A charter issued by Aquilinus, bishop of Narbonne (south-west Gaul) records his gift of properties to the monastery at Asán (north-east Hispania) dedicated to the Apostles *Peter and *Paul (S00036 and S00008), *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050) and *Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030). Written in Latin, perhaps at Narbonne, 22 February 576.
E08427
Documentary texts - Charter or diploma
Documentary texts - Donation document
Les chartes visigothiques du monastère d'Asán, 4 (excerpts)
Dominis sanctis, ex glorificatione beatis atque peculiaribus mihi patronis, Petro et Paulo apostolis, necnon et Martino episcopo et confessori, atque Stephano diacono, primo martyri, in monasterio Asani, ubi reliquie uestre constitute sunt, a me inquisite, Aquilinus, episcopus ecclesię Narbonensis, famulus uester. Domini nostri Ihesu Christi euangelica uoce commonitus audiens dicentis : “Nisi quis renunciauerit omnibus que possidet uel in minimis pauperibus eius substanciam suam impenderit, non potest meis esse discipulis”, cuius precepti amonitione territus, id elegi ut patrocinii uestri commendationi apud Dominum merear habere quod de paupertacula proprietatis meę offero glorię uestrę uel ministris uestris in monasterio Asani seruientibus, ubi frater noster Florentius abba seruire dinoscitur, pro remedio animę meę atque remissione pecattorum meorum uel promisse remuneracionis premio, quod ut per uestram intercessionem, ut dixi, apud Dominum mercedem recipiam et uitam eternam consequi possim, id est, domum Iderbę cum colonicis suis sitam in territorio Terramtonensi atque Larrede in territorio Barbotano [...] Ffacta donationis cartula sub die octauo kalendas marcii anno octauo regni nostri gloriossi Liuuigildi regis, indictione X [...]
'To the holy lords, my blessed and personal patrons, the Apostles Peter and Paul, and also Martin, bishop and confessor, and Stephen the deacon, the first martyr, in the monastery of Asán, where your relics are placed, glorified indeed by myself: Aquilinus, bishop of the church of Narbonne, your servant. Hearing the evangelical voice of our Lord Jesus Christ when he says, 'Whoever among you who does not renounce all he possesses, and who does not give his wealth to the poor, cannot be one of my disciples,' and overawed by the admonition of this command, I have decided on this, so that I might merit to have the protection of your commendation before the Lord: to offer something from the meagreness of my property to your glory and to your ministers serving in the monastery of Asán, where our brother Abbot Florentius is known to serve, for the remedy of my soul and for the remission of my sins and the promised prize of recompense, so that through your intercession, as I have said, I might receive reward from the Lord, and might be able to gain eternal life. That is, the estate of Gerba with its inhabitants, in the territory of Tierrantona, and the estate of Larrede, in the territory of Barbastro... This charter of donation was drawn up on 8 Kalends March in the eighth year of the reign of our most glorious King Leovigild, in the tenth indiction...'
Text: Martin and Larrea 2021, 241-2.
Translation: B. Savill.
Cult building - monastic
Non Liturgical ActivitySaint as patron - of an individual
Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings
RelicsUnspecified relic
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - abbots
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Source
Six sixth-century charters survive in later copies from the Pyrenean monastery of Asán, now the Real Monasterio de San Victorián, Sobrabe, c. 50 km south of the current Spanish-French border. Four of these were only published for the first time in 2017, following their discovery in a sixteenth-century manuscript in Madrid (Tomás-Faci and Martín-Iglesias, 2017). Besides being exceptionally rare witnesses to Visigothic/Iberian documentary culture, which is hardly attested before the eighth century, these texts are also (alongside, most notably, the Ravenna papyri) some of our earliest examples of pre-c. 600 charters from anywhere in the Latin west.Discussion
Aquilinus' see of Narbonne was located within the southern enclave of Gaul ruled by the Iberian Visigothic kingdom (Septimania/Gallia Narbonensis). Given this liminality, it may have been appropriate that his 'personal patrons' at this frontier monastery, just within the bounds of Iberian peninsula, included Martin - a characteristically Gallic saint.The interconnections between Asán and central Gaul indicated by the monastery's co-dedication to Martin are further illustrated by an epitaph in praise of Victorianus, an earlier abbot of the foundation, by Venantius Fortunatus (E05692), who himself wrote extensively on the cult of Martin.
Bibliography
Editions and studiesG. Tomás-Faci and J.C. Martín-Iglesias, 'Cuatro documentos inéditos del monasterio visigodo de San Martín de Asán (522-586),' Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 52 (2017), 261-86.
C. Martin and J.J. Larrea, eds., Nouvelles chartes visigothiques du monastère pyrénéen d'Asán (Bordeaux, 2021).
Benjamin Savill
17/03/2023
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00008 | Paul, the Apostle | Paulus | Certain | S00030 | Stephen, the First Martyr | Stephanus | Certain | S00036 | Peter, the Apostle | Petrus | Certain | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Martinus | Certain |
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