Translating the Saints of Brittany: The Cult of Breton Saints in Northern France in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries

The tenth century marks a turbulent, poorly-documented, and little-studied period in Breton history. By the 920s Viking raids led to a total collapse of governance and the annals describe almost complete desolation. In such desperate circumstances most Breton religious communities chose to flee, taking refuge and re-establishing themselves in either Northern France or Southern England. For my DPhil I intend to research the tenth-century history of these religious communities, focussing on Fleury and Winchester since both acted as nodal points for Bretons in northern France and southern England respectively. During this research I intend to establish to what extent it is possible to see these Breton communities as part of an interconnected network, to explore how these Bretons conceptualised and viewed themselves and Brittany, and to consider the responses to their presence of the non-Bretons among whom they now lived. The vitae of Breton saints whose relics were taken into exile will provide one of the primary sources of evidence. As a result, the question of what it means to venerate a 'Breton' saint, the strong connection of whom to a local place scholarship has often remarked upon, in a new place will form a significant component of the project.
Despite the interest shown in the intellectual milieu of Fleury and Winchester and the important roles they played in the development of the Benedictine reform movement in Anglo-Saxon England, little research has been done on the Breton component of these communities or their continuing connections to Brittany itself. Gougaud's 1923 article identified evidence for Breton-Fleury connections but did not develop them, and since then (excepting Berland and Riché, who merely restate Gougaud's findings) no further research has been pursued. These articles identify connections, but neither explores in detail the nature of the Breton community nor Fleury's position as part of a wider Breton network. These connections and religious communities comprise an understudied component of Brittany's history in the tenth century, the scholarship on which has largely concentrated on the Bretons who remain living on the Armorican peninsula. Yet without considering those Bretons who left, it is not possible to gain a complete historical understanding of this period. Furthermore, I hope that my research will contribute to a greater understanding of the eleventh-century Breton history. Daniel Pichot and other scholars at Université Rennes 2 have paid attention to how Loire-based French monasteries established priories in and links to Brittany, but without a more complete appreciation of these monasteries' Breton connections, established in the tenth century by fleeing religious communities, it is not possible to do justice to the equally important history of the restoration of governance in Brittany after the Viking destruction of the tenth century.
Alongside close readings of a selection of untranslated and, in the case of Isembard of Fleury's Vita Iudoci, unedited Latin texts, I intend to utilize the recent scholarship on réécriture produced by Monique Goullet, Martin Heinzelmann, and Christiane Veyrard-Cosme. I expect this to be particularly useful when considering how the rewriters of the Vitae Paul Aureliani and Iudoci modify their source material in order to reflect and adapt to the needs of the cults of these saints in France and England. I also intend to explore whether 'diaspora' is a useful framework through which to consider these fleeing groups, engaging with Judith Jesch and Lesly Abrams's recent application of diaspora studies to the early medieval North Sea Viking settlements. My research shall contribute to the study of Breton history and to understanding dispersed monastic communities and intellectual transmission in tenth-century Europe.