<i>Medieval Music, Legend, and the Cult of St. Martin: The Local Foundations of a Universal Saint.</i>By Yossi Maurey

In the subtitle of his book, Yossi Maurey deftly identifies the tensions that permeate the cult of Saint Martin, his liturgy, and its constituent music throughout the Middle Ages: a saint inextricably linked with the city of Tours, where he served as bishop, and which became his burial site, Martin rapidly achieved prominence in a much wider theatre largely through the impact of the biography written by his contemporary Sulpicius Severus. But the story, as Maurey puts it in this exhaustively researched and efficiently expressed book, remains much more complicated than simply one of a local saint whose life and cult inspired the faithful in other jurisdictions to embrace him. For, from the time of his death, ownership of his cult became disputed territory, first in Tours itself and then outside, as its promoters adapted the facts of his biography and his saintly attributes for their own purposes. At least three ecclesiastical institutions in Tours claimed an intimate association with the saint: the cathedral, where he served as the city’s bishop; the collegiate church dedicated to him, which housed his tomb; and the abbey of Marmoutier, which he founded, and where he held the office of abbot. The rivalry among them led to a series of conflicts, many of which manifested themselves in the practice of the liturgy at the three principal institutions (ch. 4). Maurey documents, for example, how the canons of the collegiate church consistently used processions to demonstrate hegemony over dependent churches in the urban area. On at least one occasion, they barred the city’s bishop from their church, and on another, received a papal exemption that prohibited the archbishop from celebrating Mass there. These events represent more than just petty local power struggles, whether diocesan or metropolitan, as Saint Martin attempted to assert its authority over high-ranking ecclesiastical officials or subservient churches. Indeed, they indicate how precious ownership of Martin’s cult was to these clerics.

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.