Ad coronam

Among the well-known murals of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe (11th century, UNESCO), three hagiographic cycles have been overlooked in the past owing to their poor state of preservation. However, archeological surveys have now made it possible to identify the saints of varying importance venerated in the abbey church: Savin and Cyprian, the church’s patron saints, are revered as founder martyrs in the crypt; Marin, the secondary patron saint, whose cult was revived in the early 11th century with the inventio of his relics, is placed in the axial chapel; and Saint Denis, Bishop of Paris, whose martyrdom is told next to a Passion and Resurrection of Christ in the western gallery, appears as the Apostle of Gaul, thereby linking the abbey to the apostolic chain. By comparing the paintings with the corresponding hagiographic texts and archaeological remains, a forgotten part of the site’s history comes to light. Furthermore, the educational function of the paintings, including the Old Testament in the nave and the Passion of Christ in the gallery, previously described as a ‘Bible in pictures’, is re-evaluated to underscore their liturgical and monastic meaning. In fact, the paintings, while reflecting the specific claims of the abbey at the time of its reconstruction, were part of a liturgical programme centred on the Septuagesima and the preparation for Easter. This preparation for Easter is linked to the exegesis of monastic life itself as a stadium race at the end of which the monk, as a new martyr, is invited to receive the crown of life. In this way, the hagiographic images form part of the Story of Salvation and reveal the spirituality of an abbey which, while rebuilding the walls of its church, manifests a renewed spiritual impetus through the saints it bears on its altars.