Mystery of a holey relic
QUESTION
Is there any physical evidence to suggest that Aubert of Avranches founded the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel? MONT Saint- Michel’s foundation legend, the Apparitio Sancti Michaelis Archangeli in Monte Tumba, was composed around the mid- ninth century AD and later widely disseminated throughout medieval Europe.
Like the foundation legends of many medieval shrines, the Apparitio was both hagiographic and liturgical text, commonly read on the feast of the dedication of Aubert’s original oratory at Mont Saint-Michel on October 16.
The earliest copy of the legend can be found in the Revelatio Ecclesiae Sancti Michaelis in Monte Tumba parchment dating from the abbacy of Mainard II (991–1009), now in Avranches Bibliotheque Municipale.
The Apparitio recounts how the Archangel Michael appeared in three dreamvisions to Aubert, bishop of Avranches in the Merovingian province of Neustria, under the reign of a King Childebert.
Of the three kings who bore the name Childebert, it’s Childebert III (695-711) who is generally thought to best answer this definition, so the legend is usually dated to around 708 AD.
Michael commanded Aubert to build on the nearby Monte Tumba a chapel in his honour and even offered instructions about the site and size. When, after two further visitations, Aubert still hesitated to carry out the archangel’s orders, the angry Michael touched or struck him on the head, which spurred him to act.
Despite the importance of Saint Aubert in the foundation legend of Mont SaintMichel, for the first three centuries of the abbey’s existence his cult was practically nonexistent. The bishop had no feast day and there were no known relics.
In around 966, Richard the Fearless, third Duke of Normandy, installed Benedictines from Monte Cassino at Mont St-Michel and, in 1017, Abbot Hildebert II began the colossal scheme of buildings all around the rock to form a huge platform level with the summit, on which the abbey church would stand.
Around this time, the relics of St Aubert were discovered. The key relic is Saint Aubert’s skull, complete with a hole where the Archangel’s finger pierced it when he rapped him on the head.
This is on display at Saint- Gervais Basilica in Avranches. Sceptics believe the skull is, in fact, a prehistoric relic showing evidence of trepanation. Other than the Revelatio, this is the only evidence Saint Aubert actually existed.
Perhaps the real miracle of Mont SaintMichel is the magnificent building itself. Bob Kenney, Milton Abbas, Dorset.
QUESTION Has anyone, for whatever reason, been able to attend their own funeral? TIMOTHY DEXTER (1747-1806) of Massachusetts was one of America’s great eccentrics, who made a fortune speculating on the Continental dollar after the American Revolutionary War.
A series of bizarre schemes followed which, to everyone’s amazement, earned him an even greater fortune.
He bought, for instance, 42,000 bedwarming pans, which he sent to the West Indies, despite it being a tropical area.
His captain sold them as ladles for the local molasses industry and made a healthy profit.
Dexter purchased a huge house in Newburyport and took to calling himself Lord Timothy Dexter. Wary that people were calling in on him only because of his wealth, he concocted an elaborate plan to stage his own funeral. With the collusion of his family, whom he’d ordered to openly grieve at the event, he built a grandiose tomb and a fine mahogany coffin, before faking his own death.
Around 3,000 people turned up for the service and wake — perhaps enticed by the fine wines on offer. Everything was going smoothly — his son was ‘sufficiently drunk to weep without much effort’ — until the hidden Dexter saw his tearless, smiling wife.
He cornered her in the kitchen, then ‘caned’ her for her lack of effort, causing a great commotion. As the other guests entered the room, they were greeted by the supposedly dead Dexter. He then caroused with his mourners as if the whole stunt had never happened.
George Wallis, Mundesley, Norfolk. THE story of Noela Rukundo made headlines last year. A resident of Australia, she had returned home to Burundi to attend the funeral of her stepmother.
Unbeknown to her, her husband had arranged for her murder.
When her would-be killers realised her own husband had ordered her death, they gave Rukundo her freedom and she flew home, approaching her husband at her funeral to confront him. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.
In 2002, in Cuenca, Ecuador, the family and friends of Edison Vicuna were mourning his loss when he rolled up drunk. It was thought he had died in a car crash.
Jorge Matute, who had performed the post-mortem on the body, told Terra Noticias Populares newspaper: ‘The body had his face disfigured after a car crash and was mistaken for Vicuna.’
In 1997, Serbian pensioner Vuk Peric posted a fake death notice in his local newspaper and sent invites to his funeral. He then watched the event from a distance, eventually emerging to reveal that he was, indeed, alive. He thanked the mourners for coming.
Peter Smith, Durham.
QUESTION We recently had a 41-gun salute by the Royal Horse Artillery, followed by a 64-gun salute at the Tower. What was the significance of these numbers? FURTHER to the earlier answer, the guns fired by the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC), the City of London’s Army Reserves regiment, from Gun Wharf at the Tower of London, were not 25 pounders.
These have been replaced by the 105mm Light Gun, which was first introduced into service in the Seventies. Lionel Anderson (Army veteran),
Peniscola, Spain.