A widely travelled diplomat and a determined opponent of Arianism, the presence of Servatius is recorded at several synods and church councils. In 343, Sarbatios - Greek texts rendering v as b - was present at the Council of Sardica (modern Sofia). In the debates, Servatius represented the Trinitarian view, which clashed with the Arian view of most Eastern bishops. According to Sulpicius Severus, Servatius again eloquently denounced Arianism at the Council of Rimini in 359.
When Athanasius, the leading opponent of Arianism, was exiled to Trier (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 of Jesus 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-emperor Constans had been assassinated in 350, Servatius was sent to the Roman emperorConstantius II in Edessa, the capital of Armenian Mesopotamia, as an envoy of the usurperMagnentius 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.
Servatius and the Huns
An important source about the life of Saint Servatius, albeit not a contemporary source, is Gregory of Tours' Glory of the Confessors and History of the Franks.[6] In his late 6th-century account, Gregory writes about Aravatius (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 the Huns 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 at Saint Peter's tomb in Rome, had a vision in which the destruction of Tongeren was forecast (because of their sinfulness). Peter then handed the Keys of Heaven to Aravatius, transferring to him the power to forgive sins. According to Gregory, Aravatius returned to Tongeren, brought the relics 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 the Basilica of Our Lady in Tongeren and the Basilica of Our Lady in Maastricht. 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, the Basilica of Saint Servatius, excavations in the 1990s have revealed the remains of a 6th-century church (built by bishop Monulph and described by Gregory of Tours as a magnum templum), with at its center a late Roman structure, possibly the tomb of Servatius.
Over the centuries legends accumulated around the historical figure of the bishop of Tongeren. Two early vitae (biographies) place Servatius' birth in Armenia and make him a cousin of John the Baptist, and thus a distant relative of Jesus (neither were mentioned by Gregory of Tours).
Around 1075, the French priest Jocundus was commissioned by the chapter of Saint Servatius to write another Vita sancti Servatii. Jocundus is also the author of the Miracula 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 the Byzantine 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 was Fenuste, southeast of Damascus, 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 poet Henric 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 of Dutch literature, even though it was written in Limburgish, the most divergent of the 4 major dialects that comprises Middle Dutch.
In the 17th century, the Bollandists 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]
Saint Servatius receives in Tongeren the mitre and crozier from an angel
Saint Servatius preaches in Greek. The audience miraculously understands him
The 12th-century gilded reliquary chest in the Basilica of Saint Servatius, containing the saint's relics, is a major work of Mosan art and became known as the 'Chest of Distress' (Dutch: Noodkist) as it was carried around town in times of distress. A pilgrimage with the relics of Saint Servatius and other saints takes place every seven years: the Maastricht Pilgrimage of the Relics (Dutch: Heiligdomsvaart). The Noodkist is normally kept in the Treasury of the Basilica of Saint Servatius, along with the so-called 'Servatiana' (objects that are associated with the saint, such as his pilgrim's staff, his crozier, his pectoral cross, his chalice, his paten and a symbolic key to heaven).
Other historic churches in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany were dedicated to the saint, e.g. the collegiate churches of Grimbergen Abbey and Quedlinburg Abbey. In the Quedlinburg 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 by Betawi 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 in Hjørring, Denmark, is iconographically so similar to sculptures of the Madonna and Child, that it was long misattributed.[9]
In Sri 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.
P. C. Boeren, Jocundus, biographe de saint Servais. Nijhoff, The Hague, 1972
L. Jongen Heinrich (ed.), and Kim Vivian, Richard H. Lawson and Ludo Jongen (transl.)The Life of Saint Servatius: A Dual-language Edition of the Middle Dutch 'legend of Saint Servatius' by Heinrich Von Veldeke and the Anonymous Upper German 'life of Saint Servatius'. Mellen Press, 2005, ISBN0-7734-6063-2
Maastricht is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the Meuse, at the point where the river is joined by the Jeker. Mount Saint Peter (Sint-Pietersberg) is largely situated within the city's municipal borders. Maastricht is adjacent to the border with Belgium and is part of the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion, an international metropolis with a population of about 3.9 million, which includes the nearby German and Belgian cities of Aachen, Liège, and Hasselt.
The 350s decade ran from January 1, 350, to December 31, 359.
Tongeren is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg, in the southeastern corner of the Flemish region of Belgium. Tongeren is the oldest town in Belgium, as the only Roman administrative capital within the country's borders. As a Roman city, it was inhabited by the Tungri, and known as Atuatuca Tungrorum, it was the administrative centre of the Civitas Tungrorum district.
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, shamanism, and many other religions. Relic derives from the Latin reliquiae, meaning "remains", and a form of the Latin verb relinquere, to "leave behind, or abandon". A reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics.
Maximin was the sixth bishop of Trier. His feast is 29 May.
Mosan art is a regional style of art from the valley of the Meuse in present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. Although in a broader sense the term applies to art from this region from all periods, it generally refers to Romanesque art, with Mosan Romanesque architecture, stone carving, metalwork, enamelling and manuscript illumination reaching a high level of development during the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries.
Gerlach was a 12th-century Dutch hermit. His cult is centered at Houthem near Valkenburg in the south of the province of Limburg.
The Basilica of Saint Servatius is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Servatius, in the center of Maastricht, Netherlands. The architecturally hybrid but mainly Romanesque church is situated next to the Gothic Church of Saint John, backing onto the town's main square, Vrijthof.
Candidus was a commander of the Theban Legion. The Theban Legion was composed of Christians from Upper Egypt. He is venerated as a Christian saint and martyr.
Gondulphof Maastricht, sometimes of Tongeren was a bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht venerated as a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox saint. Together with Saint Servatius and Saint Monulph, he is one of the patron saints of the city of Maastricht.
Quedlinburg Abbey was a house of secular canonesses (Frauenstift) in Quedlinburg in what is now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was founded in 936 on the initiative of Saint Mathilda, the widow of the East Frankish King Henry the Fowler, as his memorial. For many centuries it and its abbesses enjoyed great prestige and influence. Quedlinburg Abbey was an Imperial Estate and one of the approximately forty self-ruling Imperial Abbeys of the Holy Roman Empire. It was disestablished in 1802/3. The church, known as Stiftskirche St Servatius, is now used by the Lutheran Evangelical Church in Germany.
Monulph was a sixth-century bishop of Tongeren and Maastricht, and is revered as a Roman Catholic saint.
The Diocese of Liège is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Belgium. The diocese was erected in the 4th century and presently covers the same territory as Belgium's Liège Province, but it was historically much larger. Currently, the diocese is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels. Its cathedra is found within St. Paul's Cathedral in the episcopal see of Liège.
Aignan or Agnan (358–453), seventh Bishop of Orléans, France, assisted Roman general Flavius Aetius in the defense of the city against Attila the Hun in 451. He is known as Saint Aignan.
The Basilica of Our Lady is a Romanesque church in the historic center of Maastricht, Netherlands. The church is dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption and is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Diocese of Roermond. The church is often referred to as the Star of the Sea, after the church's main devotion, Our Lady, Star of the Sea.
The Treasury of the Basilica of Saint Servatius is a museum of religious art and artifacts inside the Basilica of Saint Servatius in Maastricht, Netherlands.
Heinrich von Veldeke is the first writer in the Low Countries known by name who wrote in a European language other than Latin. He was born in Veldeke, which was a hamlet of Spalbeek, part of the municipality of Hasselt, Limburg, Belgium, since 1977. The "Vel(de)kermolen", a water mill on the Demer River, is the only remainder of the hamlet. In Limburg, he is celebrated as a writer of Old Limburgish.
A church treasury or church treasure is the collection of historical art treasures belonging to a church, usually a cathedral or monastery. Such "treasure" is usually held and displayed in the church's treasury or in a diocesan museum. Historically the highlight of church treasures was often a collection of reliquaries.
Vrijthof is a large urban square in the centre of Maastricht, Netherlands. The square developed from an ancient Roman and Frankish cemetery into a semi-private space that belonged to the Collegiate Church of Saint Servatius. In the 19th century, it became the town's main square. It is surrounded by important heritage buildings, museums, a theatre, and a range of hotels, restaurants, and bars. The square is regularly used for public events.
The Pilgrimage of the Relics or Maastricht Septennial Pilgrimage is a seven-yearly Catholic event in the Dutch city of Maastricht. Originating in the Middle Ages, it developed from a pilgrimage to the grave of Saint Servatius into the present-day religious, historical, cultural and commercial enterprise. Highlights in the programme are the displaying or unveiling of the relics in the main churches and secondly, the processions with the town's main relics. The next pilgrimage will take place in 2025.
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