Helgaud of Fleury

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Helgaud was a monk of the Benedictine abbey of Fleury , he lived in the time of Robert II (972-1031) and was probably better known with him. In the Vita de Gauzlini , Andreas von Fleury praised him as the cantor of the monastery and named him in 1041 at the bottom of his catalog of writers.

Epitoma Vitae Regis Rotberti Pii

Robert the Pious in a representation by Jean Fouquet from the Grandes Chroniques de France . (15th century, Bibliothèque nationale de Paris)

In his Epitoma Vitae Regis Rotberti Pii he described King Robert II , called Robert the Pious, as a saint. Unlike other sources about Robert, he only called the holy sites and stresses in particular its Psalmodierung , meaning "the constant practice that Vergilien the great feasts in the church to spend."

for example :

  • Robert forgives his enemies
  • he feeds the poor and lets them steal from him without doing anything about it
  • he is very mild, almost patronizing, towards petty criminals
  • great willingness to reconcile in the case of conspirators

In addition to his good deeds, Helgaud also describes the king's miracles :

Robert is on the trip with some companions and comes to a large river that he has to cross. So people get into a boat with their horses and a horse almost causes a shipwreck, which Robert can avert with a loud prayer (the horse calms down again as if guided by God's hand) and the companions arrive safely.

This special situation of a shipwreck almost caused by a horse, which is averted by a saint, also occurs in other hagiographies .

A second miracle is healing the sick. He is said to have cured a blind man of his ailments in his royal palace in Paris by sprinkling them with water.

In general, Helgaud drew a very positive picture of Robert II:

“No insult could provoke him to revenge (;) he loved simplicity and behaved in a lovable, humane, equally accessible way for everyone (...). He was gentle, kind, with a polite and elegant disposition, more devoted to charitable acts than flattering words ”.

However, beating all his efforts, Robert to a canonization to help, fail, his work was in the Middle Ages almost not received.

However, the phrase "Le Roi empereur de France" by Helgaud von Fleury is used here for the first time and is taken up again and again later.

plant

  • Helgaud von Fleury: Vie de Robert le pieux. Epitoma vitae regis Rotberti pii . Edited by R.-H. Bautier and G. Labory, Paris 1965

literature

  • Werner Tietz: Rex humillimus. Holiness with Helgaud von Fleury . In: “Hagiographica”, 4 (1997), pp. 113-32.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Max Manitius: History of the Latin Literature of the Middle Ages. From the middle of the tenth century to the outbreak of the struggle between church and state. CH Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, (ND of the version from 1923) Munich 1976, p. 367.
  2. Jump up ↑ Johannes Hoops, Heinrich Beck: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, Volume 4 . de Gruyter, completely revised and greatly expanded 2nd edition Berlin 1981, p. 549.
  3. ↑ Karin Fuchs: Signs and Miracles in Guibert de Nogent: Communication, interpretations and functionalizations of miracle stories in the 12th century . R. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008. pp. 146f. Online perspectivia.net
  4. ↑ Quoted from: C. Stephen Jaeger: The emergence of court culture: from court bishop to court knight . Erich Schmidt publishing house, Berlin 2001, p. 269.
  5. ↑ Eric Bournazel: Robert, Charles et Denis. "Le Roi empereur de France" . In: Droits savants et pratiques françaises du pouvoir (XIe-XVe siècles) . Sous la direction de Jaques Krynen et Albert Rigaudière, Bordeaux 1992, Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, pp. 69-77. ISBN 2-86781-135-X .
personal data
SURNAME Helgaud of Fleury
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Helgaud
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Benedictine monk
DATE OF BIRTH 10th century or 11th century
DATE OF DEATH 11th century