Servatius | |
|---|---|
 Reliquary bust of Saint Servatius (15/16th c.) | |
| Born | Unknown Armenia (traditionally) |
| Died | 13 May 384 AD (traditionally) Maastricht |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church[1] |
| Majorshrine | Basilica of Saint Servatius, Maastricht |
| Feast | 13 May |
| Attributes | So-called "Key of Saint Servatius", crozier, dragon (under his feet) |
| Patronage | Invoked against: foot troubles, lameness, rheumatism, rats and mice |
Saint Servatius[2] (Dutch:Sint Servaas;French:Saint Servais;Limburgish:Sintervaos; died 13 May 384) wasbishop of Tongeren (Latin:Atuatuca Tungrorum, the capital of theTungri). Servatius ispatron saint of the city ofMaastricht and the towns ofSchijndel andGrimbergen. He is one of theIce Saints. His feast day is May 13.
A widely travelled diplomat and a determined opponent ofArianism, the presence of Servatius is recorded at severalsynods and church councils. In 343,Sarbatios - Greek texts renderingv asb - was present at theCouncil of Sardica (modernSofia). In the debates, Servatius represented theTrinitarian view, which clashed with the Arian view of most Eastern bishops. According toSulpicius Severus, Servatius again eloquently denounced Arianism at theCouncil of Rimini in 359.
WhenAthanasius, the leading opponent of Arianism, was exiled toTrier (in 336 or 343), he may have met with Servatius, because both men campaigned against Arian bishops and priests in the region.
According to a medieval legend, Servatius took part a Council of Cologne in 346, testifying that Euphrates, bishop of Cologne, "denied the divinity ofJesus Christ, this even happened in the presence of Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria".[3] Euphrates was historically known as an opponent of Arianism and alongside Athanasius and Servatius took part in the Council of Sardica.[4][5] The legend, compiled in Trier, probably aimed at reducing the status of the church of Cologne, with which Trier was in conflict over ecclesiastical predominance.
After co-emperorConstans had been assassinated in 350, Servatius was sent to theRoman emperorConstantius II inEdessa, the capital ofArmenian Mesopotamia, as an envoy of theusurperMagnentius to represent the late Constans as an unworthy tyrant and oppressor, in the hope of obtaining Constantius's recognition of Magnentius as co-ruler. The mission failed and the resulting civil war ended with the death of Magnentius in 353. The mission can be seen as a sign of the high standing of Servatius.
An important source about the life of Saint Servatius, albeit not a contemporary source, isGregory of Tours'Glory of the Confessors andHistory of the Franks.[6] In his late 6th-century account, Gregory writes aboutAravatius (identified by most scholars as Servatius), who was a bishop of Tongeren and died in Maastricht. According to the Frankish bishop and historian, Aravatius lived at the time when theHuns threatened Tongeren (5th century), which does not match the 4th-century dates of the synods mentioned above. It is not always clear how much of Gregory's account is history and how much is fiction. Gregory describes how Aravatius, during a vigil atSaint Peter's tomb inRome, had a vision in which the destruction of Tongeren was forecast (because of their sinfulness). Peter then handed theKeys of Heaven to Aravatius, transferring to him the power to forgive sins. According to Gregory, Aravatius returned to Tongeren, brought therelics of his predecessors to Maastricht, where he died and was buried alongside the Roman road, near the bridge.
As a bishop, Servatius may have been the founder of several early Christian churches in the diocese of Tongeren. Two likely candidates are theBasilica of Our Lady inTongeren and theBasilica of Our Lady inMaastricht. In the case of Tongeren, this traditional claim was supported by excavations in the 1980s, which revealed under the medieval church remains of a 4th-century church, possibly the original cathedral of the diocese. The origins of the Maastricht church of Our Lady remain uncertain, since no excavations have ever been carried out inside this church. In another Maastricht church however, theBasilica of Saint Servatius, excavations in the 1990s have revealed the remains of a 6th-century church (built by bishopMonulph and described by Gregory of Tours as amagnum templum), with at its center a lateRoman structure, possibly the tomb of Servatius.
Over the centuries legends accumulated around the historical figure of the bishop of Tongeren. Two earlyvitae (biographies) place Servatius' birth inArmenia and make him a cousin ofJohn the Baptist, and thus a distant relative ofJesus (neither were mentioned by Gregory of Tours).
Around 1075, the French priest Jocundus was commissioned by thechapter of Saint Servatius to write anotherVita sancti Servatii. Jocundus is also the author of theMiracula sancti Servatii, a sequel to the vita, describing all the miracles that happened after Servatius' death. According to some historians, both works were composed to quell doubts about the genealogy of Servatius and his Armenian descent. These doubts had been raised at the Council of Mainz in 1049. When envoys from theByzantine emperor arrived at the Council of Mainz, confirming accounts by a certain Alagrecus who had testified that Servatius was Armenian, and asserting that his birthplace wasFenuste, southeast ofDamascus, this helped to erase some doubts but Servatius' kinship to Jesus was never confirmed by an official council.[7]
At the end of the 12th century the poetHenric van Veldeke wrote a new legend of Saint Servatius, based on the earlier accounts by Gregory of Tours and Jocundus, to which he added several more miracles, thus emphasizing Saint Servatius' saintliness. The work is considered one of the earliest works ofDutch literature, even though it was written inLimburgish, the most divergent of the 4 major dialects that comprisesMiddle Dutch.
In the 17th century, theBollandists tried to separate some of the facts and myths surrounding Servatius. They managed to calculate the exact date of his death (13 May 384), which for a long time was accepted as a historical fact.[8]
According to tradition the saint's remains are buried in theBasilica of Saint Servatius in Maastricht, where they lie in a crypt dating from the 6th century. His tomb has been a place of pilgrimage for many centuries. Famous visitors includeCharlemagne,Charles V (Holy Roman Emperor),Philip II of Spain andPope John Paul II. In Maastricht, theEastern Orthodox Church belonging to the Russian Exarchate of theEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is also dedicated to Saint Servatius. TheSint Servaasbrug, the oldest bridge over the riverMeuse in Maastricht, was named after Saint Servatius. The name 'Servaas' was a popular given name in Maastricht and surroundings for many centuries.
The 12th-century gildedreliquary chest in the Basilica of Saint Servatius, containing the saint's relics, is a major work ofMosan art and became known as the 'Chest of Distress' (Dutch:Noodkist) as it was carried around town in times of distress. Apilgrimage with the relics of Saint Servatius and other saints takes place every seven years: theMaastricht Pilgrimage of the Relics (Dutch:Heiligdomsvaart). TheNoodkist is normally kept in theTreasury of the Basilica of Saint Servatius, along with the so-called 'Servatiana' (objects that are associated with the saint, such as hispilgrim's staff, hiscrozier, hispectoral cross, hischalice, hispaten and a symbolic key to heaven).
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Other historic churches in theNetherlands,Belgium,France andGermany were dedicated to the saint, e.g. the collegiate churches ofGrimbergen Abbey andQuedlinburg Abbey. In theQuedlinburg Treasury important relics of Saint Servatius are kept. In many churches around the world, reliquaries, statues, stained glass windows, altar pieces and paintings of Servatius are revered. St. Servatius Church in Kampung Sawah,Indonesia received the relics of Servatius from Maastricht in its establishment date on October 6, 1996. Since then, highly infused byBetawi culture, the festival honoring the relics has been celebrated annually by the parishioners of the church.
A mid-15th-century wooden sculpture of Memelia (the ancestor linking Servatius to Jesus) with the infant Servatius in her arms (identifiable by the infant wearing a bishop's mitre) in the Vendsyssel Historiske Museum inHjørring,Denmark, is iconographically so similar to sculptures of theMadonna and Child, that it was long misattributed.[9]
InSri Lanka,St. Servatius' College was built around 1897 by a Belgian priest, Father Augustus Standard, on the bank of the river Nilwala at Pallimulla,Matara.
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