French Popular Piety: The Hargrett Hours
The Hargrett Hours is a non-aristocratic, fifteenth century French manuscript. Like the Codicology and Calendar groups, our Suffrage group concluded that the HH was likely created in or around Paris because the suffrages include Saint Genevieve (the patron saint of Paris) and Saint Fiacre [1]. With the exception of pre-monastic regulation figures like Genevieve and Fiacre, French laity tended to focus their attention on the biblical-era saints favored by French kings and Church officials, rather than local or later saints. Thus, a non-royal suffrage set would likely combine biblical saints and martyrs with locally or politically important saints. Although Saint Fiacre was an Irish saint who lived in northern France, his relics were housed in Meaux Cathedral in the Île-de-France region of Paris: Saint Genevieve’s connection to Paris and French royalty made her an obvious choice. Together, these two saints who originally stood out to us because they were not the same as the biblical or martyr era saints featured prominently in the HH suffrages created a narrative connecting popular piety to regional interest.
Saint Genevieve
Saint Genevieve (422-500) is the patron saint of Paris, and is invoked against plague, leprosy and fevers, for an end to excessive rain and drought, and for the healing of kings. She was born in 422 in Nanterre, the city that would later become the Paris. According to tradition, St. Germain of Auxerre saw Genevieve when she was six years old and was so overcome with her “obvious piety” [2] that he chose to consecrate her to God by placing a medal with a cross on it around her neck [3]. She took the veil at fifteen after her parents died, Genevieve’s parents died and lived a life of harsh penance in her godmother’s home in Paris [4]. In 451, Genevieve’s piety proved helpful once more as she was able to save the city from starvation when she traveled to Arcis-sur-Aube by boat to find grain for the community. Later that year, she was credited with saving Paris by leading the city in prayer to protect them against a Hunnic invasion as Attila bypassed Paris . She also secured the release of captive prisoners by pleading with Childeric and Clovis in 464. After her death Genevieve’s intercession was often called upon when Paris faced catastrophe, such as when an epidemic sweeping the city in 1129 was reputedly ended due to her intercession.
Saint Fiacre
There are three different Irish Saint Fiacres, but the most popular one is Saint Fiacre of Breuil (d. c.670), and it is likely this Fiacre who is included in the HH. Fiacre was an Irish hermit who left his home and all his possessions in Ireland and traveled to Meaux, France, in order to exile himself for Christ by living as a hermit. The Bishop of Meaux, St. Faro, gave Fiacre land in Breuil so he could live peacefully as a hermit in the woods until his death. Because Fiacre lived in such good virtue, he healed the poor that came to him by placing his hands on them and took their sicknesses on himself. Through the grace of God they returned home healed. Fiacre also drew on the ground with his staff, which made the trees fall down all around him. Through this miracle, ditches appeared where he drew his staff. Although this was an act by God, a woman who saw this act accused Fiacre of witchcraft. St. Faro did not believe this woman and he came to love and adore Fiacre even more. Since France is where Fiacre spent the majority of his life, his cult thrived in France rather than Ireland.
Conclusions
Fifteenth-century French popular piety was a more distinctly hierarchical, less individually authorized affair than in England. Local and later saints usually did not attract the same attention as their biblical counterparts, except for those whose cults were patronized by the kings of France (Saint Denis) or were mentioned by Gregory of Tours (Martin of Tours). Part of their unpopularity may have come from some of the Frankish kings‘ Arianism (a non-Trinitarian Christian heresy prevalent on the continent in late antiquity) or simply the organized promotion of other, more interesting saints, such as those in Gregory of Tours’ Life of the Fathers. Exceptions to this generalization were pre- monastic rule, professionally religious figures like Genevieve and Fiacre, who took vows but belonged to no order. Evidence of their popularity may be found in manuscripts (Victor Leroquais counts over 76 miniature and textual appearances for Genevieve and over 31 for Fiacre) [5], as well as scripts and performances of their lives in medieval vernacular French mystery plays [6]. What was unexpected to us was a given to the HH’s original audience(s), and serves as a wonderful reminder that books of hours are so much more than a mere collection of prayers; they are a means to understanding audiences separated by time, faith, and geography.
Kaley Lefevre and Lainie Pomerleau for Group 4
[1] The Suffrages are in a different hand than the Calendar, and may have been composed separately or later. The inclusion of Fiacre, whose cult was growing in popularity throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, may point to a later composition date. For further reaind, please see Porter, M.E., and J.H. Baltzell. “The Medieval French Lives of Saint Fiacre.” Modern Language Quarterly, vol. 17, no. 1, 1956. pp. 21 – 27.
[2] Lanzi, Fernando, and Gioia Lanzi. Saints and Their Symbols: Recognizing Saints in Art and in Popular Images. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2004. 107.
[3] Lanzi, Fernando, and Gioia Lanzi. Saints and Their Symbols: Recognizing Saints in Art and in Popular Images. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2004. 107.
[4] Lanzi, Fernando, and Gioia Lanzi. Saints and Their Symbols: Recognizing Saints in Art and in Popular Images. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2004. 107.
[5] Leroquais, Victor. Les Bréviaires Manuscrits De Bibliothèques Publiques De France. Protat Frères, 1934. Vol 2, Appendix 5, 410, 407.
[6] For further reading on French medieval mystery plays, please see Hamblin, Vicki L. Saints at Play: The Performance Features of French Hagiographic Mystery Plays. Medieval Institute Publications, 2012.
References
Bouchard, Constance. Rewriting Saints and Ancestors: Memory and Forgetting in France 500 – 1200. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.
Caxton, William and Jacobus de Voragine . “The Life of S. Fiacre.” Medieval Sourcebook: The Golden Legend. Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275. First Edition Published 1470. Englished by William Caxton, First Edition 1483, Edited by F.S. Ellis, Temple Classics, 1900 (Reprinted 1922, 1931).
Farmer, David Hugh. “Fiacre.” The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, 4th ed., Oxford University Press, 1997. 138.
Farmer, David Hugh. “Genevieve.” The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, 4th ed., Oxford University Press, 1997. 200 – 201.
Hamblin, Vicki L. Saints at Play: The Performance Features of French Hagiographic Mystery Plays. Medieval Institute Publications, 2012.
Lanzi, Fernando, and Gioia Lanzi. Saints and Their Symbols: Recognizing Saints in Art and in Popular Images. Liturgical, 2004.
Leroquais, Victor. Les Bréviaires Manuscrits De Bibliothèques Publiques De France. Protat Frères, 1934. 2 vols.
McBrien, Richard P. Lives of the Saints: From Mary and St. Francis of Assisi to John XXIII and Mother Teresa. Harper, 2001.
Pernoud, Regine. Les Saints Au Moyen Age. Plon, 1984.
Porter, M.E., and J.H. Baltzell. “The Medieval French Lives of Saint Fiacre.” Modern Language Quarterly, vo. 17, no. 1, 1956. pp. 21 – 27.
Thiellet, Claire. Femmes, Reines et Saintes. Presses de L’Universite Paris-Sorbonne, 2004.