As I have previously written, within a generation of the
finding of the True Cross, or at least old olive wood, in Jerusalem, fragments
of the wood were distributed widely as noted by Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem in
his Catechetical Lecture X Sec. 19 (written c.348).[i]
The holy wood of the Cross bears
witness, seen among us to this day, and from this place now almost filling the
whole world, by means of those who in faith take portions from it.
Socrates Scholasticus (Ecclesiastical History, Bk. I, Ch.
XVII) wrote that pieces of the Cross were sent to Jerusalem and Constantinople.
Presumably a piece taken back to the palace of Helen Augusta in Rome along with
other passion artifacts from her trip to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. In any
case, a record in the Liber Pontificalis (Book of the Popes) perhaps begun in the 5th or 6th century, reports that Pope Sylvester I (Pope from 324-335) built a basilica (an
oblong church with a semicircular apse) in the Sessorian palace, the residence
of Helena Augusta at the time of her death in about 330. In this church, the pope placed some “wood of
the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” encased in gold and decorated with
jewels.[ii] This church is now the Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome.
As written earlier in this blog, it is
thought that the sermon of Ambrose of Milan for the funeral of Theodosius in
395 is the first account of the finding of the True Cross by Helena Augusta,
the mother of Emperor Constantine.
Apparently a slightly earlier version was written by Gelasius, bishop of
Caesarea, about 390 as part of a continuation of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical
History, but this is lost.
The mass migrations or invasions of numerous non-Christian
populations into western Europe during the 400s blocked the spread of the True
Cross legends. It appears that coming of orthodox Roman Catholic Christianity and the cult of relics to non-Christians in the 5th and 6th centuries carried the legends of the
True Cross with the missionaries from the lands around the Mediterranean Sea.
It is not my intent to go into the long discussion about the
distribution of the fragments of the True Cross from Jerusalem and Constantinople.
I will tell two stories.
One story with a cast of interesting men and a woman, illustrates
the wanderings of at least one fragment of the True Cross that is told by
Paulinus of Nola (c. 354-432) in his letter 31.[iii] Paulinus
of Nola was born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine, south-west France, into a family of
wealth and privilege. He was ordained as
a priest while married, and he and Theresia, his wife, moved to Nola, now a
suburb of Naples, Campania, Italy. He and his wife sold or donated their
properties and possessions and gave to the poor and funded the building of a
church, hospice for the poor, and an aqueduct.
About 395, Paulinus wanted to make a pilgrimage to the Holy
Land, especially Jerusalem and wrote to Jerome living in Bethlehem. Jerome
wrote back to Paulinus discouraging him. Jerome reminded Paulinus that the “access
to the courts of heaven is as easy from Britain as it is from Jerusalem; for ‘the
kingdom of God is within you.’”[iv] Jerome went on to complain that Jerusalem, and
even bucolic Bethlehem, was too full of men and women tourists coming from
everywhere. In addition, Jerusalem was a city filled with soldiers, court officers,
criminals, actors, civil and church officials, and having the vices of a city
such as prostitutes, plays, social parties and the overindulgence at large
social gatherings. Paulinus and Theresia, his wife, stayed home.
Next, two characters are added to the story. The first is Melania the Elder (c. 341-410),
a very wealthy Roman widow, friend and perhaps kinswoman of Paulinus, and
friend and patroness of Rufinus of Aquileia, the previously mentioned writer of
an Ecclesiastical History. The second person is the controversial Bishop John II
of Jerusalem (ruled from 387-417, after the death of Bishop Cyril mentioned
above). Bishop John was a friend to Melania the Elder and her friend and
protégée Rufinus. Apparently, Bishop
John was also friends with Jerome until sometime around 395 or so when a schism
developed. Sometime about 398, Jerome
wrote an acerbic letter/treatise called, “To Pammachius Against John of
Jerusalem” accusing him or heresy (Origenism) and an inability to maintain
discipline in Jerusalem and vicinity.[v]
As
Bishop of Jerusalem, John II would have had access to the wood of the True
Cross maintained as a sacred relic in Jerusalem. It is he that gave fragment of
wood from the True Cross to Melania the Elder.[vi] Melania the Elder gave a piece of the True
Cross to Paulinus of Nola who in turn sent a sliver of the True Cross to his
friend and fellow countryman, Sulpicius Severus (c.363-425).[vii]
Stained glass window of Sulpice Sévère (Sulpicus Severus) in Cathedral
of St. Stephen in Bourges, France. Window located in choir triforium; north
side window 103. Dated to 1230. http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/Bourges/images/w103l-80474.JPG
What became of the relics worn by Paulinus and Severus is
not known.
Severus was presbyter in the
Church as well as a writer and poet known for his classical style of writing in
Latin. He wrote among other works Sacred History and On the Life of St. Martin. Severus mentions the finding of the True
Cross by Helena in Jerusalem in his Sacred
History, but he says nothing about the fragmentation of the True Cross or its
disbursal. Severus was a disciple of St. Martin of Tours, and lived at or near
Toulouse.[Aside-Though the Emperor Honorius gave Toulouse and Aquitania to the Visigoths in 418, the Visigoths were Christians, just Arian Christians, a heretical sect to Trinitarian Roman Catholic Christianity.]
Top panel: Anderedus's child is healed by lying on St.
Radegonde's hair shirt. Bottom panel. St. Radegonde revived a sick child. St. Radegonde’s Church, Poitiers, France. North window
no. 109. Original 13th century glass fragments from a life of St.
Radegund in a window made about 1900. http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/Poitiers-StRadegonde/images/n1r-1-2-IMG_4296.JPG
Detail of north window 113. St.
Radegonde in center with two companions, Abbess Agnes and Abbess Disciola. Stained glass made about 1275. Reset in present window in 18th
and 20th centuries. St. Radegonde’s Church, Poitiers, France. http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/Poitiers-StRadegonde/images/n3-L-rosette-IMG_4325.JPG
The second story is that of Radegund, the founder of the
Abbey Our Lady or St. Mary, later the Abbey of the Holy Cross, Poitiers. Radegund’s name has many spellings including
Radegonde, Redegonda, Radegonda, Radegundis, among others. There are two
sources for the life of this Thuringian princess, Vita Sanctae Radegundis by her friend, Venantius Fortunatus, and Vita Radegundis written by Baudovina, a
nun at the Abbey of the Holy Cross, about twenty years later. These Lives are supplemented with Gregory of
Tours, Historia Francorum, translated
as History of the Franks, and a few surviving letters.[viii]
Radegund was born about 520 to Bertachar, King of Thuringia,
an area that is now in central Germany. Her father was defeated in battle and
killed by his brother, Hermanfrid. The child Radegund was presumably sent to
live with her uncle Hermanfrid.
Hermanfrid made a pact with Theuderic I, the Merovingian
king of Metz or Austrasia (now northern France, much of Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg,
and part of Germany) to attack Hermanfrid’s remaining brother, Baderic. Once Hermanfrid and Theuderic defeated
Baderic in 529, Hermanfrid reneged on his promise to give Theuderic half his
kingdom. Then the Frankish king
Theuderic with his brother Clotaire or Clothar or Chlothar, also called Lothar,
attacked Thuringia, and eventually defeated them in 531 with the resultant
death of Radegund’s remaining family except for her brother.
An argument ensued
among the Frankish leaders for the spoils of war but ended with casting lots. Chlothar won, and he took the 10-year-old
or so child Radegund back to his villa of Athies in Picardy to be raised as his
wife. She was taught to read and write.
Chlothar had at least seven wives and consorts including
Guntheuc, his brother’s widow; Theodosia of Burgundy; Ingund, and her sister,
Aregund; Chunsina; Radegund; and Wuldetrada.
About 540, Chlothar, forty-something, married Radegund,
probably about 19 or so. There were no
children. Fortunatus describes her distaste for married life by describing how
she would leave the marriage bed at night to relieve herself and then prostrate
herself on the cold ground under a hair shirt to pray.
About the time that Chlothar murdered Radegund’s brother,
she left her husband. Radegund was probably in the late 20s and her husband in
his 50s. According to Baudovinia, Radegund retired to a villa at Saix where she
came to an arrangement with her husband to endow a convent. When her husband
changed his mind, and decided to retrieve Radegund from her abbey at Poitiers,
she turned to Bishop Germanus of Paris.
At the shrine of St. Martin of Tours, she lay in tears on the ground
before King Chlothar accompanied by the Bishop.
The Bishop interceded to change Chlothar’s mind. He asked Queen Radegund
for forgiveness and provided an endowment for the Abbey.
Venantius Fortunatus recounts a different story. When Radegund fled from her husband Chlothar,
she went to Menardus, Bishop of Noyon.
When he was reluctant to allow her to become a monarcha or nun, she put on the monastic garb herself. She shamed Menardus by saying, “If you shrink
from consecrating me, and fear man more than God, Pastor, He will require His
sheep’s soul from your hand.” Bishop Menardus consecrated Radegund a deaconess.
Only after this, did she retire to Saix.
After distributing her personal wealth, one of her first acts as a
deaconess was to grind flour by hand for religious communities. She seems to
have developed a community of women even before establishing the Abbey.
Fortunatus described the extreme ascetic practices and
mortification of the flesh practiced by Radegund during her marriage and after
her withdrawal to the convent. She not only fasted to the extreme, when she did
eat, she ate no animal products. But even her diet of grains and vegetables was inadequate. She
frequently denied herself water and other liquids to drink. The burning and
other harm she did to her physical body would be considered self-injury today
and would be traced to all the traumatic events of her early life. In her time, her activities were thought to
bring her closer to the “sweetness of Christ.”[ix]
We know little about the founding of the Abby of Our Lady or
St. Mary itself, though in a letter to the Bishops, Radegund wrote,
I established a monastery of girls
in the city of Poitiers and endowed the institution with a donation as far as
royal munificence granted me. Moreover, for the congregation collected through
me for Christ, I received the rule under which holy Caesaria lived, which the solicitude
of blessed Caesarius, bishop of Arles brought together fittingly from the
institution of the holy Fathers.[x]
The founding of the Abbey is traditionally dated to about 552
with Agnes, the foster daughter of Radegund, as the first Abbess. Radegund and
the community of nuns established a hospice for feeding paupers twice a week
and caring for the sick, especially women with skin diseases.
According to Baudovinia, Radegund sought relics for the
convent and the mortuary chapel St. Mary-outside-the-wall, later called St.
Radegund’s Church, being built at Poitiers. First, Radegund sent a priest named
Reoval to the Patriarch of Jerusalem to request some relics of a martyr named
Mammas entombed in Jerusalem. Radegund received a finger sent to Poitiers from
Jerusalem.[xi]
Baudovinia compared Radegund to Helena, the mother of
Constantine, in her desire for the True Cross. She wrote to King Sigebert I,
the king who had control over Poitiers, asking his permission to contact the
Emperor Justin II and his wife Sophia in Constantinople. Radegund petitioned
the Emperor for piece of the True Cross.
The Emperor sent back not only the wood but also legates with gospels
ornamented with gold and gems.[xii]
These events probably took place in 568-9.
The bishop of Poitiers, Maroveus, refused to accept the wood
of the True Cross into Poitiers. Then Radegund, “her spirit blazing in a
fighting mood” wrote to King Sigebert again while the relics were kept at a
monastery founded by the king at Tours.[xiii] Sigebert sent word to Bishop Eufronius of
Tours. It was he who welcomed the relics,
led the procession, and had them installed at the Abbey, whose name changed to the
Abbey of the Holy Cross.
On the occasion of the procession of the relic of the True
Cross from the outskirts of Poitiers to the Abbey, Venantius Fortunatus
composed two hymns. The first was Vexilla Regis prodeunt. For a discussion
of this hymn in English, see: A Clerk of Oxford: Vexilla Regis Prodeunt: Þe
kynges baneres beth forth ylad. (http://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2012/04/vexilla-regis-prodeunt-e-kynges-baneres.html.)
The other hymn was Pange lingua, gloriosi
proelium certaminis.[xiv]
These hymns are still in use, usually in translation, more than 1400 years
after they were written.
The Abbey of the Holy Cross was severely damaged
during the French Wars of Religion in the 16th century but then rebuilt. The Abbey
was destroyed during the French Revolution.
The presence of a fragment of the True Cross at Poitiers
made it a pilgrimage site, helping to spread the legends of the True Cross.
I try to imagine what the casket looked like that brought the True Cross from Constantinople. All I can imagine are the Fieschi Morgan staurothekehe, or the beautiful bursa caskets such as the one at The Cloisters at Washington Heights on Manhattan Island, or the spectacular champlevé reliquaries from 600 years after the founding of the Abbey of the Holy Cross.
I try to imagine what the casket looked like that brought the True Cross from Constantinople. All I can imagine are the Fieschi Morgan staurothekehe, or the beautiful bursa caskets such as the one at The Cloisters at Washington Heights on Manhattan Island, or the spectacular champlevé reliquaries from 600 years after the founding of the Abbey of the Holy Cross.
The Fieschi Morgan Staurotheke made in Constantinople in the early 9th century apparently to hold relics including a cross. Silver gilt, gold, enamel and niello. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 17.190.715a, b.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/hb/hb_17.190.715ab.jpg
10th century bursa reliquary made in northern Italy of wood, bone, and copper gilt.
The Cloisters Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 53.19.2
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/hb/hb_53.19.2.jpg
Chasse of Champagnat made in Limoges, France about 1150 of copper, gilt, and champlevé enamels. Metropolitan Museum of Art.17.190.685–87, .695, .710–.711 http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/hb/hb_17.190.685.jpg
Back of Reliquary Cross showing scenes of Helen finding the True Cross. Made in Belgium (Mosan) about 1165. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Made of copper alloy gilt with enamel and semi-precious stones. http://www.learn.columbia.edu/treasuresofheaven/relics/jpegs/298.87-300float.jpg.
[i] Wilhelm Ziehr in his book Das Kreuz. Symbol · Gestalt · Bedeutung
(Stuttgart / Darmstadt: Belser / Wiss. Buchges. 1997) reported microscopically
examining 4 particles from the True Cross relics found at Santa Croce (Rome),
Notre Dame (Paris), Cattedrale di Pisa, and Duomo di Firenze. He found that all
four were made of olive wood. Olive wood is rot resistant, hard (not great for
hammering in iron spikes but great for durability and re-use) and it does not
bend under stress. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture X. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310110.htm. In contrast stories about the Cross being
found in Jerusalem, the Pilgrim from Bordeaux who visited Jerusalem in AD 333,
reported the building of Constantine’s basilica, the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, but made no mention of a cross. http://www.centuryone.com/bordeaux.html.
[ii] Loomis, Louise R. The
Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis) I. New York: Columbia University Press, Ch.
XXXIV, p. 59. Newer translation: Davis,
Raymond, The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis): The Ancient Biographies of
the First Ninety Roman Bishops to Ad 715. Liverpool: Liverpool University
Press, 1989.
[iii]“Letter 31 to Severus” in
Paulinus, Pontius M, and Patrick G. Walsh (eds.). Letters of St. Paulinus of
Nola: Vol. 2. Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1967, pp. 125-133.
[iv] “Letter LVIII to
Paulinus” in W. H. Fremantle. The Principal Works of St. Jerome. Select library
of Nicene and post-Nicene fathers of the Christian Church., Second series 6; Oxford:
James Parker and Co, 1893. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.v.LVIII.html.
[v] NPNF2-06. Jerome: The
Principal Works of St. Jerome.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.vi.viii.html. For a detailed
examination of the reasons for the sharp criticism of Bishop John by Jerome,
see the introduction to this letter. The controversy arose because Jerome
thought that John II believed in Origenism.
The four main points of Origenism are (i) the allegorical interpretation
of Scripture, (2) that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were no co-equal and (3)
a confusing set of beliefs about the eternity of creation. All created rational souls are equal. Though
the material world was created at the same time as the spiritual one, the
spiritual world came prior. Only imperfect spirits have bodies. (4) Redemption is available to all rational
beings. Of particular concern was the
concept of the Trinity. The Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit each had a different sphere of influence of unequal power and
dignity, e.g. the Father is creator, the Son is redeemer, the Spirit is
sanctifier. In liturgical practice this
meant praying to the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. This was
interpreted to mean that God was the pre-eminent whole divinity and that the
Son and Holy Spirit are subordinate persons, not the now usual Athanasian
interpretation familiar to most orthodox Christians that the Father is not the
Son is not the Holy Spirit but all members of the Trinity are co-equal. Athanasius
(c. 297-373) was Bishop of Alexandria (I am dependent on The Catholic
Encyclopedia, here, and I hope “I got it right.”) http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11306b.htm.
[vi] For information about
Melania the Elder and her equally famous grand-daughter, Melania the Younger,
see: Chin, Catherine M. (ed.), and Caroline T. Schroeder (ed.). Melania: Early
Christianity Through the Life of One Family, Oakland, University of California
Press. 2016. Melania the Elder died in Sicily in 410 having left Rome just as Alaric,
the Visigoth, sacked Rome. Her grand-daughter and family settled in Thagaste,
north Africa, now Algeria, before departing for Jerusalem. Thagaste or Tagaste
was the birthplace of Augustine of Hippo. For an interesting look at itinerant
religious travelers, see: Dietz, Maribel. Wandering Monks, Virgins, and
Pilgrims: Ascetic Travel in the Mediterranean World, A.D. 300-800. University
Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005. The Benedictine vow on stability did not
begin until sometime in the 6th century, about two hundred years
after the events related above.
[vii] “Letter 31 to Severus”
in Pontius M, and Patrick G. Walsh (eds.). Letters of St. Paulinus of Nola:
Vol. 2. Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1967, pp. 125-133. Some writings of Sulpicius Severus have
survived including his life of St. Martin of Tours and his Sacred History. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf211.ii.html.
[viii] Carlin, Martha (trans.)
Venantius Fortunatus: Life of St. Radegund. http://people.uwm.edu/carlin/venantius-fortunatus-life-of-st-radegund/.
“Radegund, Queen of the Franks and Abbess of Poitiers
(ca. 525–587)” in Jo Ann McNamara, JoAnn, E. Gordon Whatley, John E. Halborg. Sainted
Women of the Dark Ages. Durham. Duke University Press. (1992) pp.60-105. Gregory,
of T, and Lewis Thorpe. The History of the Franks. Harmondsworth (England:
Penguin Books, 1986.) Epistolae: Radegund of Thuringia. https://epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/woman/89.htm
Patricia Cox Miller, “Visceral Seeing: The Holy Body in Late Ancient
Christianity,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 12.4 (Winter 2004): 391-411. Glenn,
Jason. “Two Lives of St. Radegund,” in Glenn, Jason. The Middle Ages in Texts
and Texture: Reflections on Medieval Sources. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 2011, pp.57-70.
[ix] Fortunatus, Venantius.
Life of Holy Radegund.Ch 26.
http://people.uwm.edu/carlin/venantius-fortunatus-life-of-st-radegund/. Or “Radegund,
Queen of the Franks and Abbess of Poitiers (ca. 525–587)” in Jo Ann McNamara,
JoAnn, E. Gordon Whatley, John E. Halborg. Sainted Women of the Dark Ages.
Durham. Duke University Press. (1992) pp.60-105 at p. 81.
[x] A letter from Radegund of
Thuringia (561-67?) to the Bishops. https://epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/letter/914.html.
Included in Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum.
[xi] Radegund, Queen of the
Franks and Abbess of Poitiers (ca. 525–587)” in Jo Ann McNamara, JoAnn, E.
Gordon Whatley, John E. Halborg. Sainted Women of the Dark Ages. Durham. Duke
University Press. (1992) pp.60-105 at
pp. 95-6.
[xii] Ibid., p.97.
[xiii]Ibid., p.98.
[xiv] http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Hymni/Vexilla.html.
http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Hymni/PangeF.html.
