St Magnus the Martyr: Difference between revisions

The original church pre-dated the canonisation of St Magnus of Orkney by around a century and was also probably constructed before the cult of [[Olaf II of Norway|St Olaf]], which did not become established in London until the 1050s.<ref>''The Cult of S. Olave in the British Isles'', B. Dickens in Saga-Book XII of the Viking Society, 12 (1945) pp 53-80</ref> The dedication of the church to St Magnus (as for the four City churches dedicated to [[Botwulf of Thorney|St Botolph]]) at least partly reflected interest in particular saints' relics during the 11th century. There was a cultus to this earlier St Magnus before the Norman Conquest; several English monastic houses claimed to have relics of the saint<ref>These included Westminster, Peterborough and Salisbury and a relic list of Exeter Cathedral notes: "Hec sunt nomina sanctarum reliquaram que habentur in ecclesia sacte Marie et sancti Petri Exonie ecclesie, quarum maximam partem gloriossimus rex Aedelstanus eiusdem ecclesie primus fundator ibidem contulit.... De reliquiis sancti Magni episcopis et martiris."''Anglo-Saxon Exeter: A Tenth-century Cultural History'', Patrick W. Conner (1993).</ref> [[Edgar the Peaceful|King Edgar]] gave one to [[Westminster Abbey]]<ref>[[John Flete]]’s manuscript history of the Abbey, written in the 1440s, records: “rex Edgarus dedit lapides quibus sanctus Stephanus lapidatus fuit, et quaedam ossa cum sanguine ejusdem ; tibiam unam cum costis et aliis minutis ossibus sanctorum Innocentium ; item duas costas et terram infectam sanguine sancti Laurentii, tres costas sancti Hippolyti, dentes sanctorum Magni et Symphoriani, cum cruce sancti Felicis item reliquias sancti Georgii et Sebastiani cum aliis” [https://archive.org/details/historyofwestmin00flet/page/70/mode/1up?q=magni The history of Westminster Abbey]</ref> and the relic collection of Peterborough Abbey included the hand of St Magnus the Martyr as well as the famous arm of [[Oswald of Northumbria|St Oswald]].<ref>''The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus, a Monk of Peterborough'', ed. W.T. Mellows (1949). This relic may have been collected by Abbot Ælfsige of Peterborough, who accompanied Queen Emma into temporary exile in 1013. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records in that year that "the lady [Queen Emma of Normandy] went afterwards over sea to her brother Richard, accompanied by Elfsy [Ælfsige/Elsinus/Elsige] Abbot of Peterborough. The king sent Bishop Elfun with the ethelings, Edward and Alfred, over sea; that he might instruct them. Then went the king from the fleet, about midwinter, to the Isle of Wight; and there abode for the season; after which he went over sea to Richard, with whom he abode till the time when Sweyne died. Whilst the lady was with her brother beyond sea, Elfsy, Abbot of Peterborough, who was there with her, went to the abbey called Boneval, where St. Florentine's body lay; and there found a miserable place, a miserable abbot, and miserable monks: because they had been plundered. There he bought of the abbot, and of the monks, the body of St. Florentine, all but the head, for 500 pounds; which, on his return home, he offered to Christ and St. Peter.”</ref> The feast of St Magnus the Martyr, celebrated on 19 August, appears in most liturgical calendars from the Gelasian Sacramentary in the eighth century<ref>See propers for "XIV Kal. Septembres in natali sancti Magni" [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b60000317/f215.item.zoom Gelasian Sacramentary]. The [[Old English Martyrology]], compiled in the second half of the 9th century, records that that "on the nineteenth day of the month [August] is the feast of the martyr St Magnus, whose mass can be found in the older massbooks" ''The Old English Martyrology: Edition, Translation and Commentary'', ed. Christine Rauer, 2013. It has been suggested - see ''Biblical Commentaries from the Canterbury School of Theodore and Hadrian'', ed. Bernhard Bischoff and Michael Lapidge (1994) - that the "older mass books" may refer more to those of Campanian origin, perhaps brought to England by [[Adrian of Canterbury]] that to the Gelasian Sacramentary.</ref> and the missal of [[Robert of Jumièges]] in the 11th century<ref>''The ‘Missal’ of Robert of Jumièges and manuscript illumination at Peterborough c. 1015–1035'', T. A. Heslop in ''Peterborough and the Soke'' (2019). See [https://archive.org/details/missalrobertjum00wilsgoog/page/n283/mode/2up Missal]</ref> to the 16th century.<ref>See the [https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMINBig.ASP?size=big&IllID=30502 Westminster Psalter (c.1200)], the [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t1kh0kp3z&view=1up&seq=346&q1=310 Sarum Missal], [https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Missale_Ad_Usum_Ecclesie_Westmonasterien/jAMNAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 Westminster Use], [https://archive.org/details/herefordbreviary01cath/page/n23/mode/2up?q=magni Hereford breviary], [https://archive.org/details/missalofstaugust00cath/page/105/mode/1up?q=magno+martyre+ The missal of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury], [https://archive.org/details/ancientkalendar45oxfouoft/page/52/mode/2up?q=magni University of Oxford], [https://usuarium.elte.hu/calendarlabel/859/view Database for the Study of Latin Liturgical History] and [http://www.cokldb.org/cgi-bin/saint_detail.pl?saint_id=439 Corpus Kalendarium]</ref> The original dedication of the church would therefore, as noted by [[Richard Thomson (antiquarian)|Richard Thomson]] in his ''Chronicles of London Bridge'' of 1827,<ref>"I do not find the Patron Saint of this edifice is at all mentioned by Alban Butler; nor are all writers perfectly agreed as to who he actually was; seeing that there were two saints named Magnus, whose festival day was kept on the 19th of August. One of these was Bishop of Anagnia in Italy, and was martyred in the persecution raised by the Emperors Decius and Valerian, about the middle of the third century after the Birth of Christ. The other St Magnus was the person to whom Newcourt supposed this Church was dedicated, though he erroneously calls his feast August the 18th. He is named, by way of distinction, St Magnus the Martyr of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, because he suffered at that City, under Alexander the Governor, int he time of the Emperor Aurelian, AD 276.... An extended history of these famous men you will find in that wonderful work the ''Acta Sanctorum'', which I have before quoted ... though there is a much longer account of the Swedish St Magnus, the Abbot, whose festival is September the 6th, and whom I pray you never to mistake for the Martyr of London Bridge."</ref> have been to St [[Magnus of Anagni]] (Sancti Magni martiris et episcopi Tranensis),<ref>See: [https://archive.org/details/actasanctorum37unse/page/n738/mode/1up Acta Sanctorum]. The feasts of St [[Magnus of Cuneo]], a soldier of the Theban Legion, and the seventh century bishop St [[Magnus of Avignon]] also fall on 19 August, but the latter was a confessor rather than a martyr and the former does not generally appear in martyrologies. Bede's Martyrology notes for 19 August "XIV. Kal. Natale S. Magni, seu S. Andreæ, cum sociis suis duobus millibus quingentis nonaginta septem. Præfigunt A. T. L. In Alexandria: ast A. et T. sic distinguunt. In Alexandria natale S. Magni et S. Andreæ martyrum. Eodem die natale S. Mariani cum duobus millibus quingentis nonaginta septem. Deinde addunt: Romæ natale S. Magni martyris." [https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/giles-the-complete-works-of-venerable-bede-vol-4-historical-tracts-english-and-latin Bede]. Sabine Baring-Gould's [[The Lives of the Saints (Baring-Gould)|'Lives of the Saints']] concluded that: "It can hardly be doubted that S. Magnus, Bishop and Martyr, has been manufactured by the blunders of martyrologists. [[Andrew Stratelates|S. Andrew the Tribune]] is commemorated in ... Latin [as] "Magnus Martyr". In the early Latin lists, on 19 August, was accordingly inscribed "Andreas Tribunus, Magnus Martyr". This was read as if there were two Saints, Andrew the Tribune, and Magnus the Martyr". [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/The_Lives_of_the_Saints_Volume_9.pdf Lives of the Saints]. See also ''The martiloge in Englysshe after the vse of the chirche of Salisbury and as it is redde in Syon with addicyons'', ed. F. Proctor and E.S. Dewick, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1526.</ref> a putative second century bishop who was martyred in the reign of the Emperor [[Decius]] and whose relics were translated from Fondi to Veroli and then to Anangni in the 9th century.<ref>See [https://archive.org/details/actasanctorum37unse/page/n745/mode/1up Translatio], [[Abbey of San Magno, Fondi]], [[Anagni Cathedral]], [[Santi Michele e Magno, Rome]] and [https://www.frisiacoasttrail.com/post/2019/09/23/Magnus-Choice-The-Origins-of-the-Frisian-Freedom Frisian Freedom]. Vatican Codex S. Pietro F.13 includes a Sacramentary and Kalendar used at Anagni Cathedral, with the feast of St Magnus rubricated and the addition of a feast of the ''Inventio corporis sancti Magni'' on 20 April. [https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.F.13 S.Pietro.F.13]</ref> It is possible that the dedication might also have been influenced by [[Cnut the Great#Journey to Rome|Cnut]]'s journey to Rome in 1027 or by the translation to Canterbury in 1023 of the remains of [[Ælfheah of Canterbury|Alphage]], Bishop and Martyr, from St Paul's Cathedral, where a cult had rapidly developed at his tomb.<ref>''The cult of St Thomas in the liturgy and iconography of Christ Church, Canterbury'', M-P Gelin in ''The Cult of St Thomas Becket in the Plantagenet World, C.1170-c.1220'' (2016)</ref>