A Medieval 12th Century Depiction of a Saint, Likely Created in Southern France

Records of the sale of this piece date back to the 1940s at a sale at Parke Bernet in New York, which noted its rarity

Across Europe, holy wells dot the landscape, often renamed and repurposed from pre-Christian sites of worship. Relics of finger bones and tunics are carefully and reverently shrouded in the churches. Pilgrims walk the same paths year after year to atone for their sins and contemplate God. Effigies or symbols are carried around for specific protections. Hagiographies, also called vitae or lives, detailed holy lives and were written down in jewel-covered manuscripts. In short, saints and saints’ cults navigated the social and political sphere, even the geography, of medieval Europe.

Some saints were responsible for specific requests of intercession. Saint Sigismund, the 6th century King of the Burgundians, cured fevers and was the first saint to “specialise in the cure of a particular medical condition” (Paxton, 26). Before Saint Sigismund, in order to pray for a saint’s favour, pilgrims would have to visit the shrine of the particular saint. Because the petition to cure fever was addressed to Sigismund through the votive mass, “Missa sancti Sigismundi”, suffers could pray to him from anywhere and receive his succour with the help of their own priests. Sigismund’s path to sainthood is another interesting case of the sometimes unusual aspects of medieval saints’ cults. Despite being “a layman who had not died in the defense of his faith” and having “had one of his sons ruthlessly murdered” (Paxton, 28), Sigismund “gained the reputation as a saint and as a source of healing power over fevers” (Paxton, 25). Sigismund had founded an Abbey of Agaune during his lifetime, and the monks residing there took the opportunity in the late 6th century to promote the posthumous healing powers of their founder (Năstăsoiu, 589). Gregory of Tours praised Sigismund’s effectiveness over fevers in his Liber in Gloria Martyrum and thus, a saint was made.

Litanies and hagiographies, or the biographies of saints (from the Greek for holy writings), give a sense of the array of local saints, like Sigismund, and standard saints that would have been recognised across the Medieval Christian world, like the Martyrs or the Apostles. Based on scholarship that has laboured to compile comprehensive lists of saints, the Bibliotheca sanctorum provides 20,000 saints from the early Medieval to the Reformation period, with 15,000 of them from the early Christian and Medieval period (Bartlett, 137).

Illustrated initial of a Saint, France, likely Southwest, Twelfth century, 90 by 125mm, an ‘I’ formed from a standing saint in green, white, red, and blue robes. Reverse, what remains of text in Romanesque hand with two letters touched in red, ST ligature.

Originally, this miniature, historically excised from a 12th century Southern French manuscript, would have stood as an illuminated initial, beginning a word starting with the capital letter I. We can tell that this figure represents a saint because of the plane halo and his hand with two fingers stretched out in a blessing. In his other hand he grasps what could be a scroll or a pouch. Unfortunately, the illuminator did not include identifying features— for example, we know Saint Christopher because he is usually depicted carrying the Christ child (as Christoforos means carrier of Christ), or Saint Katherine is depicted with the instrument of her torture, a wheel. Close examination of the saint’s face reveals that his mouth is open, likely to speak a blessing or respond to a supplicant’s request in conjunction with his gesture.

While the identity of the saint depicted in this miniature may be lost among the 15,000 possibilities, perhaps his clothing give us more sense of his holiness. According to early Irish monks, three kinds of martyrdom were possible: white, green, and red. The monks described white martyrdom as a cutting off from the things he loves; green martyrdom is through fasting and labor, a separation from desires; and red martyrdom is torture and death for the sake of Christ (Bartlett, 176). With the influence of the Irish-founded monasteries in Continental Europe, perhaps the green, red, and white robes worn by this illustrated monk nod to his hermitism, deprivation of desires, and ultimate martyrdom.
The palaeographic elements support the claim that the manuscript is French, with the classic ‘tallness’ of pre-Gothic French-produced letters.
Records of the sale of this piece date back to the 1940s at a sale at what was then Parke Bernet in New York. From the collection of Vladimir Gregorievitch Simkovitch (1874-1959), Russian émigré to Germany then America, professor of Economic History at Columbia University, New York.

See also:

Bartlett, Robert. Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?: Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation. Princeton University Press, 2013.

Năstăsoiu, Dragoş. “A New ‘sancta et fidelis societas’ for Saint Sigismund of Burgundy: His Cult and Iconography in Hungary during the Reign of Sigismund of Luxemburg,” The Hungarian Historical Review (5:3), 2016: pp. 587-617.

Paxton, Frederick S. “Liturgy and Healing in an Early Medieval Saint’s Cult: The Mass ‘In Honore Sancti Sigismundi’ for the Cure of Fevers,” Traditio (49), 1994: pp. 23-43.