Torpes (saint)

Saint Torpes in the coat of arms of Saint-Tropez

Torpes of Pisa ( Latin: Torpetius, Tropesius ; French: Saint Torpès, Saint Tropez ; Italian: Torpete, Torpes, Torpè ) († around 66 in San Piero a Grado, now part of Pisa ) was, according to legend, an earlier one Christian martyr and is venerated as a saint . He is the namesake of the southern French city of Saint-Tropez .

Legend

The legend of Torpes traces the foundation of the Christian community in Pisa back to the apostle Peter . This was stranded on his journey from Antioch to Rome at the mouth of the Arno . There, in Pisa, Torpes, whose full name was Caius Silvius Torpetius, is said to have worked as an official of Emperor Nero . When the emperor declared during a ceremony for the goddess Diana that she created the universe, Torpes is said to have publicly declared his belief in the Christian God. Torpes was baptized by an Antonius who lived as a hermit in the mountains between Pisa and Lucca . Before Nero's return to Rome, Nero ordered that Torpes be tortured and executed, whereupon Torpes, unwilling to revoke, was beheaded in nearby San Piero a Grado. Nero's adviser Evellius is said to have been so impressed by this that he also converted to Christianity and accepted martyrdom.

Relics

The body of the saint is said to have been released with a dog and a rooster on a rotten boat that drove down the Arno into the Tyrrhenian Sea . There are different versions of his whereabouts. It is said to have washed up in Spain in the port of "Portus Sinus" without the dog or the rooster having touched it, discovered by a "Senator" Celerina, buried with honor and honored with the building of a church. The Provencal tradition assumes that Torpes was washed up at what would later become Saint-Tropez. His cult can be traced here since 1056. The tradition from Torpes' hometown Pisa, on the other hand, reports that the head of the martyr was saved by angels and given to the bishop of the city (where bishops can only be proven about 3 centuries later). According to a translation report from the 13th century, the relic was then kept in the monastery of San Rossore (founded in 1085). This was dissolved by Archbishop Federico Visconti in 1272 and the monks joined the Order of Humiliates , whereupon the Archbishop had the church of this order renovated and dedicated to Saint Torpes.

cult

The April 29 was declared in 1284 the anniversary of the saint and of Saint-Tropez launches off a year on this date a pilgrimage to Pisa. Torpes is the patron saint of the cities of Pisa, Saint-Tropez and Fréjus . He is called by wet nurses when the milk runs out and by seafarers. The city of Pisa attributes the end of the plague of 1633 to his work.

literature

• Bruno W. Häuptli:  Torpè of Pisa. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 25, Bautz, Nordhausen 2005, ISBN 3-88309-332-7 , Sp. 1402-1404.