Markulf (saint)

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St. Markulf transfers his healing powers to the newly crowned King of France; Baroque painting in the Saint-Georges church in Grez-Doiceau
Markulf Window from 1230 in Coutances Cathedral

Markulf , French Marculphe , Marcouf , Marcoult a . a. (* 490 in Bayeux ; † 558 in Saint-Marcouf-de-l'Isle , Canton of Montebourg ), was a Franconian hermit , then founder and first abbot of Nantus Abbey in Normandy (today Saint-Marcouf-de-l'Isle ) and missionary of the Cotentin . As a saint and patron saint against scrofula , he gained national importance in the late Middle Ages through his inclusion in the sacred ordination of the French kings.

Life and legend

Markulf was ordained priest by Bishop Possessor of Coutances . His missionary trips are said to have taken him, with great success, across the Cotentin peninsula and to the Channel Islands ; in Jersey he let his students Helier back. The Merovingian Frankish King Childebert I gave him land for the foundation of his monastery. When Markulf died, Bishop Laudus (French: Saint-Lô ) was present.

Soon many miraculous healings were told at Markulf's grave. At an unknown point in time, his bones were raised and brought to Corbeny in 898 by monks from his abbey, possibly on the run from the Norman conquest . The pilgrimage church built there for him was destroyed together with the entire town during the First World War in the Battle of the Aisne .

Markulf and the French Royalty

The veneration of St. For centuries Markulf was confined to his home diocese of Coutances and the immediate vicinity of Corbeny. His reputation as an emergency helper for scrofula was possibly linked to a name resonance ; To old French ears, mar cou sounded like "sore throat", and several common diseases in the neck and face area were summarized under the generic term scrofula .

Since the early Middle Ages, the kings of France had a reputation for having hereditary miraculous healing powers, especially in the area of ​​scrofula. They regularly undertook the duty to receive scrofulae and, as the rite dictated, to touch them on the chin with the words: “The king touches you; God heals you ”. For this reason, Louis X. on his way back from the coronation in Reims at the shrine of St. Markulf had come to prayer in Corbeny. This station was from then on - but not before; Louis the Saint may not even have known the name of Markulf - it was an integral part of the coronation rites, and the intercession of St. Markulf was now considered the heavenly origin of the royal miraculous power. A symbolic action to the scrofulous felt nor Charles X in the Restoration era committed.

literature

  • Marc Bloch : Les rois thaumaturges: Étude sur le caractère surnaturel attribué à la puissance royale particulièrement en France et en Angleterre. Istra, Paris 1924
    • German: The miraculous kings. Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-47519-1 . About St. Markulf and the Kings pp. 287–334

Web links

Commons : Markulf (Saint)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Saint Marcouf, abbé. Paroisse Notre-Dame de Coutances, Diocese of Coutances, 7 September 2017, accessed on 26 January 2019 (French). Different sources have Nanteuil , probably due to the same name or confusion with the abbey of Nanteuil-en-Vallée in the Charente department ; hence Markulf von / Marcoult de Nanteuil .
  2. ↑ Markulf. In: liborius.de. Archived from the original on July 1, 2013 ; accessed on January 26, 2019 .
  3. ↑ This and the following section based on the well-founded presentation by Marc Bloch, s. Lit.
personal data
SURNAME Markulf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marculphe; Marcouf; Marcoult; Markulf of Nanteuil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Frankish missionary and abbot, saint
DATE OF BIRTH 490
PLACE OF BIRTH Bayeux
DATE OF DEATH 558
Place of death Saint-Marcouf-de-l'Isle ( Canton of Montebourg )