La relique, le reliquaire et le récit hagiographique : des relations ambiguës (diocèses de Mende et de Toulouse) ?

Relics, reliquaries and hagiographie stories : ambiguous narratives (dioceses of Mende and of Toulouse) ? The relationship between relics and hagiography appears quite clear. A systematic examination of this relationship in Languedoc shows however that it is not perhaps useless to question this evidence. The several tales of the translation or discovery of relics of southern French saints that it is proposed to study initially raise important problems, of how to date them, of publication and of circulation. It should be noted that relics have been the object of devotion without any hagiographie stories and have been found to strengthen the promotion of their cults. The case of the successors of St. Semin is in this regard is characteristic, even if one of these, Exupery, is seen to be endowed with a story that emerges from the Gregorian crisis at Toulouse, after the monks of Moissac occupied for a while the abbey of St. Semin. The latter, towards 1100, compiled the biggest written list of relics ever produced in a southern French monastery. This comprised more than 150 different saints, and it was intended to compare this with the 150 saints found indeed in the biggest book of saints ever produced in France in the XIth century, and also with the cult of saints as it appeared in the later liturgical manuscripts of this abbey. What comes out of this study is that a relic is not always accompanied by a hagiographic tale, and is not always the object of a cult. What therefore is its function in the heart of the monastic space ? The relic can extend beyond the hagiographic description, by integrating a reliquary of which the iconography allows the extension of the hagiographie legend, as is the case of an exceptional Toulousan reliquary of the XIIIth century, in which the Life of St. Exupery of Toulouse is rewritten and augmented with images. This illustrates perhaps how the relic has superior power over a hagiographic story. It alone structures the urban space of episcopal cities. Its location in the city brings a condition of different identities, and, in return, the production of new hagiographic stories at the end of the Middle Ages, in cathedrals deprived of prestigious relics of holy bishops which are preserved in other urban sanctuaries (Rodez, Toulouse, Albi). Thus, the absence of a relic can be as favourable to the creation of a hagiographic text as its possession.Le lien entre les reliques et l’hagiographie apparaît comme évident. Un examen systématique de ce lien dans le Languedoc montre pourtant qu’il n’est peut-être pas inutile de questionner cette évidence. Les quelques récits de translation ou d’invention de reliques de saints méridionaux qu’on se proposera d’étudier dans un premier temps posent des problèmes de datation, d’édition et de circulation importants. On notera aussi que des reliques ont fait l’objet de dévotion sansPeloux Fernand. La relique, le reliquaire et le récit hagiographique : des relations ambiguës (diocèses de Mende et de Toulouse) ?. In: Corps saints et reliques dans le Midi. Toulouse : Éditions Privat, 2018. pp. 295-316. (Cahiers de Fanjeaux, 53