The (or ) (, ; , ), a hagiographical poem about

Saint Faith Saint Faith, Saint Faith of Conques or Saint Faith of Agen (; ; ) 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 r ...

, is an early surviving written work in

Old Occitan Old Occitan (, ), also called Old Provençal, was the earliest form of the Occitano-Romance languages, as attested in writings dating from the 8th to the 14th centuries. Old Occitan generally includes Early and Old Occitan. Middle Occitan is some ...

and has been proposed to be the earliest work in Old Catalan. It is 593

octosyllabic The octosyllable or octosyllabic verse is a line of verse with eight syllables. It is equivalent to tetrameter verse in trochees in languages with a stress accent. Its first occurrence is in a 10th-century Old French saint's legend, the '' Vie d ...

lines long, divided into between 45 and 55 monorhyming '' laisses''. It was written between 1054 and 1076, during the reign of Ramon Berenguer I, Count of Barcelona, by an anonymous poet.

Origin

The place of its composition is controversial. It may have been written in the region around

Narbonne Narbonne ( , , ; ; ; Late Latin:) is a commune in Southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and was ...

. On the other hand, it may belong to the

Roussillon Roussillon ( , , ; , ; ) was a historical province of France that largely corresponded to the County of Roussillon and French Cerdagne, part of the County of Cerdagne of the former Principality of Catalonia. It is part of the region of ' ...

, either to the monastery of Sant Miquel de Cuixà, where

relic 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. Reli ...

s pertaining to Saint Faith are to be found, or that of Sant Martí del Canigó. In Roussillon in the eleventh century, the name Faith (''Fides'') was relatively common. Other suggested regions include

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

, Cerdagne, and

Quercy Quercy (; , locally ) is a former province of France located in the country's southwest, bounded on the north by Limousin, on the west by Périgord and Agenais, on the south by Gascony and Languedoc, and on the east by Rouergue and Auverg ...

Language and manuscript

The language or dialect of the poem is also debated, since on it hinge the nationalist pride of Catalonia and the thesis that Catalan and

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

, the language of southern France, were indistinct before the fourteenth century. Ernst Hoepffner (1926) argued that it was "certainly not Catalan".Riquer, p. 198 n1.

Martín de Riquer Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * M ...

(1964) agrees that "one cannot affirm the Catalanity of this beautiful and ingenious poem indubitably".Riquer, p. 198. Aurelio Roncaglia (1961) suggests it was written in the ''lingua d'oc'' (Occitan) but ''ai margini della Catalogna'' (on the margins of Catalonia). As early as 1581 Claude Fauchet believed it was ''vieil espagnol, pour le moins cathalan'' (old Spanish, at least Catalan), but the manuscript Fauchet worked from disappeared. It was rediscovered in 1901 among the works of Ausiàs March in the library of the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...

by José Leite de Vasconcelos. 36 pages. It had evidently been misplaced in 1716 based on its misidentification as a work of March's in 1562. In 1962 J. W. B. Zaal studied Fauchet's manuscript and on the basis of the words ''razo espanesca'' found in the , determined that it was culturally transpyrenean. The manuscript history further supports the notion that the language of the is of a more Iberian dialect (so that it could be mistaken for late medieval Catalan).

Martyrdom of Saint Faith

The is a versified narration of the

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

dom of Saint Faith in

Agen Agen (, , ) is the prefecture of the Lot-et-Garonne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Southwestern France. It lies on the river Garonne, southeast of Bordeaux. In 2021, the commune had a population of 32,485. Geography The city of Agen l ...

(). It is primarily based on the now lost

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

'' Passio sanctorum Fidis et Caprisii'', though seven Latin sources have been identified, including the '' De mortibus persecutorum'' of

Lactantius Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius () was an early Christian author who became an advisor to Roman emperor Constantine I, guiding his Christian religious policy in its initial stages of emergence, and a tutor to his son Crispus. His most impo ...

. Elisabeth Work divides it into two distinct parts: a conventional '' chanson de saint'' that lasts the first 41 ''laisses'' and is based on the traditional sources, and an original '' chanson de felon'' corresponding to the final eight ''laisses''.Work, p. 366. The first part is eloquent and polished, while the latter part is mediocre, often attributed to the phrase ''a lei francesca'', which is taken to indicate that the poet was composing in the manner of the

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th narrative lay. The poet himself narrates the final part with an air of disgust appropriate to the felonious content. Everywhere, however, his language is orthographically, lexically, and rhythmically consistent.

Popularity

According to the final lines of its ''razo'' (prologue, section III), the was popular in the regions of Basque Country (historical territory), Vasconia, Aragon, and Gascony, where the people can affirm its truth: : : : : Translation: ''The whole country of the Basques and Aragon / and the region of the Gascons / know what this song is, / and whether this subject is really true.''

Further citation

Stanza 39:Compare The French translation by Antoine Thomas is also reproduced on Wikisource. Translation:

Editions

* * French translation by Antoine Thomas on Wikisource.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Canco de Santa Fe Old Occitan literature Medieval Catalan literature