Sulpicius Severus

Nel 397 d.C., mentre scorrevano gli ultimi mesi dell'esistenza del protagonista, Sulpicio Severo pubblicò la Vita sancti Martini. Poco dopo ne completò la trama con tre Lettere: la prima per raccontare la singolare circostanza in cui il santo era miracolosamente scampato a un incendio; le altre due per narrarne la morte e i gloriosi funerali. Alcuni anni dopo (nel 404 o nel 405), a completamento di questo dossier martiniano, uscirono dalla stessa penna i Dialoghi. Intento dichiarato di Sulpicio Severo era dimostrare la superiorità del vescovo di Tours su tutti i padri del deserto, sui quali si narravano fatti straordinari. Tra le righe si avverte soprattutto la volontà di difendere la memoria del Santo contro gli agguerriti avversari. L'apologia si estendeva anche al movimento ascetico, che da Martino era nato e al quale Sulpicio e i suoi amici aderivano, ritirati nella esclusiva tenuta di Primuliacum. I tre testi, uniti dai copisti medievali nella raccolta del "Martinellus", godettero di grande fortuna nel corso dei secoli e furono determinanti per il sorgere e lo svilupparsi della venerazione verso questo santo.

Ko je včeraj k meni prišlo več menihov, je med številnimi zgodbami in dolgim pogovorom nekdo omenil tudi knjižico, ki sem jo napisal o življenju blaženega moža Martina. Z zadovoljstvom sem slišal, da jo mnogi pozorno prebirajo. Nato pa sem izvedel, da je nekdo na pobudo hudega duha vprašal, zakaj je bil Martin, ki je obudil mrtve in odgnal plamene od bivališč, v požaru pred kratkim sam opečen in podvržen nevarnemu trpljenju.

Nesrečnik, kdorkoli že je! V njegovih besedah lahko prepoznamo zahrbtnost velikih duhovnikov,2 ki so takole zmerjali križanega Gospoda: »Druge je rešil, sebe pa ne more rešiti.« Resnično, ko bi bil ta človek, kdorkoli že je, rojen v tistih časih, bi proti Gospodu bržkone govoril z enakim glasom, s kakršnim zdaj izreka bogokletje proti Gospodovemu svetniku.

Antologia di testi agiografici latini tardo-antichi e medievali, con schede di presentazione degli autori e delle opere. Gli autori antologizzati sono Sulpicio Severo (Vita Martini), Gregorio di Tours (varie opere agiografiche), Rosvita di Gandersheim (un passo dal poemetto Maria) e Iacopo da Varazze (Legenda aurea).

Since Bernays in 1861, scholars have disputed Josephus’ account in Bell. Iud. 6.252 that a Roman soldier during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE acted on ‘some supernatural impulse’ when he threw a piece of burning wood into the Temple, thus starting the fire that destroyed it. The vast majority of scholars have followed Bernays in giving more credence to the account of the Christian chronographer Sulpicius Severus, who in his Chronica reports that Titus ordered that the Temple be burned. Many a priori assumptions have come into play when examining Josephus’ narrative, which instead appears unequivocally clear, consistent and substantially trustworthy.

"The question of whether Titus ordered the burning of the Temple as Sulpicius Severus reports or whether the burning was caused by a soldier acting upon some “supernatural impulse” as Josephus relates [War 6.252] has been debated ever since Bernays in 1861 argued that the former version should be preferred. Leoni gives a very detailed history of scholarship on this question, pointing out how many a priori considerations have led to distrust Josephus. In the end he insists that Josephus’ reliability has to be judged case by case and that with regard to the burning of the Temple his account appears substantially trustworthy" (Joseph Sievers, in Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period 34.2 (2003), p. 228).

Presented at the Patristics, Medieval, and Renaissance Conference (PMR) on Faith in History: Time, Narrative, Providence, Apocalypse at Villanova University (Villanova, Pennsylvania), October 18-20, 2019.

Friday, October 18, 2019 – Session II.9 (PDF handout)

After Sulpicius Severus (c. 360 – c.425) had already firmly established himself as the foremost hagiographer in late Antique Gaul, he went on to compose two lesser known works on Christian time: a Chronica in two books and a paschal table (latercus).  Why did this former lawyer and successful postulator of Martin of Tours trouble himself further by composing a world chronicle based largely on the Bible and the work of other scholars?  What claims about Christian time are reflected in historiography spanning from Genesis to his own days?

The Church Father Sulpicius Severus, in his history of the world (Chronica), knew the order of the Persian kings, and unhesitatingly said the restored temple was opened in the sixth year of Darius II Ochus! Sulpicius Severus (c 363-c 425) a fourth century Gaul, was persuaded by S Martin into the Christian faith and he wrote a history of the world, excluding only the events of the gospels and Acts as being too sacred to summarize. Historians have judged his work badly, but it was in use over a thousand years after it was written for all that, and in respect of Ezra and Nehemiah, he is fairly clear, considering modern experts are always confused. His main difference is that, on the basis of the scripture, he places Ezra's coming with a host of Jews in the reign of Artaxerxes, twenty years after the temple was restored, which seems unlikely, although, if correct, it makes the foundation of Judaism even later still! What is important is that he gets the kings right, and has no doubt that the temple was opened in the sixth year of Darius II Ochus. Here is what he wrote in two short chapters of his Chronica. Chronica Chapter 9 In the meantime, those Jews, who, as we have said above, returned into their native land by the permission of Cyrus, attempted to restore their city and temple. But, being few and poor, they made but little progress, until, at last, after the lapse of about a hundred years, while Artaxerxes the king ruled over the Persians, they were absolutely deterred from building by those who had local authority. For, at that time, Syria and all Judaea was ruled under the empire of the Persians by magistrates and governors. Accordingly, these took counsel to write to king Artaxerxes, that it was not fitting that opportunity should be granted to the Jews of rebuilding their city, lest, in accordance with their stubborn character, and being accustomed to rule over other nations, they should, on recovering their strength, not submit to live under the sway of a foreign power. Thus, the plan of the rulers being approved of by the king, the building of the city was put a stop to, and delayed until the second year of Darius the king. But, who were kings of Persia throughout this period of time, we shall here insert, in order that the Sulpicius Severus on the Restoration of the Temple by Darius

In _Cervantes and Modernity_, Graf argues that the doubts expressed by both historicists and postmodernists regarding the progressive nature of _Don Quijote_ are exaggerated. He also argues that interpretations that abstain from this debate by emphasizing authorial ambivalence or positioning the novel at a crossroads do not seem as responsible as they once did. Beyond these skeptical and neutral alternatives, there are key steps forward in Cervantes's worldview. These four essays detail _Don Quijote_'s anticipations of many of the same ideas and values that drive today's multiculturalism, feminism, secularism, and materialism. An important thesis here is that the Enlightenment remains the best vantage point from which to appreciate the novel's relation to the discourses of such movements. Thus Voltaire's _Candide_ (1759), Feijoo's "Defensa de las mujeres" (1726), and Hobbes's _Leviathan_ (1651) are each shown to be logical extensions of some of Cervantes's most fundamental propositions. Finally, this book will still be of interest to specialists immune to the ideological anxieties arising from debates over notions of modernity. Graf also explores the interrelated meaning of a number of _Don Quijote_'s symbols, characters, and episodes, pinpoints several of the novel's most important classical and medieval sources, and unveils for us its first serious English reader.

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Il lungo e articolato inizio della Vita sancti Martini di Sulpicio Severo è stato studiato in svariate occasioni e da vari punti di vista, ma mai nessuno ne ha indagato fino in fondo i motivi polemici. Obiettivo del presente lavoro è di metterli finalmente in piena luce, di contestualizzarli e d'indicarne il plausibile "bersaglio": Girolamo. Proprio a lui in effetti sembrano indirizzate varie espres-sioni di dissenso tra la lettera prefatoria e il primo capitolo della Vita. Il dissenso, come vedremo, è di natura ideologica e concerne lo scrivere de viris inlustribus. Ma vediamo anzitutto quali regole vigevano tra i latini per la composizione della prefazione e in che modo se ne servirono nel IV secolo Girolamo e Severo 1 .

in: M. Fafinski/J. Riemenschneider (edd.): The Past through Narratology. New Approaches to Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Heidelberg (Das Mittelalter, Bd. 18), p. 57–72.

The article follows a relatively recent trend in applying modern narratological analysis tools to late antique hagiographic texts, a genre that has hardly been touched on by such approaches. It provides a spatial narratological close-reading of three exemplary episodes from Sulpicius Severus' 'Vita Sancti Martini'. First, it focuses on Sulpicius' account of how Martin converts a robber in the dangerous Alps (Mart. 5, 4-6), then on the protagonist's encounter with a pagan funeral procession (Mart. 12). Finally, it analyses an episode in which Martin is tempted by the Devil in his bare monk's cell (Mart. 24, 4-8). The study is based on the spatial narratological model proposed by Birgit Haupt and also draws on Jurij M. Lotman's semantic model of space. It works out that the narrative space of Sulpicius' hagiographic description of the life of St Martin is more than just a mere background foil against which the events are narrated. Rather, it has its own semantics that highlight, illustrate and enlarge the holiness and power of its ascetic and hermit hero.

This article examines the development of the anonymous Old English
homily for Martinmas throughout the ninth and tenth centuries. In
particular, the work focuses on how the homily was reshaped during
its transmission to conform to the differing thematic approaches
that individual Anglo-Saxon scribes took while “copying” the text.
After situating the context of the Sulpician Martiniana in early
England, the author explores the thematic patterns evident in the
anonymous Old English homily’s selective translation of Sulpicius’s
Vita S. Martini and Epistulae. It is demonstrated that the later Anglo-
Saxon copier’s removal of the diving waterfowl episode is explicable
as consistent with his thematic retelling of Martin’s life, which
excludes the saint’s exorcist activities. In addition to offering an
explanation for the episode’s omission, the article argues that
modern editors should treat the extant versions of the Martinmashomily
as two distinct textual traditions.

In questo contributo viene presa in considerazione la breve parentesi a carattere esegetico inserita da Alcimo Avito nei v. 488-509 del de diluvio mundi, tentando di proporre una lettura che tenga conto della pluralità di modelli e intertesti utilizzati dal poeta. Le note di commento si concentrano sulla prima parte della digressione privilegiando l’analisi dei v. 488-501 e in sede conclusiva ci si sofferma sulla presenza di un’eco marzialiana che si rintraccia al v. 499.

This paper analyses the short exegetic parenthesis introduced by Alcimus Avitus in carm. 4,488-509 and tries to point out the interactions between the different models and the modalities of their inclusion. The main section of the paper presents a detailed commentary of the first part of the text and especially of v. 488-501; the final section focusses on v. 499 and more specifically on the presence of an echo of Mart. I 90,7.

Bibliai modellek Sulpicius Severus Szent Márton-életrajzában " Menjetek el az egész világra, és hirdessétek az evangéliumot minden teremtmény-nek. Aki hisz és megkeresztelkedik, üdvözül, aki nem hisz, az elkárhozik. Akik hisz-nek, azokat ezek a jelek fogják kísérni: nevemben ördögöt űznek, új nyelveken be-szélnek, kígyókat vehetnek kezükbe, és ha valami mérget isznak, nem árt nekik, ha pedig betegekre teszik a kezüket, azok meggyógyulnak. " 1 Sulpicius Severus Szent Márton-életrajza 2 ezt az evangéliumi szakaszt emeli át a saját korába és mutatja be e " jelek " hatékony működését egy kortárs élettörténetén keresztül. A Vita Martini azonban nemcsak ihletettségében, ha-nem dramaturgiájában, struktúrájában és nyelvezetében is mélyen a Szentírás-ban gyökerezik. Márton élete " a Biblia újratöltve " : azt mutatja be, hogyan lesz eggyé Márton a Szentírással, hogyan szellemül át élete Igévé. 3 Sulpicius a Szentírást " újraírva " 4 alkotja meg Márton, az Istennel eltelt ember alakját. Ta-nulmányomban először a szentírás mint forgatókönyv újdonságára és a Biblia aktualizálásának korabeli jelentőségére hívom fel a figyelmet, majd a Vita Martini gazdag biblikus tipológiái közül kettőt vizsgálok tüzetesebben: az prófétai és a krisztusi párhuzamot.

Cette étude comparative de la Vie de Martin composée, à la fin du IVe siècle, en prose par Sulpice Sévère et complétée par les Dialogues, et des deux Vies écrites en vers, l’une par Paulin de Périgueux (3622 hexamètres), dans la seconde moitié du Ve siècle, et l’autre par Venance Fortunat (2243 hexamètres), dans le dernier quart du VIe siècle, montre que les deux mises en forme poétiques mettent en œuvre chacune une esthétique et une manière différentes d’aborder la spiritualité de saint Martin.
Sulpice Sévère avait composé la Vie de Martin et les Dialogues pour défendre devant l’opinion gallo-romaine le personnage de Martin, l’évêque de Tours, qu’il avait lui-même connu. Il avait procédé à des choix littéraires pour rendre compte de la personnalité complexe de celui qui avait été soldat et moine, ascète et évêque.
Paulin de Périgueux actualise l’œuvre de Sulpice pour la mettre à la portée du lecteur du Ve siècle. Il lui laisse imaginer le cadre humain dans lequel se sont déroulés les actes de Martin et recherche un principe d’unité parmi des épisodes que Sulpice avait seulement juxtaposés, pour en dégager le sens moral et spirituel.
Venance Fortunat prend des distances à l’égard des faits réels de l’existence terrestre de Martin. Il retravaille chaque épisode comme un élément autonome, à la manière des orfèvres ou des mosaïstes de son temps. Il dégage une image spirituelle de Martin, en le représentant comme un intercesseur céleste.

Étude du schéma d’ensemble de la Vita Martini, puis de l’effet du rapport au temps sur l’architecture de la biographie (à travers la « constance du saint », la perception de la chronologie et du temps du monde, et la composition en médaillons), enfin l’intervention du narrateur, l’évocation de Martin dans l’au-delà et la demande d’intercession.

15. Dezember 2017: Vortrag im Rahmen des interdisziplinären Workshops 'Towards a Digital Narratology of Space' des Philologischen Seminar Tübingen und der Digital Humanities an der Universtität Stuttgart (Freitag, 15. Dezember 2017, Tübingen, Keplerstraße 2, Raum 181)

See Essay 4 of CERVANTES AND MODERNITY: FOUR ESSAYS ON _DON QUIJOTE_: Just how radical was the first modern novel's sacrilege? What importance, intentional or otherwise, should we attach to it? Critics decry the anachronism of calling Cervantes an Enlightenment skeptic; others insist he is the product of Renaissance religious humanism. Both are unnecessary restrictions. The scatological impertinence of Don Quijote’s rosary figures a materialist critique of theism, just as the general thisworldliness of the novel dispels metaphysical superstitions. By specifying the medieval origin (Sulpicius Severus) and the first serious Enlightenment interpretation (Thomas Hobbes) of the cuerpo muerto (dead body) adventure of DQ 1.19, I will demonstrate how the novel overcomes religious humanism and inaugurates modern empiricism.

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In the later 4th and early 5th centuries, various barbarian groups invaded Roman Gaul by attacking and pillaging the coastal regions in the west, by crossing the Rhine in the east and the Alps in the south. Roman military administration’s attempts failed to push them back beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. Eventually, they were settled within the provinces of Roman Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula, accompanied by social, economic, cultural, political but also religious tensions between the Roman provincial population in the territories affected and the new arrivals. Thus, the question had been raised how to deal with these new arrivals. This paper addresses ideas and conceptions of Roman contemporaries on how to handle the migrants and shed light on various concepts and modes of integration developed and adapted to the constantly changing social, economic and political environment by Roman contemporaries.

Mnemosyne 73/4 (2020), p. 633-658.

Sulpicius Severus’ account of St Martin sharing his cloak with the beggar at the gate of Amiens is still one of the most prominent and best-known episodes of late antique Christian hagiography. This deed is considered above all as the epitome of Martin’s charity and will to follow Christ. Furthermore, this episode also serves to apologize Martin’s military service in the Roman army. The latter was a heavy burden for Sulpicius’ saint, which the author of his Vita had to get rid of in the most credible way possible. Sulpicius asserts that Martin’s compulsory military service was dominated by Christian virtues. A narratological close reading focusing on the categories of ‘distance’ and ‘focalization’ and applying linguistic analysis tools as well shows that eventually it is the narrative disposition of the ‘Amiens episode’ that makes the narrator’s earlier apologetic authorial statements credible.

Sever predragemu bratu Dezideriju. Odločil sem se, ljubi brat, da knjižico, ki sem jo napisal o življenju svetega Martina, zaprem v njen papirus in shranim za zidovi svojega doma. Tako sem sklenil, ker sem po naravi zelo negotov in bi se rad izognil človeški sodbi, da ne bi, kot se bo bržkone zgodilo, moj neizbrušeni jezik bralcev zmotil, jaz pa bi nato obveljal za vrednega splošne graje, češ da sem se predrzno lotil snovi, ki bi morala biti prihranjena za izurjene pisce. Toda ti si me znova in znova prosil, jaz pa ti nisem mogel odreči. Je sploh kaj takega, kar bi odrekel tvoji ljubezni, čeprav na račun lastne sramežljivosti?

Zato sem ustvaril to knjižico in se pri tem zanašam nate v prepričanju, da je ne boš pokazal nikomur, saj si tako obljubil. Vseeno pa se bojim, da boš ti zanjo predstavljal nekakšna vrata, in ko bo enkrat zunaj, je ne bo mogoče priklicati nazaj. Če se bo to zgodilo in se ti bo zdelo primerno, da jo prebere še kdo, te prosim, poskrbi, da bodo bralci bolj pozorni na dejanja v njej kot na besede, ki jih posredujejo. Naj potrpijo, če jih bo v ušesih zbodel pomanjkljiv slog, saj božje kraljestvo ne stoji na zgovornosti, temveč na veri. Spomnijo naj se tudi, da odrešenja svetu niso oznanili govorniki (če bi bilo koristno, bi namreč Gospod lahko ubral tudi to pot), temveč ribiči.