The Latin Martyrdom of *Ragnebert (martyr of Bugey, ob. c. 675, S02976), records the saint's exile from court after his implication in a political conspiracy; his penance; his execution at Bugey (eastern Gaul); and his posthumous cult and miracles. Written in Gaul, probably 684/c.750.
E08267
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives
Literary - Hagiographical - Accounts of martyrdom
The Martyrdom of Holy Ragnebert (Passio sancti Ragneberti) (BHL 7057-8)
Summary
(1) The author invokes the psalms (Ps. 117, 16): 'The right hand of the Lord has worked miracles' (Dextera Domini fecit uirtutem).
(2) On Ragnebert's background: the son of Duke Radebert, who ruled the provinces between the Seine and Loire, he was born of Frankish stock and brought up at the palace. (3) On the low-born Ebroin, then mayor of the royal household, who sought to kill or drive into exile Franks of the high nobility. (4) How Ragnebert was accused of joining a conspiracy to murder Ebroin, which he did not admit nor deny, and how through the intercession of Bishop Audoin of Rouen he was not sentenced to death straight away, but sent into exile in Burgundy: once there, 'away from the disgrace of the Franks' (absque Francorum improperio), he could be killed in secret (latenter). How the nobleman Theudefred, to whom he was handed over for execution, was 'pricked by compassion' (miseratione compuctus), and kept him alive. (5) On the penance Ragnebert undertook during his years in exile, 'his whole heart having converted to the Lord' (toto corde conuersus ad Dominum).
(6) How the order came again from the palace that Ragnebert was to be killed, and how he was led by his 'unwilling' (inuiti) executioners at night to a place called Bugey (Bebro), where a certain servant of God called Domitian had built an oratory dedicated to the martyr *Genesius (probably the martyr of Arles, S00263), 'so that he might in that wilderness live his life there following the example of the holy desert fathers' (in ipsa heremo sanctorum patrum heremitarum uiueret exemplo). How Ragenebert prayed in that place, and was then struck through with a lance by one of the executioners: 'returning from the evil deed, they told some peasants [or perhaps clerics?] that they had found a body near the oratory, and, paying them, urged them to bury it' (redeuntes ab scelere cultoribus dixerunt, oraculo quodam se in uicino inuenisse corpusculum, atque hortauerunt, ut mercedis obtentu eum studerent mandare sepulchro).
(7) How the priest who had taken Ragnebert's confession during his exile had prescribed for him seven years penance; how it was not until some time after Ragnebert's death, once those seven years were complete, that miracles began to occur at this tomb; and how after this his body was moved from the entrance of the church (in ecclesiae porticu) to inside the main building (inde translatus in ecclesiae templum), next to the pulpit (iuxta sancti Dei analogium constitutus). (8) How the infirm are healed by the oil at the tomb.
Text: Krusch 1910.
Summary: B. Savill.
Cult building - oratory
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Place of martyrdom of a saint
Cult building - monastic
Non Liturgical ActivityComposing and translating saint-related texts
Construction of cult buildings
Visiting graves and shrines
MiraclesMiracle after death
Observed scarcity/absence of miracles
Healing diseases and disabilities
RelicsBodily relic - entire body
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Relatives of the saint
Aristocrats
Torturers/Executioners
Officials
Source
Bruno Krusch, in his standard edition (1910) of this short Martyrdom, considered it a ninth-century composition on linguistic grounds, but more recent studies have argued for the possibility that it might be a near-contemporary, or at least late Merovingian text, given its similarity to the numerous 'political martyrdoms' characteristic of Gaul in the seventh and earlier eighth century (see works listed under 'Discussion' to the Martyrdom of Desiderius: E07698) (Berschin 1988; Heinzelmann 2010). A later editor may have simply worked-up its Latin to ninth-century standards, and perhaps 'improved' other details, something we know happened in numerous other cases (Goullet, et al., 2010). Indeed, in light of what is now understood of Carolingian discomfort about aristocratic saints' cults (Fouracre, 1999), a post-c. 750 date may well be unlikely. The author knew, and borrowed elements of, Ursinus' second Martyrdom of Leudegar (E06463), and so the work cannot predate 684.Discussion
Although the Martyrdom of Ragnebert has much in common with the other 'political martyrdoms' popular in later Merovingian Gaul, it is exceptional in that its subject is a lay aristocrat.The site of Ragnebert's martyrdom and cult is modern-day Saint-Rambert-en-Bugey, about 60 km / 37 miles east of Lyon.
Bibliography
EditionKrusch, B., MGH, scr. mer. V (1910), 207-211.
Further reading
Berschin, W., Biographie und Epochenstil im lateinischen Mittelalter, 5 vols (Stuttgart 1988), ii. 78-80.
Fouracre, P., 'The Origins of the Carolingian Attempt to Regulate the Cult of the Saints' in J.D. Howard-Johnston and P.A. Hayward, eds., The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 1999), 143-65.
Goullet, M., M. Heinzelmann, and C. Veyrard-Cosme (eds.), L'hagiographie mérovingienne à travers ses réécritures (Beihefte der Francia 71; Ostfildern, 2010).
Heinzelmann, M., 'L'hagiographie mérovingienne: panorama des documents potentiels', in ibid., 27-82.
Benjamin Savill
18/12/2021
ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00263 | Genesius, notary and martyr of Arles | Genesius | Uncertain | S02976 | Ragnebert, martyr of Bugey, ob. c. 675 | Ragnebertus | Certain |
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