Anonymous poem, commissioned by Perpetuus (bishop of Tours 458/459-488/489) and recorded in the Martinellus, for a shrine (memoria) with relics of *John (the Baptist, S00020), *Felix (probably the soldier and martyr of Milan, brother of Nabor, S00609), *Victor (probably Victor 'Maurus', soldier and martyr of Milan, S00312), and *Gervasius and Protasius (brothers and martyrs of Milan, S00313); probably in, or very near, the basilica of Martin at Tours (north-west Gaul). Written in Latin at Tours.
E08123
Literary - Hagiographical - Other saint-related texts
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Inscription recorded in the Martinellus, no. 17
N° 17
In memoria sanctorum martyrum.
Quinque beatorum retinet domus ista coronas;
Quorum si titulum relegas et nomina noscas
In coelis quae scripta manent semperque manebunt.
Hic ovat ex utero sanctus Baptista lohannes;
Hic Felix Victorque pii, Gervasius almus 5
Protasiusque sacer sunt hic per saecula testes,
Qui veram docuere fidem cruce, sanguine, morte.
Juncti quinque simul digiti de corpore Christi
Efficiunt celsam magno certamine palmam
Perpetuis dignisque Deo quam floribus ornant. 10
'In the shrine of the holy martyrs.
This house contains the crowns of five blessed men.
If you read the inscription carefully, you will also learn their names
that remain and always will remain recorded in heaven.
Here saint John the Baptist rejoices from the womb.
Here [are] pious Felix and Victor; gracious Gervasius 5
and holy Protasius are here as witnesses throughout the ages
who have demonstrated the true faith by their suffering, their blood, and their deaths.
Joined together, these five fingers from the body of Christ
fashion with their great struggle a lofty palm
that they ornament with perpetual blossoms worthy of God. 10
Text: Pietri 1983, 811, no. 17 (title from Gilardi 1983, 214, no. 18). Translation: Van Dam 1993, 316, lightly modified.
Cult building - unspecified
Cult building - oratory
Non Liturgical ActivityConstruction of cult buildings
Renovation and embellishment of cult buildings
RelicsUnspecified relic
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
For the siting of this poem within the Martinellus collection, see E08119 – it is closely associated with a long run of poems and prose texts which can be securely identified as displayed within the basilica of saint Martin, built by Bishop Perpetuus of Tours in 467/470. This context, and the last line of the poem, which almost certainly contains a pun on Perpetuus' name when it talks of 'perpetual blossoms worthy of God' (perpetuis dignisque Deo ... floribus), strongly suggest that our text formed part of the same programme, even though Martin is not one of the saints it commemorates.Where precisely this memoria was, and what form it took, is less clear. Gilardi (1983, 43-44 and 52) suggested that it was in fact the principal altar of the basilica, sanctified by these relics; Pietri (1983, 398-399 and 490-491), more plausibly, argued for an oratory off the atrium of St Martin's church.
Three of the five saints whose relics were housed in the memoria are readily identified: John the Baptist, and the Milanese brothers and companion martyrs, Gervasius and Protasius; cult of the latter was well established at Tours, to the extent of the cathedral being dedicated to them by Perpetuus' predecessor as bishop, who provided it with relics of the saints (see E00544 and E02390). Felix and Victor are probably also Milanese martyrs, but it is somewhat strange to meet Felix without his brother and companion martyr, Nabor, and neither Felix nor Victor had widespread cult in 5th or 6th c. Gaul. Other, non-Milanese, possibilities cannot be excluded: for instance, Victor, the prominent martyr of Marseille.
Bibliography
Editions:Gilardi, F.J., The Sylloge epigraphica Turonensis de S. Martino (Ph.D. thesis, Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., 1983), 214-215, no. 18 (with translation at 227).
Le Blant, E., Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule antérieures au VIIIe siècle, vol. 1 (Collection de documents inédits sur l'histoire de France, Paris: Imprimerie impériale, 1856), 242-243, no. 182.
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), 811-812, no. 17 (with French translation).
Translation:
Van Dam, R., Saints and their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul (Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1993), 316.
Further Reading:
Handley, M. A., Death, Society and Culture: Inscriptions and Epitaphs in Gaul and Spain, AD 300-750 (BAR International Series 1135, Oxford: Archaeopress, 2003), 155-156.
Bryan Ward-Perkins
13/01/2021
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00020 | John the Baptist | Iohannes Baptista | Certain | S00312 | Victor 'Maurus'/the Moor, soldier and martyr of Milan | Victor | Uncertain | S00313 | Gervasius and Protasius, brothers and martyrs of Milan | Gervasius et Protasius | Certain | S00382 | Victor, martyr of Marseille, and his companion martyrs | Victor | Uncertain | S00609 | Nabor and Felix, brothers, soldiers and martyrs, buried in Milan | Felix | Uncertain |
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