Suggest an Edit — Maturinus

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Biography

Short Description

Maturinus, known in French as Mathurin, is a Christian saint whose cult is centered on the village of Larchant in the Gâtinais, in what is now the department of Seine-et-Marne in northern France. Almost everything reported about his life derives from a legendary Latin vita of uncertain medieval date rather than from contemporary historical documents. According to that tradition he was born at Larchant in the third century to pagan parents. His father, often named Marinus, is described as holding a local pagan priesthood or a fiscal office; his mother is sometimes called Elizabeth. The boy was converted and baptized by a bishop named Polycarp, an identification that later legend sometimes conflated with the famous Polycarp of Smyrna, which is geographically and chronologically implausible, and thereafter he converted his own parents as well.

The same vita presents Maturinus as having been ordained a priest while still young and as possessing a particular gift for exorcism. He is said to have driven demons from the possessed in his native region and to have acquired a wide reputation for holiness and miraculous power. In the most famous episode of the legend, the Roman emperor Maximian summoned him to Rome to deliver the emperor's daughter from demonic possession. Maturinus succeeded in the exorcism, remained for a time in the city, and died there. His body, according to the story, was then carried back to Larchant for burial. Traditional dates for his death vary in later sources between around the year 300, in keeping with Maximian's reign, and 388; none of these figures rests on a contemporary record.

Whatever the historical kernel, if any, a substantial medieval cult grew up around his tomb. From the twelfth century onward the sanctuary of Saint-Mathurin at Larchant became an important pilgrimage destination in the Île-de-France and the Gâtinais. French royalty, including several Capetian and Valois kings, visited the shrine. A large Gothic church, still standing in ruined but impressive form, was built to house the relics and to accommodate pilgrims. The relics themselves suffered in later centuries, notably during the Wars of Religion in the sixteenth century and again at the French Revolution. The Trinitarian order in Paris occupied a church dedicated to Saint-Mathurin, which led to the Trinitarians being popularly called Mathurins, a name that in turn became associated with French sailors.

In later popular devotion Maturinus was invoked as a patron of people suffering from mental illness, a role that follows naturally from the exorcistic miracles attributed to him. He also became the patron saint of jesters, clowns, and comic actors. His principal feast is kept on 1 November, the date under which he appears in the Roman Martyrology as a priest of Larchant in the territory of Sens; some local calendars have also observed 9 November. Modern historians treat the narrative of his life as hagiographical legend rather than recoverable biography, but the antiquity of the cult at Larchant and the persistence of his patronage in French popular religion are well attested.

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