The ancient village of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer lies in the Camargue region, where the waters of the Rhône meet the Mediterranean. The wind rustles through the picturesque alleys, sweeping the fine sand of the wild, unspoilt coastline and ruffling the manes of white horses along the shore. The muffled sound of the galloping is accompanied by the voices of the Romani people enlivening the town. Wherever you go, you can see the silhouette of the Church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Mer if you look up.
This place of worship resembles a bastion with its imposing bell tower complete with battlements and a walkway for lookouts. In the Middle Ages, it formed part of the town’s defensive structures. The village was, after all, the maritime gateway to the entire Camargue region. If enemies arrived by sea, such as Barbary pirates, the population could barricade themselves within its walls and hold out for days, thanks in part to a well located inside the church. However, the Church of Notre-Dame’s true wealth lies in legend and the great stories that have made Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer one of the most important pilgrimage sites in France. This is the village of the Holy Marys, the site of the miraculous landing of Christ’s disciples, and the resting place of Sarah the Black, the patron saint of the Romanies.
The village of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer between history and legend
The Holy Marys of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, as tradition says, came to the village from far away, crossing the sea in a boat without oars. A legend widespread in France in the Middle Ages, which had great literary fortune, states that some of Christ’s disciples were loaded onto a raft. Then, they were left shipwrecked among the waters at the behest of the Jewish Sanhedrin. The Messiah had ascended to heaven; that was the time of preaching and equally of persecution. The number and identity of the biblical castaways varies depending on the version of the legend. However, it is always said that they came from Bethany and especially that Mary Magdalene was among them1.
The legend says that the disciples wandered at the mercy of the Mediterranean Sea until they reached the coast of Provence. In some versions of these hagiographic vitae of Magdalene, as in the famous Legenda Aurea by Jacopo da Varagine2, the miraculous landing was located in Marseilles. For Gervasius of Tilbury, an English jurist who wrote between 1210 and 1214 the Otia Imperialia, the event occurred near the mouth of the Rhone, at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Near that place, a chapel dedicated to the Mother of God arose, right where the church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Mer stands today. Moreover, the author of the legend revealed the identities of the Holy Marys, “quae mane prima sabbati cum aromatibus venerunt videre sepulcrum“3.
“There beside the sea-shore, is the oldest of all the churches on our side of the Mediterranean. It was founded in honour of the most blessed Mother of God, and consecrated by some disciples who had been driven out of Judea and sent out to sea on a raft with no oars. These were Maximinus of Aix, Lazarus of Marseilles (the brother of Martha and Mary in the gospels Eutropius of Orange. George of Velay, Saturnius of Toulouse, and Marital of Limoge, all of whom were numbered among the seventy-two disciples. Martha and Mary Magdalen, along with many other people, were present at the consecration. […] They claim that the two Maries, who came bearing spices to see the tomb early in the morning of the first day of the week, are among them”.
Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia, 1210-1214. Translation by S. E. Banks, J. W. Binns, Gervaise of Tilbury: Otia Imperialia, Recreation for an Emperor, Oxford, 2002.
The Saintes Maries of the Gospels
According to the canonical Gospels, albeit with some differences between them, the women who brought the ointments to Christ’s tomb, and found it empty due to his resurrection, were Mary of Magdala, Mary Jacobé and Mary Salome. The evangelist Mark states as much:
“When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him. Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb. They were saying to one another, «Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?». When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back; it was very large”.
Gospel of Mark 16, 1-4
Interestingly, Salome is never mentioned as Mary, a name attributed to her by tradition. The three women who went to the tomb were the same ones who had witnessed the crucifixion:
“There were also women looking on from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome. These women had followed him when he was in Galilee and ministered to him. There were also many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem”.
Gospel of Mark 15, 40-41
They were therefore the most important witnesses to the story of Christ. The three Marys had seen the death and resurrection with their own eyes. They were therefore called upon to preach the good news to the world. However, the Gospels tell us nothing about what happened to them afterwards. Legend and story filled this void: the women arrived in Provence, at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, on board a raft adrift.
Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, the landing site of the Holy Marys in Provence
Beyond the legend, the historical documentation in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer reveals the origins of an ancient city. The first mentions of the place where the Holy Marys supposedly landed in Provence, a marshy island in the Rhone delta, date back to the 4th century. The Latin poet Rufus Festus Avienus testified to the existence of an “oppidum priscum Ra“. The author believed that this fortress was dedicated to the Egyptian deity Ra4. Instead, it is likely that the toponym referred to the Gallic word rātis, which actually meant “fortress”. Ratis then became the name of the early Christian city, meaning “small island” or “raft”, with a shift in meaning.
In the 6th century, a community of nuns occupied the oppidum, at the behest of the bishop of Arles, Caesar. Their intention was to eradicate the pagan cults present there. The island then took the name Sancta Maria de Ratis. This is a clue that dates back to that time the first church dedicated to the Mother of God5.
Notre-Dame-de-la-Mer
A rebuilding of Notre-Dame and the village of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer took place several times. Certainly following the Viking and Saracen invasions in the 9th century, which had ravaged the region and forced the nuns to flee. It was only in 973 that William I of Provence freed the Camargue from Saracen rule. It is likely that a first reconstruction of the church took place in the following years. The building was initially under the jurisdiction of the cathedral of Saint-Trophime in Arles. Later, it passed to the abbey of Saint-Pierre de Montmajour in 1078. The place name then changed to Notre-Dame-de-la-Mer in connection with the spread of Provençal legends. This church also soon fell into ruin and was renovated around 1170, in Gothic style6.
The building, consisting of a single hall, a chapel and a choir, underwent its last alterations in the 15th century. At that time, the nave was lengthened and a walkway and crypt were added. This created the church that today contributes to the charming atmosphere of the place. In 1838, the village took on its current name, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, in honour of its patron saints.
The Translatio Terrae Sanctae in Provence
In the Middle Ages, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer was one of the most important places of worship in Provence. The maritime village was the chosen place that first welcomed Mary Magdalene and Christ’s disciples. Hagiographies of the time tell us that from the town, the saints began preaching throughout the region. The legendary corpus makes it possible to reconstruct a hypothetical evangelisation map of Provençal towns based on the relics kept in them. Maximinus preached at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume7, where he was buried with Mary Magdalene, who arrived there after living for thirty years in the cave of Sainte-Baume as a hermit8. Instead, the remains of Martha would rest in Tarascona9 and those of Saint Trophimus in Arles. According to tradition, however, not all the disciples who had come from Bethany left Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Mary Jacobé and Mary Salome chose to remain there and preach.
This sort of Translatio Terrae Sanctae in Provence gained decisive momentum due to the fall of the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187. The desire to establish an alternative Holy Land, populated by the same evangelical figures, responded to the need of all those who could not reach the places of Christ, became Muslim possessions. In Provence, pilgrims could follow in the footsteps of the first disciples by visiting their tombs and venerating their relics.
The cult of the Holy Marys in the village of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer
Gervase of Tilbury assured the presence of the tombs of several saints from Bethany, including Mary Jacobé and Mary Salome, in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Even Guillaume Durand, Bishop of Mende, confirmed this in the Rationale divinorum officiorum of around 128010. The spread of the cult of the Marys, however, was only just beginning. In 1315, a Confrérie des Saintes Maries was founded with the aim of accommodating pilgrims on their way to Spain and the Way of Saint James of Compostela11. In 1342, Pope Benedict XII instituted the feast of the Saintes Marys, to be celebrated on 25 May each year, and in 1357 the Carmelite chronicler Jean de Venette wrote the Historie des Trois Maries based on Provençal legends12.
The relic inventio of the Holy Marys in Provence
The definitive affirmation of this local legend lacked one essential element: the discovery of relics (the inventio). In other cities, religious and noble authorities had searched extensively for the remains of saints in places of worship identified by tradition. For example, in 1279, Charles II of Anjou ordered excavations at the basilica of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume. On 9 December, the work uncovered four sarcophagi attributed to Mary Magdalene, Maximinus, Cedonius and Marcella. The purpose of these searches was not only cultic but also economic. In fact, possession of a relic made it possible to direct the flow of pilgrims and thus obtain rich profits.
The inventio at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer took place at a later age than at the other Provençal places of worship. An initial attempt by Charles II of Anjou was unsuccessful. Only in 1448, with the intervention of the Count of Provence, René d’Anjou, the relics of the Marys were rediscovered. The Count obtained permission from Pope Nicholas V to excavate along the nave of the small church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Mer13.
In the presence of the papal legate Pierre de Foix, the archbishop of Aix Robert Damiani and the bishop of Marseilles Nicolas de Brancas, the excavations brought to light the remains of a hypogeum room under the presbytery. There was a marble altar and, above all, two bodies, which were removed and displayed in the upper chapel of the church14. To whom those remains really belonged is difficult to say. However, it was enough for local tradition: the inventio was accomplished and Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer could boast its relics.
The cult of Sarah
In Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, that of the Marys is not the only popular cult. While the church hall is dedicated to the veneration of the relics of these saints, the crypt houses the remains of another important woman in local tradition. Another great mystery of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer concerns the figure of Sarah, the patron of the Romani communities of Europe. According to local folklore, Sarah was a servant of the Marys who originated from Egypt. This is why sculptures depicting her have have black skin.
The origins of the Romanies’ popular devotion to Sara la Nera, which developed in the 19th century in the wake of the cult of the three Marys, are unclear. The first mention of the servant girl in hagiographic sources is very late. Only with the writing of La Légende des Saintes-Maries by Vincent Philippon, dated 1521, we encounter her mysterious figure. According to the author, Sarah’s remains were found together with those of the women of Bethany during excavations in 1448.
Every year on 24 May, the Romanies carried in procession the statue of the saint, dressed in rich robes. The parade proceeds from the sea towards the shore, recalling the miraculous landing of the Holy Marys in Provence and their servant Sarah. A crowd and the Gardians, riding the elegant white Camargue horses, accompany the saints. And one seems to catch a glimpse in the distance of a boat without oars, docile in the midst of the water, swaying towards the solitary beaches of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.
Samuele Corrente Naso
Notes
- The first mention of Mary Magdalene’s landing in Provence is contained in the 11th-century text Omnipotentis dei clementia, made by an anonymous person inspired by the homily Sermo in solemnitate sanctae Mariae Magdalenae attributed to Odon of Cluny (around 878 – 942). See D. Iogna-Prat, La Madeleine du Sermo in veneratione sanctae Mariae Magdalenae attribué à Odon de Cluny, in Mélanges de l’École française de Rome. Moyen-Age, 104, 1992. ↩︎
- Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, 1260-1298. ↩︎
- Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia, 1210-1214. ↩︎
- Rufus Festus Avienus, Ora maritima, 4th century. ↩︎
- Also called at the time Notre-Dame-de-la-Barque. ↩︎
- Jean-Maurice Rouquette, Provence Romane 1, vol. 1, Zodiaque, coll. La Nuit des Temps, 40, 1974. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 1. ↩︎
- Vita eremetica beatae Mariae Magdalenae, around 1173. ↩︎
- Pseudo Rabanus Maurus, Vie de sainte Marie-Madeleine et de sa sœur sainte Marthe, end of the 12th century. ↩︎
- Guillelmus Durantus, Rationale divinorum officiorum, 1280 circa. See F. Reynaud, La tradition des Saintes-Maries, Dumoulin-Marius Lebon, Paris, 1874. ↩︎
- A. Rucquoi, Maria y Iacobus en los Caminos Jacobeos, Santiago de Compostela 21-24 October 2015, Xunta de Galicia, 2017. ↩︎
- M. T. Driscoll, L’histoire des Trois Maries by Jean de Venette, Cahiers de Joséphologie, 23, 1975. ↩︎
- C. M. Girlderstone, The Tradition of the Maries in Provence, New Blackfriars, 32, 379, 1951. ↩︎
- Jean-Paul Clébert, Guide de la Provence mystérieuse, Paris, Tchou, 1972. ↩︎
