Le culte des eaux dans le Nord de la Gaule pendant le haut Moyen Age

Abstract

The Water Cults in Northern Gaul in the Higher Middle Ages. The water cults are a religious practice that, as early as Antiquity, didn't address water as such, but rather deities whose healing powers passed through the water of springs and wells. This explains the persistance of such practices and their integration in the cults of saints in spite of the numerous interdictions proclaimed by the Church during the higher Middle Ages. This integration is visible in all the aspects of the cult of the saints : practices close to the sanctuaries, completion of the Vitae (sometimes through mythology), miracles carried out by the saints, later legends justifying a cult... Yet, one must realize that this is an area where the creation of sacredness is very active. It is thus extremely difficult to ascertain the perennitiality of a cult site throughout the pagan and Christian centuries.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 5 citations exist upstream.