Les offices des saints patrons provençaux : apports de la musicologie à l'histoire ecclésiastique d’Arles et Marseille (Xe-XIVe siècle)

Abstract

The cult of the saints had natural consequences on liturgical issues. An antiphonary and breviary, dating from the 13th and 14th centuries and that were used in Arles and Marseille, make it possible to study the liturgical cult which had grown out of hagiographie texts. Among the celebrations peculiar to western Provence dioceses are Victor’s, Jean Cassien’s, Marthe’s, Satumin’s, Lazare’s and Trophime’s. The presence of a whole office of Saint Victor shows the prominence of the abbey of Marseille, head of the order. Musicological analysis places the putting together of the corpus in the 10th century at the earliest, or even after the year 1000. It takes part in the great ecclesiastical revival of the 1 1th century, when Saint Victor was spreading Gregory’s reformation. The close relations between Saint Saturnin’ s and Saint Trophime’s offices, and the glorification of the latter’s apostolic character, seem to depend on the old claim of the city of Arles to the title of Primate of Gaul. Saint Trophime’s office remains nonetheless limited to the city of Arles and the saints from Marseille prevail, even in Arles.