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All material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission - Adrian Fletcher can be contacted at afletch at paradoxplace dot com
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CIAO ADRIANO
Conques - a very special place Sainte Foy (Santa Fe) - a child martyr from Agen
October 2007
THE ROUTE TO DATE WITH MAPS OF FRANCE AND OF ITS MEDIEVAL PILGRIMAGE ROADS
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The little town of Conques lies on the steep side of a valley just south of the valley of the River Lot. The name "Conques" derives from the lie of the land - like a conca or shell.
Christian occupation of Conques can be traced back to the 600s, when a hermit called Dadon (maybe) established himself there. Later he was joined by one Medraldus and others and, in a similar fashion to San Benoît at Subiaco in Italy and San Millán at Suso in northern Spain, a successful and expanding monastic community evolved.
Unlike those of Benoît and Millán, the Conques monastic community did not produce any great intellectual outputs, but took off in a much more worldly direction, aided by the Carolignian Emperor Louis the Pious, who made no less than ten significant land donations to their estates. With their appetites whetted for material goodies, it became clear to the monks that royal patronage alone was not sufficient to guarantee their future prosperity. They needed a significantly better brand to keep the moolah rolling in. Which was where the girl martyr Ste-Foy (in Spanish Santa Fe) came in.
Foy was born around 290 to a noble family who lived in Agen. She became a Christian, not a healthy idea with a nasty called Dacien as the regional Roman governor, and was still only in her early teens when she was betrayed to the Roman authorities. She was executed, after refusing to recant her beliefs, on the 6th October 303 at the age of 13. The tradition is further embellished by the details of the first attempt to execute her - by roasting on a griddle - when the good Lord arranged a downpour to put the flames out. So Dacien fell back on then tried technique of a sword beheading.
Only ten years later, the Edict of Milan in 313 gave Christians freedom of worship - the ability to assemble publicly, build churches and collectively own assets.
Two hundred years later, Foy's remains were placed in a newly built basilica on the site of her martyrdom in Agen. 350 years after that (in 866 to be precise), they were stolen by monks from Conques in an act now known as a "discreet transfer".
Ignoring the ethical implications (which everyone seemed and seems happy to do) the act was a great success and led to three hundred years of uninterrupted growth for the new St-Foy / Conques brand.
By the 1000s, Santiago de Compostela was becoming an ever more important pilgrimage destination, and Conques slipped naturally into the role of an important early staging post on the via Podensis, which started in Le Puy-en-Velay, as well as being a moving and attractive place in its own right.
The last half of the 1000s and the early 1100s was the golden age of Conques, and saw the construction of the present Romanesque abbey church and many monastic buildings. Dependant priories were set up in places as far apart as Piemonte, England and Spain, and the pervasiveness of the name "Santa Fe" is self evident.
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Today there is a very peaceful feeling walking down the street of half timbered houses to the old abbey church, which is now the Cathédrale Ste-Foy.
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The famous tympanum of the Cathédrale Ste-Foy dates from the early 1100s. It was originally brightly painted, and traces of this can still be seen. A frame by frame page is in the pipeline!
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Meantime here is the detail of central panel of the bottom layers of the Tympanum. To the left of the divider the saved, to the right the devil's people. Above, souls are weighed and assessed by the Archangel Michael - the scale in the Archangel's left hand has to be imagined as it has fallen off, but the scale bowls are still there, and the devil is using his finger to tip the scales down in his favour.
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The famous and arresting gold reliquary statue of Ste-Foy (life sized), dates from around 900 and Foy's blue eyes used to stare into the eyes of the pilgrims from her original position at the head of the abbey church's choir. The saint's relics were recessed into the back of the figure.
The statue's body is built up on a roughly carved yew tree wood, with gold leaf and jewellery added bit by bit over the years. The head looks more like that of a man, and it was ascertained in the 1950s that it is in fact a completely separate hollow metal structure which is much older than the body - possible even the head of an emperor of the later Roman Empire.
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More photos from the Cathedral on the way |
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Go to the Page LIst for a full listing of pages and their status
All material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission - Adrian Fletcher can be contacted at afletch at paradoxplace dot com
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