E05861: The Calendar of Willibrord, in its earliest version, records the feasts of various saints in November. Written in Latin at Echternach, Frisia (north-east Gaul), 703/710.

https://doi.org/10.25446/oxford.13875743

online resource

posted on 2018-06-22, 00:00 authored by bsavill

The Calendar of Willibrord records in November the feasts of the following saints: *Leo I (bishop of Rome, ob. 461, <a href="https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/_/13730287">S00423</a>) *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, <a href="https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/_/13729234">S00050</a>) *Augustinus and Felicitas (martyrs of Capua, <a href="https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/_/13734580">S01993</a>) *Caecilia (virgin and martyr of Rome, <a href="https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/_/13729516">S00146</a>) *Clement (bishop of Rome, martyr of the Crimea, <a href="https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/_/13729414">S00111</a>) *Chrysogonus (martyr of Aquileia, <a href="https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/_/13731496">S00911</a>) *Andrew (the Apostle, <a href="https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/_/13729909">S00288</a>) Paris, Bibliothéque nationale de France, Lat. 10837, f. 39v Kalendas nouembris iiii nonas iii ii nonas viii vii vi v iiii natale leonis papae iii tornis natale sancti martini episcopi ii idus xviii kalendas decembris xvii xvi agustini et felicitatis xv xiiii xiii xii xi x natale sanctae caeciliae viiii sancti clementis rome viii crisogoni vii hiems dies xci vi v iiii iii ii natale sancti andreae apostoli '1 November 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 - Feast of Pope Leo 11 - At Tours, the feast of Saint Martin, bishop 12 13 14 15 16 - Augustine and Felicity 17 18 19 20 21 22 - Feast of Saint Caecilia 23 - Saint Clement of Rome 24 - Chrysogonus 25 - 91 days of winter 26 27 28 29 30 - Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle' Text: Wilson 1918, 13 (adapted: Wilson's 'first hand' in roman type, 'second hand' in italics, later annotations omitted). Translation: B. Savill.

History

Evidence ID

E05861

Saint Name

Leo, bishop of Rome, ob. 461 : S00423 Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 : S00050 Augustine and Felicity (martyrs at Capua, Italy, 3rd century) : S01993 Caecilia, virgin and martyr of Rome : S00146 Clement, bishop and martyr of Rome : S

Saint Name in Source

Leo Martinus Agustinus et Felicitas Caecilia Clemens Crisogonus Andreas

Related Saint Records

Image Caption 1

Paris, BnF, Lat. 10837, f. 39v (source: gallica.bnf.fr)

Type of Evidence

Liturgical texts - Calendars and martyrologies Late antique original manuscripts - Parchment codex

Language

Latin

Evidence not before

703

Evidence not after

710

Activity not before

703

Activity not after

710

Place of Evidence - Region

Gaul and Frankish kingdoms

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Echternach

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Echternach Tours Tours Toronica urbs Prisciniacensim vicus Pressigny Turonorum civitas Ceratensis vicus Céré

Major author/Major anonymous work

The Calendar of Willibrord

Cult activities - Festivals

Saint’s feast

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Explicit naming a child, or oneself, after a saint

Source

A liturgical calendar directly associated with Willibrord (archbishop of the Frisians, 695-739; abbot of Echternach, 697/8-739) survives as a contemporary manuscript in Paris, BnF, Lat. 10837, ff. 34v-40, where it immediately follows a version of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum of approximately the same date and provenance. Although it exceeds our database’s cut-off point of AD 700 by some three to ten years, the Calendar of Willibrord is included here since it almost certainly provides a key witness to cultic and liturgical practices in Britain and Ireland at the close of the 7th century – something not afforded by the relatively meagre contemporary Insular evidence. Willibrord was born in Deira, Northumbria (northern Britain) in 657/8, and given as an oblate to the monastery of Ripon in 664. He left Britain for Ireland in 678, possibly under compulsion after the sudden fall from power that same year of his abbot and mentor, Bishop Wilfrid. He lived at the Irish monastery of Rath Melsigi until 690, before travelling to north-east Francia and embarking on his missionary career as 'apostle of the Frisians'. Pope Sergius I ordained Willibrord as archbishop in Rome in 695, and although he appears to have based his see at Utrecht, most sources suggest that his new monastic foundation at Echternach (near the modern-day Germany-Luxembourg border) served as his main ecclesiastical centre. Echternach’s early scriptorium almost certainly produced the Calendar. A lunar cycle for the years 703-21 appended to the text indicates the widest possible time frame for its original composition, and moreover suggests a date within that cycle’s first few years. Meanwhile, the absence of any entry for Willbrord’s mentor Bishop Wilfrid (ob. 24 April, 710), whom we know was cultivated as a saint almost immediately after his death, strongly suggests against any date later than 710. The Calendar includes no identifiable saints later than Pope Sergius I (ob. 701) and Lambert, bishop of Maastricht and patron saint of Liège (ob. c. 701/5). On palaeographical grounds, we can date the so-called 'first' and 'second' Insular uncial hands of the Calendar, plus two entries in Frankish uncial, to the early 8th century, and we have treated these here as comprising the effectively 'original' form of the Calendar. The manuscript does, however, also include numerous later interpolations and annotations (including an autobiographical entry by Willibrord himself, from 728), which belong to various hands from across the 8th and 9th centuries, and cannot always be dated precisely (Hen 1995). We have, therefore, not included these later entries in our database.

Discussion

Caecilia (Nov. 22) and Clement (Nov. 23): On the right-hand margin of these entries is Willibrord's 'autobiographical' annotation of 728, which recounts his episcopal consecration by Pope Sergius I in 695. To the immediate top-left of the entry for Caecilia, another later annotation records 'the ordination of our lord Clemens' (ordinatio domni nostri clementis), a reference to Willibrord's name in religion, Clemens/Clement. The location of these annotations is not accidental. According to Bede, Willibrord was consecrated by Sergius in the church of Santa Cecilia, Rome, on that saint's feast day (Ecclesiastical History, 5.11), while the significance of Clement of Rome is obvious. See Wilson, 1918, 42-3, for a full commentary.

Bibliography

Edition: The Calendar of St. Willibrord from Paris Lat. 10837: A Facsimile, with Transcription, Introduction and Notes, ed. H.A. Wilson (London, 1918). Further reading: Costambeys, M., "Willibrord [St Willibrord] (657/8-739)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/29576 Hen, Y., Culture and Religion in Merovingian Gaul, AD 481-751 (Leiden, 1995), 102-6. McKitterick, R., "Frankish Uncial: A New Context for the Work of the Echternach Scriptorium," in: A. Weiler and P. Bange (eds.), Willibrord zijn wereld en zijn werk (Nijmegen, 1990), 374-88; repr. in R. McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning in the Frankish Kingdoms, 6th-9th Centuries (Aldershot, 1994), part V. Netzer, N., "The Early Scriptorium at Echternach: The State of the Question," in: G. Kiesel and J. Schroeder (eds.), Willibrord. Apostel der Niederande, Gründer der Abtei Echternach (Luxembourg, 1990), 127-34.