Santiago e la Camargue: una narratio tra storia e leggenda

In ancient times, the Camargue, the heart of ancient Provence, appears to have been barely touched by the medieval routes that, according to the version in the Codex Calixtinus, led to Compostela. On the contrary, with the passage of time, a monument symbolic of the pilgrim world came to take its place in Les Saintes-Mariesde-la-Mer: the tomb of Mary of Jacob and Mary Salome, mother of the apostle James, and Sarah, their helper. The expansion of hagiographical geography to cover the whole of the south of France, at the same time as the news spread in the West of the end of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, was a good test of a new legendary project. The powerful abbeys of Saint Victor in Marseilles and Montmajour in Arles, in association with the Anjou family, were the mouthpieces of this project. The study of the “Holy Kinship” of Christ, and in particular of the Marys, then started to be persistently featured in hagiographical literature as well as in devotional practice. With Gervasius of Tilbury, Provence was directly called upon to become the land of a new evangelisation, but it was with Jean de Venette that the final word was spoken in support of the ancient local legends. A prime witness, James the Greater became the first to report the discovery/recognition of relics that would link Compostela and the Camargue from then on, in sharing a common sanctorale of legend. With surprising results