Lengyel László (szerk.): Devóció és dekoráció - 18. és 19. századi korolstormunkák Magyarországon - Studia Agriensia 7. (Eger, 1987)

Summary

ÉVA KNAPP - GÁBOR TÜSKÉS “DRESSED UP IN RED VÉL VET... ”

DECORATED CATACOMB SAINTS RELICS IN HUNGARY

One of the most characteristic manifestations of the reverence for saints in the Baroque period is the cult of the catacomb saints. The basis of the spread of the cult in Europe was the rediscovery of the Roman catacombs in the 16th- 17th centuries, the initiated excavations, the authentification of the found skeletons as ancient Christian martyr saints and the distribution of skeleton relics in whole Europe. The reverance of the catacomb saints appears as a paradigm for other forms of church devotion in the shaping of their history as well, because in this example the different phases of the cult can followed step by step from its acceptance, during its circulation until its decease. We can almost always apprehend the fact that the spread of the cult was urged on immidiately, in most cases by the church (the bishops and monks) and in some by the world (the advowees) and form which we can trace further manifestations of the cult. The movement lasted from the second half of the 17th century until the middle of the 19th century and its golden age fell in the second half of the 18th century. The most typical sign if the cults’s acceptance was that it always remained between local reverence and within the frames of a well defined area and never crossed the borders of the circle of attraction of a church, a shrine or church county. Another characteristic of the cult was that no special patrons appeared for the catacomb saints; these saints were not accomodated by the specialisation process which occured in the saint reverence of the Baroque age.

The possibility for relic decoration was during the different stages of their journey from Rome. The most simple solution was if the relic was already decorated before it left Rome. An example of this are the relics of St. Christina and St. Augustus, which had been already decorated in Rome and which were sent by Pope Pius VI to the Austrian Archduchess Maria Christina and to her husband Albert Casimir Teschen, Prince of Saxony, as a gift. Later the relics were placed in the Capuchin Abbey Church of Mosonmagyaróvár. The same happened with the St. Valerius Felicianus relic in 1826, which was sent on the request of Count Antal Apponyi, an apostle emissary to the Parish Church of Mucsi.

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