Jorge Molina Cerda. Degree in History, Master in Archeology
Introduction
San Jorge and his cult in Banyeres de Mariola is what has led me to investigate the cult since the beginning, as well as knowing from when these begin and their diffusion.
Saints and the cult of relics, with its basilicas and consecrated altars, they were the bridges between heaven and earth, whose different times were synchronized by virtue of the liturgical celebrations. In such a way that the liturgical calendar was something like the earthly transposition of the heavenly, proper of the saints. That is why the interest of the various churches to unify their liturgical uses is explained., especially since the unity of the Hispanic Church was achieved, first with the conversion of Recaredo and then with the expulsion of the Byzantines.
In consideration of the liturgical year as a heavenly transcript, and its necessary synchronization, explains the interest in fixing the same dates for the great liturgical festivals common to all churches, and especially Easter, that ruled the rest. The liturgical calendar established in this way established some working times and other unskilled times for the normal tasks of the community., with the existence of absolute rest on Sunday and feasts of the saints.
At the end of the 4th century, Hispanic Christianity had ceased to be an exclusively urban phenomenon. The Visigothic countryside was Christianized as one more expression and consequence of the Christianization of the language of power and domination.. Initial and fundamental work of noble senators and their Episcopal relatives had been carried out following the guidelines drawn up in Gaul by San Martín de Tours at the end of the 4th century. It was about, so, of a Christianity that had known how to divert in its favor the traditions and spatial and temporal references of the ancient peasant religiosity: overlap of Christian festivals with other fundamental pagan ones of the agricultural cycle, and the dedication to the holy martyrs of former places of worship; what, in many cases, it did not go beyond a superficial Christian appearance of previous magical and fetishistic practices. To the extent that such practices were intended to continue being carried out outside of the representatives of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and with an overly patent plasticity of their paganism, a more or less lewd aspect of many popular festivals and dances, originate them from disappeared fertility rites; or continuity of religious spaces and objects without the presence of a place of Christian worship, it had to denounce it and ask the secular arm for its eradication.
The Canon 11 of the XII Council of Toledo in the year 681, dedicated to the repression of such practices, points to the lords as directly responsible for the vigilance of the Christian purity of the customs of their peasants. Because the truth is that the Christianization of the fields from the beginning had not come more than to reinforce the domination exercised by these people over the peasants, by sacralizing in many cases the network of social and economic dependencies that focuses on the old stately residence or late Roman villa.
Visigoth Hispanic conciliar legislation certainly alludes to this reality of the multiplication of Christian worship temples built in rural areas at the expense of rich lay people., as certified by the canon 33 of the IV Council of Toledo of the year 633, which also points out how the construction of a rural basilica was accompanied by the assignment to it of real estate and workforce (slaves) sufficient for the maintenance of the cult and the clergy attached to it.
I.- The calendars and martyrologies
The custom of noting the anniversaries of martyrs dates from the early days of the Church.
Already among pagans it was customary to note dates and anniversaries of interest, and maybe those calendars were used at first, including christian dates. Between 435 Y 455, Polemius Silvius, bishop of Martigny, wrote a private calendar in which, along with official pagan festivals and other civil commemorations, some Christian holidays are listed.
Ancient Christian epitaphs mention the date of death; presumably those dates were noted on calendars and, when it came to martyrs, glory of the local church, this one would keep memory of those days. This is how the local catalogs of martyrs' anniversaries originated and, in parallel, those of "depositiones episcoporum".
The martyrology called "Hieronymian", for having put his compilers under the name and authority of Saint Jerome, It is one of the most interesting documents for hagiographic research.
This martyrology is one of the so-called generals, that were formed by overlapping various local or literary sources. It seems that the compilation attributed to Saint Jerome was made in the middle of the 5th century in Upper Italy (Milan and Aquilea); the author of the same gathered elements of eastern and western calendars. There are other martyrologies as they are: Anterior difference al 735; Lyon anterior al 806; Floro c. 852; It comes c. 873; Used year 858.
Also in the East there were martyrologies of a historical type called synaxaries..
Christian calendars appear in the 4th century and are local in character. The most famous ancients are the so-called "Depositio episcoporum" of Rome that are included in the "Chronographus de Furius Dionysus Filocalus", of the 354 (1).
Hispanic calendars like Carmona's, It can be from the end of the 6th or 7th century, when in Hispania the dangerous custom of transferring relics and the desire to acquire them at any price had already been introduced, according to Vives (2).
II.- Archaeological sources
Among the most interesting and valuable sources on the cult of the saints of Hispania are found in the epigraphs. The edition of the Christian inscriptions is due to Vives (3).
The tombstones and their findings, give us the existence of several churches, generally from Baetica, dedicated to saints. The Blessed Virgin takes the primacy with some seven basilicas; follows San Esteban with five possible, and San Vicente with four. Other holders are San Juan Bautista, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Santa Cruz, Santa Eulalia, Santas Justa and Rufina, the three cordovan martyrs, Saints Faust and companions, and perhaps Saints Justo and Pastor, according to a Lusitania epigraph of doubtful authenticity.
III.- Visigothic councils
The councils that may be of interest range from that of Elvira c. 300 to the XVIII of Toledo in the year 702. In them we find provisions related to festivals and worship in general.
One of the most important from the liturgical point of view is the IV of Toledo, in the year 633, that liturgical unity was proposed.
In addition to the data on festivals and worship, an overview of the ecclesiastical environment of each century is deduced from the acts of the councils. In the fourth century only bishops are alluded to, clergymen and virgins. Later councils refer more and more to monastic life, yes well in the I of Zaragoza still shows some apprehension for anti-Priscillian reaction. In the 6th century, monastic life is solidly established: the minutes of the Council of Tarragona in the year 516 allude to religious, monasteries, abades, bishops, priests, clergymen; distinguish between cathedral and diocesan Churches and refer to the recitation of the office (Vespers and Matins).
From the provisions of the councils on churches and monasteries it is deduced the development that the cult of saints had reached in Visigothic times, manifested in the abundant private foundations.
Not only are monasteries repeatedly referred to in the minutes, but numerous abbots often appear as representatives of bishops. The signatures of the Toledo Councils from the 7th century, in the year 646, testify to the existence of monasteries in all the provinces of the Visigothic kingdom. In the minutes of some councils there are names of abbots accompanied by the title of their monastery; it seems that they are abbots of Toledo, to be signed in a provincial council such as the XI of the year 675, who would have the privilege of attending councils in their own capacity. However, the titles of those others whose existence indicates the presence of abbots representing bishops in the councils are unknown, although some may be supposed to correspond to councils from other sources.
IV.- The saints and their worship
From the time of the persecutions the martyrs began to receive a special veneration; the reason for this is an assimilation to Christ in his Passion and in his glorification. It was also estimated that the martyrs had a power of intercession greater than that of the other faithful, even before his death. As the authentic records attest, Confessors of the faith were asked to intercede on behalf of the Christian people. One of them is the passage of the martyrs of Tarragona in which, as Bishop Fructuoso went to the amphitheater where he was to be burned, a Christian approaches him to ask him to remember him and hears that declaration of universal charity: "In my mind that is necessary for the Catholic Church from the east to the west in peace difussam) (4).
The Christian idea of the cult of martyrs is translated into expressions common to a Roman environment accustomed to the veneration of the memory of the deceased, of those who used to remember anniversaries and visit graves. But there is a difference, no longer only in the idea, but in the form: it is not a memory reduced to the family circle, the entire Christian community participates in that memory.
At first, the cult centers on the grave; the faithful go there and the anniversary of martyrdom is commemorated ("Birthday") with religious ceremonies.
In the year 386 an imperial constitution promulgated in Constantinople and led by the prefect of the East, Cinegio, prohibited the transfer of buried bodies as well as the fragmentation and circulation of relics, while introducing the concept of "martyríum" (5).
Father Delehaye points out several signs of worship, but none of such decisive character as the anniversary celebration; in other cases there may be errors or it may be a merely private or popular cult: the party is a sign of official worship (6).
The cult developed widely with the translations of relics. The West long resisted the division of these: Representative relics were still in use in the 6th century - oil from lamps that burned before the altars of the martyrs; cottons or canvases touched to the grave, etc. The representative or partial relic was considered to be equivalent to the real and total and, in many cases, it was designated by the word corpus, which in the long run led to believe that the body was had and there were cases of unfolding. The deposition of relics ended up being considered necessary for the consecration of all kinds of churches and the same happened with the designation of a holder by extension of the basilicas dedicated to the martyrs.
V.- The cross and its worship
The cult of the cross can be considered as a derivation of the cult of Jesus Christ. It has been suggested that the feast would actually commemorate the appearance of a "paryelic cross" in Jerusalem in the year 351; the "Apparitio crucis" was celebrated in the East on 7 of May; upon entering the West, this festival would be related to the "Inventio" and a reading error would change the date.
It cannot be assured that the feast of the cross was celebrated before the 7th century, although perhaps the silence of the first law cited only means that it was not yet so solemn, and, On the other hand, the cult is much older at least it would date from the 6th century.
In Toledo, in the 7th century at least, there was a chapel or church of the Holy Cross, end of the procession on Good Friday. There is verification of ceremonies according to the "Liber Ordinum silense", these, inspired by the "Herosolimitan rite", perhaps they were imposed or generalized as a consequence of the IV Council of Toledo.
WE.- Worship of biblical saints
In the Mozarabic calendars there are some saints of the Old and New Testaments, besides the apostles, but the only ones who were worshiped in Visigothic times were the Maccabees, the Holy Innocents and Saint John the Baptist.
The cult of the Maccabees came from Antioquia. Saint John Chrysostom dedicated several sermons to them, San Gregorio Nacianceno, Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine. By the testimony of these sermons it can be affirmed that the cult was ancient, even in the West and prior to the transfer of relics to Constantinople and then to Rome, in the second half of the 6th century.
Saint Augustine justifies the worship of martyrs before Christ and refers to the famous basilica of Antioquia.
Fabrega suggests that Leandro might influence the introduction of the cult in Hispania, for his friendship with the future Pope Gregory the Great, apocrisario of Pelagius II in Constantinople at the time of the transfer of the relics (7).
Since ancient times the Holy Innocents have been mentioned in homilies of the Fathers of the Church, but the first testimonies of liturgical commemoration date from the 6th century; They are mentioned in the Carthage calendar. Perhaps the cult of the Innocents began in the 5th century. Western calendars and liturgical books contain the 28 from December, and in the East the 29, as one of the festivals of biblical characters that were grouped around Christmas.
Of the saints that can be called biblical, the most important and extensive cult is San Juan Bautista. He could also have been included in the group of eastern martyrs, since the cult would begin in Palestine in the places related to his life where there were churches since the fourth century. In the 4th century, Saint John was commemorated in the East as an extension of the feast of the Epiphany.; remains of that party remain in Coptic calendars, Armenians and Nestorians. It seems that it was also held in Gaul, according to the Tours calendar collected by Gregorio in his "Historia Francorum", that would go back to the time of Bishop Perpetuo (461-490).
To the Visigothic period, the churches of Salpensa and Alcalá de los Gazules in the Hispalense conventus, in the first of these two churches, consecrated by Pimenio of Asidonia, there were relics of Saint John, who do you name first, together with several Spanish saints. The church of Alcalá de los Gazules, also consecrated by Pimenio, contained relics of Saints Servando and Germán, Saturnino, Justa and Rufina and Juan Bautista (8).
There were also relics of this in Mérida in the church of Santa María de las Vírgenes and probably in Toledo, for Pope Gregory had sent Recaredo after his conversion.
VII.- Cult of the apostles: of Roman and Eastern origin
The first to be worshiped were Saints Peter and Paul, Andrés and Juan, of the apostolic men, Saint Stephen.
The cult of Peter and Paul was located first, apparently, in the common tomb in the place called "ad catacumbas" in the third milestone of the Via Appia, where his remains were until the beginning of the 4th century. The “graffiti” with invocations to both apostles on the walls of the San Sebastián catacomb are still witnesses of popular devotion in that place., "Graffiti" dating from the middle of the third century.
In Hispania, the cult of these apostles depends entirely on Rome.
The devotion of Hispanics to the apostles was not only manifested in the peninsular territory but also went to their Roman tombs. From Gregory the Great's reply to Recaredo it follows that this king had sent various presents to Rome as proof of his devotion to Saint Peter, and according to an inscription collected by ancient codices, Chintila (636-640) also offered a veil to the tomb of Saint Peter (9).
The rest of the apostles celebrated in Visigothic times must have come from the East.
The cult of San Andrés must have spread from the fourth century; although from the East the diffusing center cannot be determined.
Mainly the Acts contributed to the spread of the cult.. In Hispania they were known in the 5th century and had great acceptance in priscilianist circles, according to the epistle of León to Toríbio de Astorga. In the 6th century Gregory of Tours, in his news about the apostle, in "The Glory of Martyrs", seems to depend on the Latin "Passio" already refined from the heterodox passages (10).
The cult of Saint John spread from Ephesus, where his tomb was venerated that the Spanish pilgrim Eteria visited at the end of the 4th century.
The testimonies of the cult in Hispania are attributed to the 6th or 7th century; the epigraphic calendars of Carmona and Itálica include the festival 27 from December (11).
The introduction of Saint James the Greater in the West, maybe it was introduced in the 8th century. In the Hieronymian the 25 of July, date adopted by western churches. The dissemination of oriental hagiographic stories would contribute to the institution of the festival, such as the so-called "Acts of Abbeys", supposed disciple of the apostles, and a series of Byzantine catalogs translated into Latin (12).
The cult of San Esteban must have existed before the year 415, the diffusion that reached as a consequence of the discovery of his relics in Cafargamala -Jerusalem-, there are abundant testimonies of its diffusion in the West.
There is an abundance of testimonies generally coming from the south of the Peninsula, which favors the idea that the cult spread mainly from Africa. The feast of San Esteban, according to all the Hispanic sources from the epigraphic calendars of Carmona and Itálica, the 26 from December; This is how it appears in all liturgical books. His cult, which was probably introduced in the 5th century, it would be general throughout the Visigoth church.
(To be continue …)
Keywords:
Visigothic Kingdom, worship of the saints, relics, Saint George
Bibliography:
(1) VELAZQUEZ, I., Hagiography and worship of the saints in the Visigoth Híspanla: approach to its literary manifestations, Emeritenses Notebooks, 32, National museum of Roman art, Merida, 1995, p. 46.
(2) LIVE, J. «Visigoth saints in calendars and Inscriptions» Anacleta sacra Tarraconense 14,1941 p. 46.
(3) LIVE, J. Christian inscriptions from Roman and Visigothic Spain, Madrid Barcelona, 1941-1942.
(4) GARCÍA RODRÍGUEZ, C, The cult of the Saints in Roman and Visigothic Spain. CSIC, Ecclesiastical History Monographs Vol. I Madrid 1966, p. 107 according to Passio Frucctuosi, c. 4. FÁBREGA GRAU, A., Hispanic passionate (siglos VII-XIj. (Spain and quite Community, Liturgical Series, vol VI). Madrid Barcelona, 1953.
(5) CASTELLANOS, S., Social power, aristocracies and holy man in the Visigoth Híspanla. The Vita Aemiliani by Braulio de Zaragoza. University of La Rloja, Logroño, 1998, p. 135. Eg. IX, 17,7.
(6) Are those signs: 1) Celebration of refigeria next to the tomb; but it was also done in the simple faithful; 2) Special burial, inscribed Summons. The absence of a grave is suspicious: If some Acts say that the body miraculously disappeared it is significant data; 3) Altar erection in honor of the martyr; 4) Invocation, distinguishing the Invocations to simple faithful by the family and the votives of a purely popular character; 5) Panegírico, difficult to distinguish sometimes from funeral oration for deceased ; 6) Passio: does not mean existence of public worship; most important collections of miracles from pilgrimage centers; 7) Figurative representations: they do not always indicate worship; they can be part of the biblical cycle if it is about saints mentioned in Sacred Scripture. (DELAHAYE, H., Sandus. Essay on the cooking of saints in antiquity, Brussels, 1927; help saint, 17 p. 124-160.
(7) FÁBREGAGRAU.A. on cit. p. 145.
(8) LIVE, J. on. cit. p. 102-104,111
(9) LIVE, J, on. cit., p. 135.
(10) GARCÍA RODRÍGUEZ, C. on. cit. p. 154.
(11) LIVE, J. due tit. p. 113-114.
(12) Idem, p. 160. The first allusion to preaching in Hispania is in a Latin version of the apostolic catalogs, The birth and death of de ella dependers, which had been attributed to Isidore. Instead, Julián de Toledo in his De Verificatione sextae aetatis depends on the pseudo Obadiah and on the catalogs, only talks about the preaching in Jerusalem; This would indicate disavowal of that news by the Visigoths themselves
