyr cruce, apostolus actu,
Martinus coelo praeminet hic tumulo.
Sit memor et miserae purgans peccamina vitae
Occultet meritis crimina nostra suis.
'Next on the top.
Confessor by his merits, martyr by his suffering, apostle by his action,
Martin excels from heaven here at this tomb.
May he be mindful [of us], and by cleansing the sins of our wretched life
may he conceal our crimes with his merits.'
Text: Pietri 1983, 809-810.
Translation: Van Dam 1993, 315, modified.
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityRenovation and embellishment of cult buildings
Theorising on SanctityConsiderations about the hierarchy of saints
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.
A small fragment of Inscription 13, was discovered during excavations on the site of St Martin's basilica in the late 19th century (see Image). It was finally published in 1962 by Viellard-Troiekouroff (1962, 110, fig. 31), but only subsequently recognised (by Luce Pietri) as a fragment of the tomb of Martin (Pietri 1983, 381 and 814-815). It is of white marble: H 0.10 m; L 0.15 m; Th. 0.06 m. All the edges, except the straight edge at the top, are broken. The inscribed letters are set above two lines, and read FESTVSOM, clearly part of 'manifestus omni gratia virtutum', in Inscription 13.
Discussion
These texts marked and decorated the new tomb of Martin, which Bishop Perpetuus installed in the basilica he built for the saint in 467/470.Gregory of Tours, in his Histories 2.15, tells us that Eufronius, bishop of Autun: 'in great devotion, sent the marble which is over the holy tomb of the blessed Martin' (marmorem, qui super sanctum sepulchrum beati Martini habetur, cum grandi devotione transmisit) (E02024). Our fragment and these three inscriptions clearly formed part of that covering. From the fragment, and from the way the inscriptions are described in the Martinellus, it is clear that this covering was not a conventional sarcophagus lid, but a structure made up of marble slabs, with inscriptions running along the top of the two long sides, and a further inscription on the (probably flat) top.
The marble for the tomb was supplied by Eufronius, but the text of the inscriptions will have been written under the close supervision of Perpetuus, stressing the presence of the saint, both in heaven and in his tomb, and capturing the exceptional status claimed for Martin in Tours:
'Confessor by his merits, martyr by his suffering, apostle by his actions,
Martin excels from heaven here at this tomb.'
Confessor meritis, martyr cruce, apostolus actu,
Martinus coelo praeminet hic tumulo.
Bibliography
Editions:Gilardi, F.J., The Sylloge epigraphica Turonensis de S. Martino (Ph.D. thesis, Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., 1983), 212, nos. 13-15 (with translation at 225).
Le Blant, E., Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule antérieures au VIIIe siècle, Vol. 1 (Paris 1856), 240, nos. 178-180.
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), 809-810, nos. 13-15 (with French translation).
Translation:
Van Dam, R., Saints and their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul (Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1993), 315.
Further reading:
M. Viellard-Troiekouroff, “Les sculptures et objets préromans retrouvés dans les fouilles de 1860 et de 1886 à Saint Martin de Tours”, Cahiers Archéologiques XIII (1962), 85-118. At pp. 110-111 (Fig. 31).
Images
.jpg?-db=CoS&-lay=WSME&-recid=8133&-field=Image%201(1))
Viellard-Troiekouroff 1962, fig. 31.
Bryan Ward-Perkins
12/01/2021
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Martinus | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Bryan Ward-Perkins, Cult of Saints, E08120 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E08120