Melega Miklós (szerk.): Remembering St Martin in his birth place (Szombathely, 2016)

L

egend in Szombathely has it. the northern side-chapel of today's St Ulartin Church stands on the very spot where St martin was born in 316.1 It is even written over the entrance to the chapel, previously inside the chapel on its southern wall: Hic natus est S. ITIartinus.- Usually people refer to the biography by Sulpidus Severus of the bishop of Tours, venerated as a saint already in his lifetime to support this claim, although the author actually makes no mention of the place or the date of the birth either.0 The main walls of his birth house, which Járdányi Pau- lovics István believed to have found in 1944, can't possibly have been standing here since the place had served as a cemetery ever since the foundation of the Roman colony? So. where does the idea come from then?

Apparently, the tradition goes back to an event in October 79I5 and to none other than Charlemagne. In the autumn of 791 the Kinc( of the Franks led a war against his eastern barbarian neighbours, the Avars. At the time he and his family visited ancient Savaria, the town of St martin's birth as pilgrims

to pay tribute to the patron saint of his family and his country. It seems highly likely that annexing the old province of Pannonia and its major city to his own country were a hidden agenda. Building a Christian Holy Roman Smpire as the successor of the former Western Roman Smpire could surely not do without the birth place of its great bishop saint, so occupying the place probably made the attack launched with the purpose of gaining territories look like a just and justified one.

To ensure the success of this pilgrimage they needed to find at least the Saint's birth house, for want of any other local martin relic If the location of the real house could not be identified; assisted by the knowledgeable high priests escorting him, Charlemagne believed to have found the birth house of his heavenly patron in the burial building housing St Quirine’s original grave at the time in the Sarly Christian cemetery.0 The ancient tombstones with christograms found there probably played a major role in the identification

This is how the burial building of a martyr bishop who had died there earlier (the place of his heavenly birth) became the birth house of another saint bishop who lived there later (his earthly birth place).

1 űrmoriánczi Pál and Carolus Clusius (Charles de FSduse) were the first to write

^ about this ancient tradition.

■ The lS,h century Hungarian historian. Bél mátyás was the first to report about the inscription: Hungáriáé Novae Notitia, membrum 111. De Sabaria Közzéteszi В. Thoitias Sdit. Prokopp Gyula - Vasi Szemle. 1959.2, sz. 55. p.

° Sulpidus Severus-, Szent tTlárton élete. Ford. Borián Sired, Rsicharot Aba. Pannonhalma, 1997.28. p.

4 About the eatesm cemetery by P. Buocz Terézia Savaria topográfiája Szombathely, 1967. 55. 82-85. p; Pctsrváry-Szanyi Brigitta Savaria keleti temetője a római korban. Szakdolgozat. SLTS ВТК Régészeti intézet Ókori Régészeti Tanszéke. Budapest, 2005.150 p. Ült. tábla. I melléklet. - Savaria múzeum. Régészeti Adattár 2208-07.

0 For the latest summary of the events in 791 see Szőke. Béla Ftliklós: Nagy Károly hadjárata az avarok ellen 79t-ben. - Arrabona. múzeumi közlemények, 2006. 44/1. Ünnepi kötet a 65 éves Toitika Péter tiszteletére. 497-522. p„ about the detour to Savaria 504-505. p.

0 Kiss Gábor: Nagy Károly - Szent tTlárton szülőhelyének első zarándoka In: Via Sandi martini. Szent márton útjai térben és időben. Szerk. Tóth Ferenc Zágorhih Czisány

■ Balázs. Budapest. 2016.41-57. p. [in printing]

! Kiss Gábor: Sine vergessene Spisode des

Awarenfeldzuges von Karl dem Grollen 791. Was hat Karl der Große in Savaria gesucht und gefunden? ln: Festschrift Falko Daim zum 65. Geburtstag [in printing]

Literature and notes

4

Remembering St tTlartin

in his birth place