The Competition for Saints in Medieval Zurich

Abstract

The facts regarding the saints of the major churches of Zurich are easy to establish. A priory, later known as the Grossmünster, was erected on the east side of the Limmat over the supposed burial sites of the early Christian martyrs Felix and Regula. In 853 Louis the German founded an abbey of canonesses, dedicated to the same saints, on the west side of the river immediately opposite. In the mid-twelfth century, sculptured reliefs in the new buildings at both sites described episodes from the saints' legend. The Grossmünster acquired Charlemagne relics in 1233, about the same time that a new saint, Exuperantius, for whom there is no historical basis, mysteriously joined Felix and Regula as a companion martyr. Shortly before 1300 the Chronica universalis Turicensis likened Louis' daughters, the first abbesses of his church, now known as the Fraumünster, to saints, mentioning miracles at their tombs in the south transept. A fresco painted nearby about 1300 recorded the earlier translation of the relics of Felix and Regula from the Grossmünster to the Fraumünster in a way that played up the importance of this event. This paper examines these events as part of a competition between these two foundations in which works of art advertised the status and number of their saints, a one-upmanship in which each successive incident was intended to represent the greater prestige of one's own saints in contrast to those of the competing institution. The Grossmünster's interest in Charlemagne, for example, has little to do with any historical connection of the saint to either the foundation or the city, but more likely derives from the fact that Charlemagne was the more famous predecessor of Louis the German. Charlemagne's greater age, legendary status as the first Holy Roman emperor, and recent sainthood thus trump the Fraumünster's longer-standing connection to the Carolingians. The very name Exuperantius and the unusual terms of his "appearance" suggest similar competitive grounds as the basis for his invention. This "battle of the saints" can be seen as the outward expression of a struggle for spiritual and political power within the city. Images of the city's original martyrs and depictions of newly claimed saints defined institutional identity, but it was an identity in flux as these rival institutions sought to position themselves in relation to one another.