User:Olivier/Worksheet/The Christian saints of Provence
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"la tradition provençale"
- The following is a work in progress. It may become the base of a Wikipedia article in the future.
There were many legends about the earliest Christians in Provence. One claimed that the bishop of Arles, Lazarus, buried at Marseille, was the same Lazarus healed by Jesus; another claimed that his sister Martha came to Provence to convert Tarascon; another popular legend claimed that Saints Mary Magdalene, Mary Salome and Mary Jacobe came to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in the Camargue by boat and settled in the mountains at Sainte-Baume. A skull which is described as that of Mary Magdalene is displayed in the basilica of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume. These legends first appeared during the Carolingian period. Relics claiming to be those of the Three Marys were discovered in the 15th century and put on display. However, there is no other historical evidence to support these legends.[1]
According to long-standing tradition, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and some companions, who were expelled by persecutions from the Holy Land, traversed the Mediterranean in a frail boat with neither rudder nor mast and landed at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer near Arles. Provençal tradition names Lazarus as the first bishop of Marseille, while Martha purportedly went on to tame a terrible beast in nearby Tarascon. Pilgrims visited their tombs at the abbey of Vézelay in Burgundy. In the Abbey of the Trinity at Vendôme, a phylactery was said to contain a tear shed by Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus. The cathedral of Autun, not far away, is dedicated to Lazarus as Saint Lazaire.
A medieval legendary account had Mary Magdalene, Mary of Jacob and Mary Salome,[2] Mark's Three Marys at the Tomb, or Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleopas and Mary Salome,[3] with Saint Sarah, the maid of one of them, as part of a group who landed near Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in Provence after a voyage from the Holy Land. The group sometimes includes Lazarus, who became bishop of Aix-en-Provence, and Joseph of Arimathea. They settled at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, where their relics are a focus of pilgrimage. The feast of the Three Marys was celebrated mainly in France and Italy, and was accepted by the Carmelite Order into their liturgy in 1342.[4]