The Memory of Saint Vedast in Frankish Hagiographical Production

St Vedast served as a bishop in the Frankish realm during the reign of the first Christian Merovingian king, Clovis I. Through two hagiographical writings, Vedast entered Frankish historical memory, in all probability because these narratives included accounts of the saint’s cooperation with King Clovis. In the seventh century, a coherent hagiographical writing devoted to Vedast was composed by Jonas of Bobbio, although his authorship has recently been questioned. This text was comprehensively revised by Alcuin of York at the end of the eighth century. This study first examines how Jonas of Bobbio constructed the memory of St Vedast and how his hagiography reflected the episcopal ideal of his time. Jonas’s approach is consequently compared with the hagiographical writings of Venantius Fortunatus, specifically the Vita sancti Marcelli, which makes it possible to identify different strategies for shaping the memory of long­‑deceased bishops and different concepts of the relationship between literary form and historical reality. The final part of the study focuses on Alcuin’s Carolingian redaction of Vedast’s hagiography, in which the memory of the holy bishop is updated and used as an exemplum reflecting contemporary ideas about the relationship between spiritual and secular power. Thus, the study demonstrates that the hagiographical writings of St Vedast represent a dynamic tool for the formation and reinterpretation of historical memory in the early medieval Frankish world.

Keywords: Cult of Saints; Hagiography; St Vedast; Frankish Empire; Jonas of Bobbio; Alcuin of York