Narcissus of Girona

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Narcissus of Girona , also Narcissus of Gerona , († 307 in Tarraconensis ) is a figure mentioned in the legend about Saint Afra of Augsburg . He is said to have worked as a bishop and was martyred . He is one of the saints of the Catholic Church. Whether Narcissus actually existed has not been established.

Church historical circumstances

The background to the event is the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire . Emperor Diocletian issued four decrees that were directed against Christianity. The first of February 303 withdrew their churches from Christians and required the surrender of their holy books and scriptures. (See also Martyrs of the Holy Books .) The second ordered the imprisonment of all clerics . The third of the same year promised impunity to the Christians, who again sacrificed to the Roman gods. Failure to contain the new faith led to the fourth edict in 304, threatening death to all who did not sacrifice.

Life

There are no certain facts about his life. The Afrasage contains the little information about Narcissus. Afterwards, the persecution of Christians that began in Spain in 303 forced Bishop Narcissus of Gerundum, today's Girona , out of the country. While escaping, accompanied by his deacon , Felix von Girona, both came to Augsburg. They quartered themselves in the hostel of Hilaria and Afra, not knowing that it was a brothel . At dinner, the grace of grace , which Narcissus said reverently to his deacon, aroused the curiosity of the residents. They wanted to know more in a conversation that is said to have lasted late into the night. The piety of the holy man and his persuasive words converted Afra, her mother and the three maidservants to Christianity.

According to legend, Narcissus stayed in the city for nine months to look after the small Christian crowd and to baptize new converts. During this period he consecrated Africa's uncle Dionysius, her mother's brother, as the first bishop of Augsburg. Together with Felix he started on the way home to the Iberian Peninsula . Three years later he was martyred in Spain.

Uncertainties

The Afra legend is described in the Passio S. Afrae and its extension Conversio S. Afrae , which a monk of the Augsburg Afra monastery made around the 9th century. The Conversio is now classified as historically doubtful in its facts. A narcissus boom did not begin in the city on the Lech until 1071 bones, which were regarded as relics of St. Afra, were transferred to the new building of the Afra Church, which aroused the interest of the faithful in Afra's Anabaptists .

When the Augsburg Church in Catalonia asked what they knew about Narcissus there, Bishop Berengar of Girona wrote to Abbot Sieghart of St. Afra in 1087 that the sources only referred to the Augsburg episode. However, he gave the messenger from Germany a piece of a stole . This comes from the tomb of Narcissus. A mummified corpse in a stone sarcophagus, which, after its discovery, was buried in the church in the 10th century together with the bones of another martyr, Felix Africanus, was regarded as such .

The Afra legend is portrayed differently in Spain in relation to Narcissus in one important point. According to legend there, Narcissus arrived from Augsburg with his deacon and continued his work as bishop. An escape to Augsburg and later return does not know this version. Doubts about what happened in general are raised by the fact that the bishop's name Narcissus did not appear anywhere in Spain until shortly before the end of the 10th century.

The author Johann Adam Möhler describes in his book Church History , published in Regensburg 1867–1868, the Conversio S. Afrae literally as “a work of later times which expects the readers to believe the fairy tale of a bishop of Gerona in Spain who has come to Augsburg. "

Narcissus worship in Spain

The inquiry from Augsburg to their bishop laid the seed for a stronger veneration of Narcissus as a saint in Girona. As in the time of King Peter III. of Aragon, the city was taken by the French, in 1285 a swarm of mosquitoes plundered soldiers at the grave of the saint. An outbreak of flies allegedly drove the invading army away. This miraculous event strengthened the people's belief that Narcissus was made the patron saint of Girona. According to legend, the defense of the Church against the French in wartime by swarms of flies rising from the saint's grave was repeated in 1653 and 1684. His regular veneration in the churches of Girona first spread to neighboring dioceses and then all over Spain.

St. Felix Church
Girona Cathedral

In 1328 an alabaster tomb was created for the bones of Narcissus in the Capilla de San Narciso , in 1792 they received a silver sarcophagus and were moved by St. Felix (Spanish: Sant Feliu ) to an annex to Girona's cathedral. Since the church was sacked in the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the trail of the relics has been lost.

Remembrance day

Narcissus' feast day was on March 18, in Augsburg and Gerona on October 29. In the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council , the day of remembrance was dropped as part of the streamlining of the days of remembrance. In Girona the day continues to be celebrated with “Fiestas de San Narciso” lasting several days .

Saint Narcissus of Girona is invoked to prevent mosquitoes and flies .

iconography

Narcissus is depicted as a bishop in regalia with a miter and staff, sometimes with a dragon at his feet. Representations of St. Afra and her companions join them. The dragon representation goes back to a legend, according to which Narcissus forced the devil to kill a dragon by making a promise.

Narcissus in art

  • Manuel Tramulles (1716–1791) depicted the torture of St. Narcissus for the Cathedral of Santa Maria of Girona.
  • In 1959, Salvador Dalí paid tribute to the Catalan folk tale about the flies of St. Narcissus in his painting “The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus” (“The Dream of Christopher Columbus”) when he painted a bishop and flies into the painting at the bottom left. In 1974 he also created the sculpture "Saint Narcissus of the Flies" .

literature

Web links

Commons : Narcissus of Girona  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Georg Sauter: Church history of Swabia up to the time of the Hohenstaufen , page 113. Nördlingen, 1864 , queried on September 9, 2009
  2. ^ Pius Bonifatius Gams: The Church History of Spain , Volume 2, Part 1, Page 438. Regensburg 1864. , queried on September 9, 2009
  3. ^ Johann Adam Möhler: Church History , Volume 1, First Period, Pages 254-255. Regensburg 1867–1868. , accessed on September 9, 2009
  4. ^ Georg Kaspar Nagler: New general artist lexicon , page 48. Munich 1849 , queried on September 9, 2009
  5. ↑ artnet.de: Saint Narcissus of the Flies
personal data
SURNAME Narcissus of Girona
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Narcissus of Gerona
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish bishop, martyr and saint
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century
DATE OF DEATH 307
Place of death Spain