She is one of the earliest martyrs of Gaul, still revered in northern France, especially in Normandy and Île-de-France, where there are a number of communes, chapels and churches named for her.[2][4] The commune of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, where her relics are kept in the parish church of Saint Maclou, claims her as their patron saint. She is also the patron saint of sailors and boatmen of inland waterways.[4] Prisoners and captives traditionally invoke her name in praying for aid. Her feast day falls on 27 February.[5]
Tradition
In the traditional account, Honorina belonged to the Gallic tribe of Calates from the Pays de Caux region. Martyred during the persecutions of Diocletian, near the modern farming town of Mélamare, between Lillebonne and Harfleur, her body was thrown into the Seine by the pagans.[3] It drifted to Graville, later called Graville-Sainte-Honorine, which is now a district of the modern city of Le Havre. Reputedly, local Christians recovered Honorina's remains, first burying them at the foot of a cliff nearby; later, monks reinterred her remains in a reliquary, housed in a church they built to honour her.[4] Other traditions hold that she was martyred at Coulonces, Calvados, or in the Pays d'Auge, where several villages bear her name.[3]
Relics
A community of monks established a priory in the 5th century at Graville-Sainte-Honorine, where they built a church dedicated to Saint Honorina, moving her relics there.[4] In 876, with the coast threatened by the Normans, the monks moved the relics for safekeeping. The reliquary was transported inland, to a fortress at the confluence of the Seine and the Oise, and placed them in the chapel of the fortress.[4]
In 1080, the priory of Conflans was founded at the site by Benedictine monks from Bec Abbey, probably to provide for pilgrims visiting the relics. During the course of a dynastic struggle for succession to the lordship of Conflans, its wooden castle was destroyed in a siege on 21 June 1082. It was decided that a new church, further from the castle, should be built to house the rescued relics. In 1086, the new church, dedicated to Honorina, was completed. Her relics were solemnly translated there, in the presence of the bishop of Paris and Anselm, the Abbot of Bec Abbey, later the Archbishop of Canterbury and Doctor of the Church. It is from these events that Conflans become known as Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.[4][3]
Veneration
The church of Sainte-Honorine. Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
A confraternity was founded in her honour in later years, and special indulgences associated with her cult were also approved. Saint Honorina is the patron saint of boatmen, since Conflans-Sainte-Honorine became a port of arrival for the tugs that travel on the rivers and canals of northern France.[3]
Prisoners who were liberated thanks to the divine intercession of Saint Honorina brought their chains as an ex-voto.[6][5]
A regional pilgrimage, on Ascension Day, developed thanks to the monks of the priory of Conflans, who were associated with Bec Abbey.[4]
There are several French towns that are named Sainte-Honorine.
The Benedictine Monks of St. Augustine's Abbey, Ramsgate ["The monks of Ramsgate"] (1921). "Honorina (St.) V. M.". The Book of Saints: A Dictionary of Servants of God Canonised by the Catholic Church. London: A. & C. Black Ltd. p.138. ISBN978-0-265-23529-4. Digitised and republished online by Forgotten Books, 2022.
Borrelli, Antonio (13 October 2002). "Sant' Onorina". Santi, beati e testimoni: Enciclopedia dei Santi (in Italian). Retrieved 18 March 2023.
"The Orthodox Saints of France: 'H'". The Orthodox West: A resource for the Orthodox Saints of Western lands. Orthodox West Initiative. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
Sainte-Honorine is part of the name of several communes in France:
Saint Faith or Saint Faith of Conques is a saint who is said to have been a girl or young woman of Agen in Aquitaine. Her legend recounts how she was arrested during persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire and refused to make pagan sacrifices. Saint Faith was tortured to death with a red-hot brazier. Her death is sometimes said to have occurred in the year 287 or 290, sometimes in the large-scale Diocletianic Persecution beginning in 303. She is listed as "Sancta Fides, Virgin and martyr", in the martyrologies.
Alena, also known as Alène or Alina, is a Christian saint who, if historical, was martyred around the year 640. She is sometimes referred to as Alena of Forest, or Alena of Brussels, having died in Forest, Belgium, which is now one of the nineteen municipalities of Brussels.
Conflans-Sainte-Honorine is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, 24.2 km (15.0 mi) from the center of Paris.
Philibert of Jumièges was an abbot and monastic founder, particularly associated with Jumièges Abbey.
Lièpvre is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. A monastery was built here in the eighth century by Saint Fulrad, who filled it with relics of Saint Cucuphas and Saint Alexander.
Saint Marcellus of Tangier or Saint Marcellus the Centurion was a Roman centurion who is today venerated as a martyr-saint in both the Eastern Orthodox and the Catholic Church. His feast day is celebrated on October 30.
Devota is the patron saint of Corsica and Monaco. She was killed during the persecutions of the Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian. She is sometimes identified with another Corsican saint named Julia, who was described in Latin as Deo devota. The description was misinterpreted as a proper name. The legend connected with her is similar to those told of other saints of the region, such as Reparata and Torpes of Pisa.
Saint Lucian of Beauvais is a Christian martyr of the Catholic Church, called the "Apostle of Beauvais." He was killed in the 3rd century during the Diocletian persecution, although later traditions make him a martyr of the 1st century instead. This was because the church of Beauvais attempted to claim apostolic origins for itself. Odo, bishop of Beauvais during the 9th century, was the first writer to designate Lucien as the first bishop of Beauvais.
Valeria of Milan, or Valérie, according to Christian tradition, was the wife of Vitalis of Milan and the mother of Gervasius and Protasius.
Mélamare is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
Saint Domnius was a Bishop of Salona around the year 300, and is venerated as the patron of the nearby city of Split in modern Croatia. Salona was a large Roman city serving as capital of the Province of Dalmatia. Saint Domnius was martyred with seven other Christians in the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian. He was born in Antioch, in modern-day Turkey but historically in Syria, and beheaded in 304 at Salona.
Honorine may refer to:
October 12 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - October 14
The Abbey of Santa Giustina is a 10th-century Benedictine abbey complex located in front of the Prato della Valle in central Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. Adjacent to the former monastery is the basilica church of Santa Giustina, initially built in the 6th century, but whose present form derives from a 17th-century reconstruction.
St Augustine's Church or the Shrine of St Augustine of Canterbury is a Roman Catholic church in Ramsgate, Kent. It was the personal church of Augustus Pugin, the renowned nineteenth-century architect, designer, and reformer. The church is an example of Pugin's design ideas, and forms a central part of Pugin's collection of buildings in Ramsgate. Having built his home, Pugin began work on St Augustine's in 1846 and worked on it until his death in 1852. His sons completed many of the designs. This is the site where Pugin is buried, in a vault beneath the chantry chapel he designed, alongside several members of his family.
The Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy in Conques, France, was a popular stop for pilgrims traveling the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela, in what is now Spain. The main draw for medieval pilgrims at Conques were the remains of Sainte-Foy, a young woman martyred during the fourth century. The relics of Sainte-Foy arrived in Conques through theft in 866. After unsuccessful attempts to acquire the relics of Saint Vincent of Saragossa and then the relics of St. Vincent Pompejac in Agen, the abbey authorities set their sights on the relics of Sainte-Foy at the ancient St. Faith's Church, Sélestat. The Conques abbey opened a priory next to the shrine in Sélestat. A monk from Conques posed as a loyal monk in Agen for nearly a decade in order to get close enough to the relics to steal them. The abbey church is a listed monument since 1840.
Saint Grimonia was a 4th-century Irish virgin who was martyred in La Capelle, Picardy, France. The town is named after her chapel. Her feast day is 7 September.
Saint Hiltrude of Liessies was a French Roman Catholic nun and virgin saint. She is commemorated on September 27.
Serena of Rome is a legendary third-century martyr and saint listed in the Martyrologium Romanum. She is listed as the wife of Diocletian, however that claim is unproven and she has been removed from the calendar of saints.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
