In the cathedral of Saint-Sauveur in Aix-en-Provence, echoes of legend rise from afar. As if carried by the wind, they tell of a distant and blurred past. Of when there were not yet the soaring spires of the Gothic elevation but only the small oratory of Saint-Sauveur. According to tradition, Bishop Maximinus commissioned the construction of the early church. He would be a disciple of Christ who came from Palestine to Provence on a drifting boat. Nothing remains of that ancient and venerated oratory. In fact, its walls were demolished and its foundations incorporated with the expansion of the cathedral over the centuries. Nothing except the myth and the timeless power of storytelling.
The Provençal legend of Saint Maximinus and Mary Magdalene
The Provençal legend of Saint Maximinus, remembered as the first bishop of Aix, inextricably intertwines with that of Mary Magdalene. Her cult developed in France from the first decades of the 11th century, particularly thanks to Abbot Geoffroy of Vézelay (1037-1052) in Burgundy. To boost the fortunes of his abbey, which was going through a period of decline1, the cleric began to claim that the remains of Mary Magdalene were kept there. Abbot Geoffroy not only promoted the cult of the saint in Vézelay, but also commissioned several hagiographical texts, initially inspired by the homily Sermo in solemnitate sanctae Mariae Magdalenae attributed to Odo of Cluny (around 878 – 942)2, which attempted to explain how she could have arrived in France.
One of these versions, the Licet plerisque or Via apostolica3, mentioned the persecution that the first disciples suffered from the Jewish Sanhedrin after Christ’s ascension. Mary Magdalene and her companion Maximinus had allegedly to board into a boat without oars and left shipwrecked in the Mediterranean, in the belief that they would sink. Instead, the hagiographic account continues, by divine intervention the raft landed near the shores of Marseille, from where the saints began evangelizing all of Provence4. A Translatio posteriori also recounted that they stopped in Aix, the future site of their burial. The remains of Mary of Magdala were supposedly brought to Vézelay by the founder of the abbey, Badilon, in 745 or 7495.
The cult of Saint Maximinus in Aix-en-Provence
So, the diocese of Aix-en-Provence could claim the ancient cult of Magdalene and Maximinus. A bull dated March 28, 1102, from Pope Paschal II granted Archbishop Peter III the privilege of wearing the pallium on their respective liturgical anniversaries6. According to tradition, Maximinus commissioned the construction of an oratory in the city dedicated to the Savior. This consecration originated from some relics from the Sepulcher of Christ in Jerusalem. Around this small church the first local Christian community had gathered.
The discovery of relics in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume
In response to the claims of the Abbey of Vézelay, in 1279 Charles II of Anjou ordered excavation at the town basilica of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume. This was another important site linked to the legend of Mary of Magdala in Provence, not far from the cave where the saint, according to tradition, had retired in prayer for much of her life7. On December 9 of that year, searches uncovered four sarcophagi still sealed. The monarch decided, once and for all, to preserve the remains of Magdalene and her companion Maximinus in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume.
The episcopal complex of Saint-Sauveur in Aix-en-Provence
The account of Saint Maximinus’ preaching in Aix-en-Provence and his election as bishop is probably little more than a legend. In fact, the local diocese was not founded until the 4th century, under Emperor Valentinian I8. If a bishop Maximinus really existed it could be a local saint. Probably Medieval hagiographic sources confused him with the first-century disciple of Christ. However, as well known, legend always conceals a substratum of truth. What about, for example, the oratory he allegedly had built in Aix-en-Provence?
The historical and archaeological fact: the traces of the Saint-Sauveur oratory
In 1984 an excavation campaign led by Février along the right aisle and transept of the present Cathedral of Saint-Sauveur revealed the remains of an early Christian episcopal complex dating back to the 5th century9. Archaeologists also uncovered another important piece of evidence that has allowed them to reconstruct Aix-en-Provence’s past: the Roman forum of Aquae Sextiae10 was located on this site, even before the construction of the worship buildings with the episcope. The episcopal complex arose precisely by incorporating part of the wall structures that formed the civil basilica, located north of the square, perhaps during the bishopric of Basil (around 470 – 500)11.
Little remains of the early Christian buildings. The episcopal complex probably fell into disrepair due to Saracen raids in the 8th-9th centuries and the subsequent abandonment of much of the city. From the second half of the 11th century, Archbishop Rostang de Foz and the provost of the chapter Benoît could collect sufficient funds to rebuild the Cathedral12. They thus proceeded to construct a Romanesque nave and to restore the ancient baptistery, with a square plan, through the rebuilding of the original perimeter wall structures. Interestingly, at the time of the 1103 reconsecration the two edifices had a different dedication13. The northern church, that is, the newly built nave, was named to Virgin Mary. The other church to the south, at the baptistery, was that of Saint-Sauveur. This is precisely the building that tradition had attributed to Bishop Maximinus as the Provençal legend of Mary Magdalene spread.
The next stages of the reconstruction of Saint-Sauveur in Aix-en-Provence
During the 12th century construction work, a second aisle arose between the Church of the Virgin Mary and the baptistery. The dedication to Saint Maximinus of this structure, with four bays with barrel vaults and a dome, is not surprisingly. It was during this period, between 1165 and 1175, that the entire cathedral was re-consecrated only to Saint Sauveur14. During the reign of Charles II of Anjou a new and impressive season of architectural renovation began. The Gothic choir and transept, which incorporated on the south side the oratory of Saint Sauveur, dates to after 1280. To the next two centuries belong the tall bell tower and the Gothic facade with a pointed entrance portal.
By the end of the 17th century, Aix-en-Provence Cathedral was very different from the episcopal complex of the early centuries. It was due to the addition of some devotional chapels and a new aisle on the northern flank. Only two buildings still preserved the original structures. They were the baptistery and the former oratory of Saint-Sauveur, then reused as a Sainte-Chapelle. But in 1808 historical sensibilities were certainly not the same as today. Archbishop Champion de Cicé decided to demolish, as a matter of symmetry, the last remaining early Christian structures. The removal of that oratory, which for centuries had animated legends and tales, exploits of saints and preachers who had come there from the Holy Land in times long past, passed almost unnoticed.
Samuele Corrente Naso
Map of places
Notes
- R. Bumet, Marie-Madeleine (I-XXI siècle): De la pécheresse repentie à l’épouse de Jésus. Histoire de la réception d’une figure biblique, Édition du Cerf, Paris, 2004. ↩︎
- 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. ↩︎
- Bibliotheca hagiographica latina (BHL) 5443-5449. ↩︎
- É.-M. Faillon, Monuments inédits sur l’apostolat de sainte Marie-Madeleine en Provence, et sur les autres apôtres de cette contrée: saint Lazare, saint Maximin, sainte Marthe, les saintes Maries Jacobé et Salomé, Jacques-Paul Migne, Paris, 1848. ↩︎
- V. Saxer, L’origine des reliques de sainte Marie-Madeleine à Vézelay dans la tradition historiographique du Moyen-Âge, in Revue des Sciences Religieuses, 29 1955. ↩︎
- V. Saxer, Le dossier vézelien de Marie-Madeleine. Invention et translation des reliques en 1265-1267. Contribution à l’histoire du culte de la sainte à l’apogée du Moyen Âge, Société des bollandistes, Bruxelles, 1975. ↩︎
- Vita eremetica beatae Mariae Magdalenae, 1173 circa. ↩︎
- N. Del Re, BSS, volume IX, 1967. ↩︎
- R. Guild, J. Guyon, L. Rivet, Aux origines de la cathédrale Saint-Sauveur d’Aix-en-Provence : un groupe épiscopal de l’antiquité tardive et ses transformations, Fouilles de la nef Saint-Maximin et du transept gothique, 1984, Revue d’études ligures, 1995. ↩︎
- Pliny the Elder, Natural history, 3, 4, 36. ↩︎
- Sidonius Apollinaris, Epistulae, VII, 6 ↩︎
- Abbé E.-F. Maurin, Notice historique et descriptive de l’église Saint-Sauveur, d’Aix (Provence), typographie Nicot et Aubin, 1839. ↩︎
- V. Saxer, Les origines du culte de sainte Marie-Madeleine à Aix-en-Provence, Bulletin de la Société nationale des Antiquaires de France, 1957. ↩︎
- R. Guild, La cathédrale d’Aix-en-Provence: Étude archéologique, Editions du CNRS, 1987. ↩︎
