Felix and Regula
Felix and Regula are two of the three Zurich city patrons and saints of the Coptic Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church . According to a legend from the early Middle Ages , they died as martyrs during the Diocletian persecution of Christians . The third city patron, Exuperantius , on the other hand, has only been handed down as a figure in the legend of Saints Felix and Regula since the 13th century. The two saints belong to the group of cephalophores ("head carriers").
Until the Reformation , Felix and Regula were venerated in Zurich and the Grossmünster , the Wasserkirche and the Fraumünster are dedicated to them. Her feast day is September 11th.
The legend
action
Legend has it that the siblings Felix and Regula were members of the Theban Legion , who were martyred around 302/03 AD near Agaunum ( Saint-Maurice ) in Valais . Together with their servant Exuperantius, on the advice of the commanding officer of the Legion, Mauritius , they fled via the Furka , the Reuss Valley and the Klausen Pass into the Glarnerland. They followed the Linth to Lake Zurich and came to Turicum ( Zurich ), where they pitched their tents and served God day and night.
Legend has it that the particularly cruel Roman Emperor Maximian sent his captors after them. As the three saints were saying their prayers, they were surprised by the imperial soldiers. However, by a miracle they were not immediately recognized. It was only when they were asked whether they were companions of the other fugitive members of the Theban Legion, Exuperius, Candidus and Viktor, that they faithfully revealed their identity. Despite torture, they did not allow themselves to be forced to sacrifice to the Roman gods Mercury and Jupiter. On the orders of the captain of the hunters, Decius, they were beheaded on a small island in the Limmat . Angels would have carried the bodies of the beheaded, who had their heads in their arms, exactly 40 cubits up the mountain where they were buried.
Lore
The oldest written versions of the legend of Felix and Regula are in the St. Gallen Abbey Library . One manuscript dates from the second half of the 8th century (Codex 225), another from the second half of the 9th century (Codex 550). The introduction to the legend with the formula " Tempore illo " (at that time) refers to the Carolingian age. The legend arose after the Passio acaunensis martyrum, in which the legend of the Theban Legion is passed down. The figure of Exuperantius did not appear until the 13th century and was not originally part of the legend.
Starting from the first writing in Latin, the legend spread in the following centuries. The last medieval retelling comes from the Zurich writer Heinrich Brennwald. His Swiss Chronicle, which also included a new version of the legend, was written between 1508 and 1516, the time shortly before the Reformation. His manuscript was significantly influenced by his devotion to the Catholic Church and Saints Felix and Regula, although he converted to the new faith in the spring of 1523. Unlike the first version, Brennwald published his story in dialect. Brennwald's chronicle was the first attempt at a pragmatic presentation of Swiss history, whereby he often resorted to oral traditions or his own imagination in his endeavors to close the gaps. In 1576 the chronicle was published again by the Wettinger abbot Christoph Silberysen . He also had colored pen drawings added in his version .
“Decius, the cruel tyrant, ordered them to bow their necks to have their heads chopped off. When the holy martyrs heard this, they sang in praise of the Lord and said: "Your ways, Lord, show us, and your paths teach us, for you are God our Savior." After they pleaded with one voice to the Lord Jesus Christ praying with their hands up to heaven, they bowed their necks, and when the hired killers cut their heads off, they died a glorious death for the Lord. And behold, a voice of singing angels and saints was heard, it said: "May the angels lead you into paradise and the martyrs receive you with glory."
The legend makes extensive use of the Holy Scriptures in terms of style and choice of words . Sometimes whole passages come literally from the Old and New Testament . Often phrases appear that were part of the language of the Holy Scriptures. In addition to various psalms, certain idioms were strung together as they often appear in the Latin Bible. “Pitch tents” for living, “hang on to the Lord”, “fast and watch”, “stay day and night in prayers and in the word of God”. Combined, these fragments then result in the sentence "... where they set up their huts and clung to the Lord loyally and piously, while they fasted day and night, vigil, prayers and in the word of God". In other places, biblical sentences are paraphrased, for example the sentence “You have our body in your control, but you do not have our souls in your control, but only God, who formed us”, a modification of Jesus' admonition “Fear not of those who kill the body, but rather fear him who can destroy soul and body in hell »(Mt 10:28).
In some places the biblical wording is misrepresented. In the oldest surviving Latin text, for example, the verse "Come, you blessed ones of my Father, receive the kingdom that God has prepared for you from the beginning" deviates from the tradition of the Vulgate (Mt 25:34). The promise of the Holy "Glory be to God in the highest and peace on earth to men of good will. Lord Jesus Christ, we praise you, we praise you in the ages of ages. Amen »agrees with the version taught in Carolingian liturgical books. The sentence of the singing angels towards the end of the legend "May the angels lead you into paradise and the martyrs receive you with glory" also comes from the Gelasian-Gallican funeral liturgy of the 8th century, as it was prayed on the way from the church to the cemetery . In certain funeral rites of the Catholic Church , these words still accompany the dead to the grave today. The legend of Felix and Regula is the oldest known manuscript that reproduces the prayer in full.
The legend belongs to the genre of martyrdom stories, which is a subspecies of its own in Christian literature. They show the steadfastness and strength of a saint who stands by his faith even in the worst of circumstances. The story of Jesus' passion forms the template for this. The beginning “ Passio sanctorum Felicis et Regula ” (Passion of Saints Felix and Regula), which is usual for martyr legends, points to this.
Historical and geographic background
The legend tells that the godless emperor Maximian sent cruel henchmen to persecute Felix and Regula. The pursuer of the two was called Decius. The Diocletian persecution of Christians , which lasted from 302 to 305 and claimed the lives of numerous Christians, serves as the period and background of the story . Diocletian had made Maximian his co-emperor in 286. As the second regent, he appears in many martyr reports as the archetype of the tyrannical persecutor of Christians.
Unlike the historical background, which is only vaguely described, the geography is presented in detail. In the short introduction we learn that Felix and Regula and their companions had set out to wander in the service of the Lord after the advice of the military commander Mauritius. Your path continues through Glarus to the Turicum fort . The landscapes are portrayed in a similar way to those found in the works of other contemporary authors. The motive for the journey, giving up one's material goods in order to put one's life in the service of God, can be found in a multitude of contemporary legends. The description of the Glarnerland as a “desert and barren area” illustrates the hard life of a pilgrim and is therefore not to be taken literally. The place was well populated both in late antiquity and in Carolingian times.
The destination of Felix and Regula's hike is at the outflow of Lake Zurich into the Limmat, not far from Kastella Turicum. Here the saints meet their persecutor Decius and suffer martyrdom. From the execution site by the river, they walk 40 dextri (steps) up the mountain to their burial site, 200 dextri from the fort. According to tradition, the place of execution is on the island on which the water church was later built. However, there are no references of this kind in the oldest variant, in which neither the island nor a Christian veneration of the place of blood are mentioned. The situation is different with the graves; the legend tells of the blind and lame who were healed while visiting the place. There is much to suggest that it is the same place where the Grossmünster was later built. The distance specification of 200 dextri also supports this theory.
Towards the end of the legend it is reported that the story of Felix and Regula was revealed to the holy monk Florencius by the Holy Spirit . This fact contributes little to research, since the name Florencius was widespread in the Merovingian period . The terms “holy” and “monk” also do not help. In comparable writings, the hermits also bore the title of monk and the title "holy" was available to every follower of the church class at that time . The "holy monk Florencius" remains a stranger, like the author who refers to him.
The feast day
The legend ends with the indication that the feast of the saints is celebrated on the third day before the Ides of September (III Idus Septembris). In the Roman calendar , it means September 11th, which is noted as the day of remembrance of Felix and Regula in the calendar of the city of Zurich and on which the boy shooting is traditionally held. The setting of the date is highly controversial among researchers. In the Kalendarium Carthaginense, a directory of ecclesiastical festivals and commemorations of the 6th century, the names Felix, Eva and Regiola are entered on the third day before the calendars of September (III calendas of September, 30th August). The only surviving calendar is a copy by the French scholar Jean Mabillon . His original, which was already badly damaged at the time, has long been lost.
Some scientists see the reason for the two different dates in the fact that the Roman, abbreviated spelling of the two - III Id. Sept. and III Kl. Sept. - looks very similar. This fact had already led to discrepancies on other important days. Saints Felix and Regiola, mentioned in the calendar of Carthage , are said to belong to a group of martyrs from Abitina in the Roman province of Africa proconsularis . Based on this, the theory developed that the relics of the African martyrs had been brought to Zurich, where over time they wanted to make them at home and invented their own legend. According to another assumption, the story from Abitina was only a template for the Swiss saints and otherwise would have no connection to the same. The Abitina Martyrs are the best known group of the Martyrs of the Holy Books .
Representation of the saints
On seals
Throughout the Middle Ages, various seals were provided with the saint motifs. One of the first was made in Fraumünster in 1224 and is attributed to Abbess Adelheid von Murghart , although her name is not on the seal. Typical of the Fraumünster seals from this time is the pointed oval shape and a picture with the heads of Felix and Regulas as well as a kneeling abbess underneath and the hand of God on top. In 1258 a different motif was used for the first time: the saints are drawn from the side and hold their heads in their hands. Again there is a kneeling abbess below the scene. This representation was subsequently decisive for all further seals of the Fraumünster. It can also be found in that of Elizabeth von Spiegelberg (1298) and that of Elizabeth von Matzingen (1308). In the decades that followed, the representations became more and more detailed and complex.
On coins
The earliest depiction of the city's saints on coins can be found on a denarius during the reign of Emperor Heinrich II (HRR) , only one piece of which was found in Stockholm . The letters FELIX (REG) VL (A) are engraved on the back . The front side with the illustration cannot be seen.
From the 13th century onwards, Felix's head was used on the Zurich pfennig for the next hundred years . The head stands on its own, without a name or a halo . That it must be about Saint Felix is evident from the seal images of the saint, which were made at the same time. The periodic coin renewals also required a change in the coin design. There are nine different types of penny between the second quarter of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century. Felix looked to the right for some, to the left for others. The city name, which is available in both Latin (TURICUM) and German (ZVRICH), is also inconsistent. It was also written backwards on a penny. In the following years Felix was replaced by images of the Fraumünster Abbot and the city mistress.
With the advent of the large silver coins of modern times, motifs of the saints were used again. Coins from 1504 and 1505 show Felix and Regula with severed heads and halos. The city coat of arms lies at their feet and the names are engraved on the right and left sides. A thaler from 1512 was created based on a seal from the 14th century. For the first time he showed all three city saints united on one coin. Charlemagne , the founder of the Great Minster, was depicted on the gold coins of the same time .
After the Reformation, the city saints were no longer used as coin motifs. About a hundred years later, Felix and Regula found use on an undated Zurich ducat . On the back there was an image of Charlemagne. In terms of time, its coining is likely to be in the same frame as that in which the Zurich theologian Johann Jakob Ulrich published his writings. In them he campaigned strongly for the reintroduction of the saints on coins. In his opinion, they were the first representatives of the Christian faith in Zurich and as such deserved a special honor. Despite his influence as administrator of the Grossmünsterstift, the ducat used the saint motif of Felix and Regula as the last coin.
Reformation and Counter Reformation
Unlike in many other regions where the Reformation took place, the iconoclasm , that is, the removal of the altars, sculptures and church treasures in Zurich , happened in a relatively orderly manner. The authorities succeeded in appeasing the opponents of the image and preventing a storm on the churches. The revolt on Whitsun in 1524 in Zollikon was an exception . The incident prompted the council to act quickly. According to an initial decision, the pictures should be removed from the churches, but not destroyed. The agenda item was adopted on July 15. From June 20 to July 2, the evacuation of the churches took place behind closed doors. The three preachers Zwingli , Engelhart and Leo, as well as a man from each guild , the entire council and the craftsmen of the city, including carpenters, locksmiths, blacksmiths, stonecutters and unskilled workers, had been assigned with the task .
The graves of the city saints were not yet affected by this first excavation. The Zurich cult site was not abolished until December 12, 1524 at the behest of the city councils. Official council files on this occurrence are missing, but numerous contemporary authors, including Gerold Edlibach and the chronicler Bernhard Wyss , report on the opening of the two coffins. A few days later, on December 17th, the Felix and Regula Altar was demolished. In September 1525 the council decided to confiscate the remaining church treasures. The reason given was that this money would be used for the costs caused by the Reformation. The monastery of the Grossmünster managed to obtain a short-term postponement, but its intervention in the city council on September 30th did not bring about the desired turnaround. The nearly 30 (out of 200) councilmen present insisted on their demands. On October 2nd in the morning at 7:00 a.m., a council delegation appeared in the sacristy of the former grave of Felix and Regula. With the confiscation of church goods, the trace of the city saints in the Grossmünster was initially lost.
The picture of saints, the five altarpieces , which were originally created for the Twelve Messenger Chapel on behalf of the Grossmünster Zurich , and the legend of Felix and Regula and their martyrdom , did not survive the iconoclasm unscathed. Known today as “ The City of Zurich Conterfey ”, all five can be seen in the Swiss National Museum in Zurich . Because of their - former - gold background, it is assumed that these are altarpieces. The possibility of a - lost - sixth panel is therefore not excluded.
The relics
Preserved relics
The heads of Felix and Regula, once exhibited in the Grossmünster, are now said to be kept in the sacristy of the parish church in Andermatt . The surviving sources that testify to the authenticity of these relics and describe their journey from Zurich to Ursern are relatively young and not very precise. The oldest known message is dated to 1648. According to her, the Jagdmatt Chapel in Erstfeld received a hair relic from Regula as a gift from Andermatt. The credentials , which Pastor Nicolaus Thong added in a copy in the chapel, states that the relic was found in a coffin that the residents of Ursern secretly received from Zurich in 1525. Allegedly this was previously hidden in the city until Zwingli found out about him. The coffin was then entrusted to the Urserer Hansli Benet, who was in Zurich at the time, and who took it with him to Andermatt. In the following years it was in the care of various princes who kept it in their castles.
The history of the coffin is revisited in a protocol from 1688, according to which it was opened at that time in Andermatt in the presence of ecclesiastical and secular confidants. The scribe Cristoph Christen reports that in addition to the relics of other saints, it also contained the heads of Felix and Regula. The coffin was then closed again and remained hidden from the public for another 80 years. It was not until 1730 that the Ursern council ordered that two showcases be made for the heads of the saints and that they be displayed for the people to view on the high altar made by Jodocus Ritz in 1716.
It is highly doubted that the relics exhibited in Andermatt actually correspond to those from Zurich. On the one hand, there is no evidence that anything was missing when the Great Minster was cleared on October 2, 1525. If the heads of Felix and Regula had disappeared, it would have caused a stir. The first news about the skulls was not found until 1648, a good 120 years after the iconoclasm. In Thong's copy, the names Felix and Regula are not mentioned at all. The protocol from 1688, in turn, lists a large number of relics that were in the coffin. Many of the saints mentioned were hardly or not at all venerated in Zurich. All of this indicates that the leaders from Andermatt are not identical to the former ones from Zurich. Apparently, efforts were made in the 17th century to revive the veneration of Felix and Regula in Andermatt, after this had almost been forgotten in Zurich after the Reformation.
Examination of the relics
In 1950 the relics were reopened and a piece of each skull about five centimeters in diameter was cut out of the area of the occiput. They were given to the St. Felix and Regula Church in Zurich, which was newly built at this time. A few decades later, the relics were opened for the last time so that they could be examined more closely. The aim of this investigation was to date the age of the heads and thus obtain information about where they came from.
When examined, Felix's skull was found to be almost complete and in good condition, although the entire lower jaw was missing. In addition, the bone slice sawed out in 1950 was missing from the back of the right parietal bone. On the underside of the skull, diagonally to the left behind the exit point of the spinal cord on the occiput , a small piece of bone had broken out. The articulated rollers for the movable connection between the head and the spine were found to be destroyed, whether naturally, by decomposition or by artificial intervention could not be determined. On the other hand, traces of intentional damage were found on both sides of the mastoid processes. The originally strong appendages are symmetrically sawn off in two planes from the outside top to the bottom inside at their base.
Across the back of the head is a strip of paper about eleven centimeters long with an inscription made of Indian ink. It probably originally ran as a closed band around the entire skull, which has now been torn in two in the middle of the text. The remaining words are: Anno 312 Caput S. Felicis Martyris ex Thebae or 30th Legion. Tyguri martyrizati .
A seal was tied under the strip of paper and behind the hole in the back of the head. In the center stands the Archangel Michael on a dragon with outstretched and splayed wings and a spear in his hand, which he thrusts into the throat of the monster. The letters "... en angel" can be seen on the right half. The seal is probably one from the Capuchin monastery in Attinghausen near Altdorf . The same copy hangs on a dowry letter from the monastery from 1644 and is marked with the inscription "Zuo allen Heiligen Engeln". The monastery burned down completely in 1676, after which a new one was built in Altdorf. In 1677 the nuns inaugurated the new St. Karl monastery. It can be assumed that the skulls of Felix and Regula were entrusted to those women in order to rework them. They were marked with the seal saved from the old monastery, although only the imprint on Felix's head has survived.
The surface of the skull is hardly exposed to weathering, and thin-walled areas such as the eye sockets are completely preserved. The bone substance is exceptionally hard, which indicates that Felix's head was in the ground for less than two centuries. Due to the features of the skull, the assignment to the male sex is considered certain. The findings on the dentition indicate that he died between the ages of 20 and 40. The condition of the cranial sutures also corresponds to this. They show no beginning to merge either on the inside or on the outside, which makes death between 25 and 35 most likely. The proportions, dimensions and contours largely correspond to other finds known from numerous excavations in Zurich from the early and high Middle Ages .
Manuscript sources of the Felix and Regula legend
- Zurich, Central Library, MS A 118, detailed German-language prose version by Martin von Bartenstein, dated between 1480 and 1520
- Heidelberg, cpg111 f2r – 41v, Alemannic prose version, digitized online
- Berlin, mgq 190, f114r – 126v, Alemannic prose version
- Berlin, mgo 484, f163r – 173r, Swabian prose version
literature
- Hansueli F. Etter, Urs Baur, Jürg Hanser, Jürg E. Schneider: The Zurich city saints Felix and Regula. Legends, relics, history and their message in the light of modern research . Office for Archeology of the City of Zurich, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-905243-01-6 .
- Walter Nigg : Felix and Regula. Appropriation of a legend. SV International Schweizer Verlagshaus, Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-7263-6361-0 .
- Jürg Hanser, Armin Mathis, Ulrich Ruoff , Jürg Schneider: The new image of the old Zurich. Juris, Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-260-04993-2 .
- Cécile Ramer: Felix, Regula and Exuperantius. Iconography of the monastery and city saints of Zurich. Antiquarian Society, Zurich 1973 ( communications from the Antiquarian Society in Zurich. 47, ZDB -ID 280134-6 = Neujahrsblatt. 137), (At the same time: Zurich, Univ., Diss., 1972: The Zurich city saints Felix, Regula and Exuperantius in legend and art. ).
- Cécile Ramer: The Zurich city saints Felix, Regula and Exuperantius in legend and art. (9th - 17th centuries). o. N., Zurich, 1972 (partial print, Zurich, Univ., Diss., 1972).
- Iso Müller: The early Carolingian Passion of the Zurich saints. In: Journal for Swiss Church History. Vol. 65, 1971, ISSN 0044-3484 , pp. 132-187, online .
- Emil Vogt, Ernst Meyer , Hans Conrad Peyer: Zurich from prehistoric times to the Middle Ages. Publishing house, Zurich 1971.
- Rudolf Pfister : Church history of Switzerland. Volume 1: From the beginning to the end of the Middle Ages . Zwingli-Verlag, Zurich 1964, pp. 24-26.
- Denis van Berchem : Le martyre de la légion Thébaine. Essai on the formation d'une legend. Reinhardt, Basel 1956 ( Swiss Contributions to Classical Studies 8, ISSN 0080-7273 ).
- Paul W. Roth: Soldier Saints. Verlag Styria, Graz Vienna Cologne, 1993, ISBN 3-222-12185-0 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ St. Gallen, Abbey Library, Cod. Sang. 225, p. 473-478. ( online )
- ↑ St. Gallen, Abbey Library, Cod. Sang. 550, p. 29-39. ( online )
- ↑ R. Luginbühl (Ed.): Heinrich Brennwald, Swiss Chronicle in connection with Swiss history , p. 613
- ↑ The Passion of Saints Felix and Regula. Latin version based on Iso Müller. German translation by Silvan Mani. In: Hansueli F. Etter / Urs Baur / Jürg Hanser / Jürg E. Schneider (ed.): The Zurich city saints Felix and Regula. Legends, relics, history and their message in the light of modern research. Building Department of the City of Zurich / Office for Archeology, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-90524301-6 , pp. 17–18.
- ↑ Urs Baur: The Zurich city saints Felix and Regula, p. 21
- ↑ Iso Müller: The frühkalingorische Passio the Zurich saints. In: Journal for Swiss Church History Vol. 65, pp. 152–153
- ↑ Urs Baur: The Zurich city saints Felix and Regula, p. 26
- ↑ Iso Müller: The frühkalingorische Passio the Zurich saints. In: Journal for Swiss Church History Vol. 65, pp. 180–185
- ↑ Urs Baur: The Zurich city saints Felix and Regula, p. 28
- ^ Emil Egli: Real Lexicon for Protestant Theology and Church, Vol. 6, p. 30
- ^ Dietrich Schwarz: A Zurich ducat of the 11th century. In: Dona Numismatica, pp. 96-97
- ↑ Hans Jacob Leu : General Helvetisches Lexikon vol. 18, p. 587
- ^ Emil Egli (Ed.): Collection of files on the history of the Zurich Reformation in the years 1519–1533, No. 543
- ↑ J. Hottinger and H. Vögeli (eds.): Heinrich Bullinger's Reformationsgeschichte vol. 3, p. 175
- ↑ Konrad Escher: Invoices and files on the building history of the Great Minster in Zurich up to 1525. In: Anzeiger für Schweizerische Altertumskunde Vol. 32, pp. 42–43
- ^ Eduard Wymann : A contribution to the history of the Felix and Regula worship. In: Historisches Neujahrs-Blatt, pp. 37-100
- ↑ Urs Baur: The Zurich city saints Felix and Regula, pp. 92–93
- ↑ Eduard Wymann, p. 73
- ↑ For the more recent investigation see: Hansueli Etter: The investigation on the relics. In: Hansueli Etter: Die Zürcher Stadtheiligen, pp. 103–119.
