Fides from Agen

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St. Fides with grating and martyr's palm (12th century)

Fides of Agen ( French Sainte Foy , Occitan and Spanish Santa Fe , Portuguese Santa Fé , English Saint Faith ); was an early Christian martyr who suffered martyrdom in Agen in the French region of Aquitaine at the beginning of the 4th century . The year of death is given as 287 or 303; the latter year fell into the persecution of Christians by Emperor Diocletian .

Life

Fides is first mentioned in the 6th century in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum , but only that she died on October 6th in Agen.

Earlier, probably in the 5th century, an account of her death, a Passio, was written; however, the oldest surviving manuscripts of the Passion date from the 10th century. Accordingly, she came from a noble family and was still a young girl when she was ordered to appear before the Roman governor Datianus . He asked her to sacrifice to Diana because it was her age. She replied that she knew from the fathers that all the gods of the heathen were demons , and that he was trying to persuade them to sacrifice to them? The governor had them tied to a bronze grate and a fire lit under it. A hiding Christian named Caprasius watched what was happening. He prayed that God would glorify the tormented. Then he saw her in a brilliant white robe wearing a crown with precious stones and pearls; a dove flew out of the clouds and sat on its head. He now knew that she had won the victory prize, eternal salvation, took courage, left his hiding place and was also tortured. Eventually both - along with Alberta, Primus and Felician, the siblings of Fides - were beheaded in a temple. Bishop Dulcidius von Agen, adds the Passion , transferred Fides' bones to a church (probably in the early 6th century). The Passio was passed on in this way and with additions .

Miracle reports

According to the first miracle account, a man in Conques named Guibert received new eyes at the intercession of Fides after his master, a clergyman, tore his eyes "with the same fingers that he used to touch the holy body of Christ". Bernard Guibert rates healing as greater than even Christ's miracle of healing a man born blind ( Jn 9 : 1-12  EU ). According to another legend, Fides is said to have made helpful picaresque pieces: A knight had borrowed a hunting falcon from his liege lord on the condition that all his property would have forfeited to the liege lord if he could not return the animal. The falcon escaped. The knight was desperate. His wife advised him to promise a candle to Holy Fides and to sit down confidently for dinner. “At meal, however - how nice to report that - a tame goose flew through the open window into the room. The lost hawk followed her immediately and grabbed her with a swift approach. […] What a joy, how many thanks that the knight was able to keep his property instead of transferring it to his master. "

Adoration

Around 880, according to a report from the 11th century due to theft, the bones came to the Benedictine monastery in Conques in the French region of Midi-Pyrénées . The relics of famous saints promised their owner a powerful heavenly advocate, prestige and gifts. Conques also benefited, especially when another miracle happened at the end of the 10th century. From 1010, Bernard, a clergyman and scholar from Angers , who had studied in Chartres , traveled several times to Conques and recorded the miracles in two books Liber Miraculorum Sancte Fidis until his death (around 1020) , intended especially for readers in northern France. In the copy kept in the humanist library in Schlettstadt , the first book contains 34, the second 15 miracle reports.

After Bernard's death, the monks of Conques continued the Liber miraculorum , so that in the end it comprised four books. Fides' reputation as a mediator of miracles spread, especially since Conques was on a Jacob pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela . From 1041 a larger church had to be built, Ste-Foy de Conques . Relics came to Sant Cugat del Vallès west of Barcelona in Spain, to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Gallen in Switzerland, where the Church of St. Fiden , and to Schlettstadt in Alsace , where Ste-Foy de Sélestat was built. Numerous places in the French-speaking area are named after "Sainte Foy", in the Spanish-speaking area after "Santa Fe".

Around the year 1070, Fides' story was put into a chanson de geste in Old Occitan , known as the Chanson de Sainte Foy .

She is the patron saint of German churches for St. Fides and Markus in Sölden (Black Forest) and St. Fides in Grafenhausen in the Black Forest. Also that of St. Otto von Bamberg founded in 1124 the Benedictine provostry St. Getreu in Bamberg is St. Consecrated to Fides; St. Faith corresponds to the Latin fides = "faith", "loyalty".

iconography

Reliquary statue of Fides in Conques

Fides is usually depicted with a martyr's crown, victory palm and the rust of her ordeal.

Two sculptures in Conques are particularly famous. One of the oldest depictions of the saints, begun towards the end of the 9th century and later decorated, is the 85 cm high reliquary statue of Fides (Fides reliquary) made of wood, gold and gold-plated silver sheet in the local museum. Fides sits stiffly, frontally, with an almost hypnotic charisma.

The other, from the beginning of the 12th century, is in the tympanum of the west portal of Sainte-Foy . The tympanum represents the Last Judgment with many figures . ' In the left part, Christ blesses the blessed with his right hand. On a stepped transverse bar reads: “SIC DATUR ELECTIS AD CELI GAUDIA VINCTIS / GLORIA PAX REQUIES PERPETUUSQUE DIES” - “In this way, those chosen for the joys of heaven are given fame, peace, tranquility and eternal light.” A flat gable underneath carries the Inscription: "CASTI PACIFICI MITES PIETATIS AMICI / SIC STANT GAUDENTES SECURI NIL METUENTES" - "The pure, peaceable, mild, pious stand like this, joyful, secure and without fear." On the transverse bar, the blessed step to Christ, led by Mary and Peter .

Left part of the tympanum of St. Foy de Conques with Fides

Under the flat gable , six staggered arcades , from which lamps hang down, depict the New Jerusalem . An angel lets in the blessed; in the middle Abraham hugs two virgins with a chalice - possibly Fides and her sister Alberta are referring to. The transverse bar and the flat gable form two gussets - in the right one, angels help the dead rise from the grave; in the left, Fides kneels in front of the hand of God, which extends out of the clouds towards it. Behind her is the throne from which she rose to kneel. Three arcades behind Fides indicate the abbey church. Handcuffs or ankle cuffs, from which Fides freed prisoners, hang from the crossbars between the columns . The chalice of the Eucharist stands on an altar . Fides and her throne represent the relic statue that mediates between the earthly church and God in the hereafter.

Fides, Spes and Caritas

The Fides of the sisters Fides, Spes and Caritas , who are said to have died as martyrs in Rome in the 2nd century, must be distinguished from Agen . Her Passio has no historical value . It is possible that the three virtues of the first letter to the Corinthians “Faith, Hope, Love” ( 1 Cor 13.13  EU ) were legendary.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carutt 1960, core 1995th
  2. ↑ Bousquet 1974.
  3. ↑ Sheingorn and Clark 1995, pp. 33-38.
  4. ↑ 2 pp. Fides et Soc., MM. (Oct. 6). In: Johann Evangelist Stadler (Ed.): Complete Lexicon of Saints. Volume 2, Augsburg 1861, p. 206. ( online at zeno.org)
  5. ↑ Sheingorn and Clark 1995, pp. 43-51.
  6. ↑ Sheingorn and Clark 1995, pp. 88-90.
  7. ↑ St. Fides Grafenhausen on the website of the Archdiocese of Freiburg.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 17, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.ebfr.de  
  8. ↑ Sheingorn and Clark 1995, p. 6.
  9. ↑ Christoph Bernoulli: The sculptures of the Abbey Conques-en-Rouergue. Inaugural dissertation to obtain a doctorate from the Philosophical-Historical Faculty of the University of Basel. Birkhäuser Verlag , Basel 1956.
  10. ^ Jacques Bousquet: La sculpture à Conques aux XI e et XII e siècle. Essai de chronologie comparée. Thèse presentée devant l'Université de Toulouse. Service de reproduction des Thèses, Université de Lille III 1973.
  11. ↑ Paul Stintzi: Sophia and her three daughters Fides, Spes and Caritas. In: Wolfgang Braunfels (Ed.): Lexicon of Christian Iconography , Volume 8, Herder Verlag, Freiburg 1976, ISBN 3-451-14498-0 , Sp. 382-384.
personal data
SURNAME Fides from Agen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION christian martyr
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century
DATE OF DEATH 287 or 303
Place of death Agen