The Saint and the Citizens: Scripting Civic Behaviour in Early Medieval Hagiography

Abstract

By his own admission, Saint Severinus of Noricum (d. 482) did not much care for being a citizen in the world. He had turned up at the Danube frontier in the 450s, a stranger of unknown provenance, whose authority stemmed from his actions rather than his status, office or birth. When one of his close associates had finally plucked up the courage to ask him where he was from, the holy man had first responded with a very Roman joke: if you think I am a runaway slave, then you'd better get some funds together to pay my ransom when they come to collect me. He had then rounded on his questioner with a stern rebuke: the true servant of God cares only to be inscribed on the citizen-list of the heavenly fatherland, so why inquire about worldly credentials? No one had dared to ask Severinus about his background ever again.This anecdote is recorded in the prologue to the Commemoratorium vitae sancti Severini, a hagiographical account of Severinus' life that was R. Flierman (B)