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The Relics of Saint Petroc
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2015
Extract
The incident of the theft of the relics of Saint Petroc from his shrine in Bodmin priory church by a canon of Bodmin in 1177, their removal to the abbey of St.-Méen in Brittany, and their subsequent restoration owing to the vigorous action of Henry 11, is well-known. It is briefly referred to by the chroniclers Roger of Hoveden and Benedict of Peterborough. The long Vita Petroci in the newly discovered Gotha MS.; however, contains a full and detailed account of the whole affair by a contemporary writer of considerable literarypowers. It abounds in lifelike touches, and is one of the most interesting glimpses into the social life of the Middle Ages which we possess. It is here printed for the first time.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1939
References
1 Ducal Library at Gotha, M.n. 57. This manuscript, of English (West country) origin, contains nearly 50 lives of English and Cornish saints. It is of the 14th century, but most of the lives it contains are older. The Vita Petroci appears to be of the 13th century.
2 In margin: De Sancto Mevenno, qui est in Britannia.
3 Sancti Mevenni. Mevennus is the eponym of the important abbey of St.-Méen in the diocese of St.-Malo in Brittany, and of the parish of St. Mewan in Cornwall.
4 This seems to show that the relics had only recently been translated to a new shrine. The building of the priory church on a new site had been begun by Bishop Warlewast (d. 1138). It was probably only just finished, and the shrine of S. Petroc may well have been moved from the older church on the site of the present parish church shortly before 1177. This statement is therefore of great importance for the history of Bodmin priory. Martin stole the relics just after the Feast of the Epiphany (6 January) 1177.
5 i.e. the abbey of St.-Magloire at Léhon, a suburb of Dinan.
6 Presumably this means the place where the relics were resting, as, a few lines lower down, we are informed that they were carried in a sack.
7 The initial may be either a c or a D, the last syllable might be rim or rnu. As the road from Dinan to St.-Méen crosses the little river Garun, a tributary of the Meu, shortly before reaching St.-Méen, this lost place-name would seem to belong to a forgotten ford at that point. Such ‘splashes’, with a foot-bridge close by, are common both in Brittany and in Cornwall.
8 On what political situation the subtle intrigue suggested by Martin may have been based we do not know.
9 or, ‘mutilated man’ (emunco, in French manchot).
10 The celebrated Robert of Torigny, Abbot of Mont St. Michel from 1154 to 1186. He was not often debilis: the greater part of the present abbey buildings were constructed by him.
11 His name was Rolandus. Elected Bishop of Dol in 1177, he succeeded Bishop Johannes, who died 27 January that year. He was not consecrated till 1184, which seems to have been (as we have already suggested) the date of the composition of Robert of Tauton’s work.
12 Documents of the 17th and 18th centuries relating to the Abbey of St.-Méen show that the Abbey then claimed to possess St. Petroc’s head.
13 sic, a slip for ‘Sacristan’.
14 The priory of St. Stephen’s at Launceston.
15 Both Bodmin and Launceston Priories belonged to the Order of Regular Canons of S. Augustine.
16 This explains why William of Worcester, when he visited Cornwall in 1478, found in the kalendar of Bodmin priory, on 14 September, the words ‘Exaltacio Sancti Petroci’ (he adds ‘die exaltacionis Sanctae Crucis’). The anniversary of the return of the relics from Brittany was clearly observed as a festival of the first-class, with octave, down to the Reformation.