Ten thousand martyrs
The legend of the ten thousand martyrs or the legend of the ten thousand knights originated around the time of the crusades . This legend has no historical truth. It should probably strengthen the crusaders in their faith and perseverance.
Summary of the content
A Roman emperor (often Hadrian ) sent 9,000 soldiers under the leader Achatius to Armenia to put down insurgents there. The soldiers were confronted with ten times the superiority. They converted to the Christian faith and were able to defeat the enemy army with God's help. When the Roman emperor heard of the conversion, angry he sent an army of barbarians to destroy the new Christians. Thousands of barbarians also converted to Christianity during the fighting. The Christians, who had grown to ten thousand, were finally defeated, tortured with thorns and crucified on Mount Ararat .
reception
June 22nd is dedicated to the ten thousand martyrs as a Catholic day of remembrance. The church of Santi Diecimila Martiri in Palermo was dedicated to them, as was the church of the 10,000 knights in Lenthe.
This legend is often portrayed in religious art, for example by Albrecht Dürer ( Martyrdom of Ten Thousand Christians ) and Vittore Carpaccio .
The most extensive pictorial representation was created in the years 1448 to 1450 as glass painting in the Bern Minster : the Ten Thousand Knights Window there originally contained a cycle of images in 40 rectangular fields, eight head panels and three tracery panels . After considerable losses, possibly as a result of hailstorms, eleven rectangles and a three-pass glass pane remained from these glass paintings , which were transferred to another window.
Two important battles of the old confederates took place in connection with the commemoration day of the ten thousand knights: the battle of Laupen on June 21, 1339 (on the eve of the commemoration day) and the battle of Murten on June 22, 1476, both with a victory of the confederates ended. The Bernese and their allies had deliberately chosen June 22 as the day for the Battle of Murten, trusting the protection of the numerous saints and in the hope that Laupen's war luck would be repeated. After the victory at Murten in 1476, June 22nd became an outstanding holiday in many Swiss towns (see battle season ). In Bern in particular, the veneration of the Ten Thousand Martyrs was intensified by the events on the battlefield.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Robert Aeberhard, Kirchen im Seeland , Verlag W. Gassmann AG, Biel, 1980, p. 355
- ↑ Legend of the Ten Thousand Martyrs in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
- ↑ a b c Brigitte Kurmann-Schwarz: The 10'000-Knight-Window in the Bern Minster and its clients: considerations on the written and pictorial sources as well as on the cult of the saints in Bern . In: Journal for Swiss Archeology and Art History 1992 (49), Issue 1, pp. 39–54 ( PDF ).