St-Martin-d'Ainay

The little church of Saint-Martin d'Ainay church, located on the "Presqu'île" peninsula in the historic centre of Lyon, in France, was constructed at the end of the 10th century and consecrated by Pope Pascal II in 1107. It is one of the rare surviving Romanesque basilica-style churches in Lyon.

Its rugged construction makes the church a site well-suited for imagining the austere and difficult and dangerous life of the frontier-France of the "Dark Ages". The tiny building with its massive thick walls, watchtower -- its bells not just for playing pretty music but also for sounding alarms -- and its narrow window openings and spaces for enormous heavy doors, is a reminder of the many dangers people there once faced. "Savoy", not France, was just across the Rhône river, and "Italy" was just beyond that: and even at home in France, from warring nobles and religious and other strife, there were threats in addition to those posed by "foreign" invaders.

Legendary origins of a remarkably large church noted by Gregory of Tours [Gregory, "Liber in gloria martyrum 48"] may be connected to the account of Eusebius, in his "Historia Ecclesiae" of the martyrdom of Blandina, the young girl among 48 Christians fed to lions by the Romans in 177 in Lyon's amphitheatre: the lions refused to eat her, according to Eusebius: she and the others were martyred nevertheless, and after burning their bones, tossed into the river, washed up downstream where the surviving Christians of the community buried them secretly beneath the altar of what Gregory calls a "basilica of remarkable magnitude." ["aedificaverunt basilicam mirae magnitudinis in eorum honore. Et sepelierunt beata pignora sub sancto altare, ubi se semper virtutibus manifestis cum Deo habitare declaverunt" Quoted by Werner Jacobsen, "Saints' Tombs in Frankish Church Architecture" "Speculum" 72.4 (October 1997:1107-1143) p. 1127 note 28.] Other candidates for the martyrs' basilica site include the [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89glise_Saint-Nizier_%28Lyon%29 St. Nizier church] , upstream, and the Cathédrale Saint-Jean across the Saône. [Rubellin, Michel. "L'abbaye de Saint Martin d'Ainay", in "L'abbaye d'Ainay : légendes & histoire" (Lyon : Musée Historique de Lyon, 1997) pp 19ff. ISBN 2-901307-11-6.] .

St-Martin-d'Ainey is the burial place of Bishop John O'Brien of Cloyne and Ross in Ireland, the noted Irish Lexicographer and antiquarian, who died in Lyon on 13 March 1769.

Notes

Bibliography

* "L'abbaye d'Ainay : légendes et histoire : [exposition] , Musée historique de Lyon, Hôtel de Gadagne, octobre 1997-février 1998" (Lyon : Musée historique de Lyon, 1997) 119 p. ; bibliog. ; ISBN 2-901307-11-6.

* Reynaud, Jean-François. "L'âme romane de Lyon" / un texte de Jean-François Reynaud,... ; photogr. originales signées Pierre Aubert ( [Lyon] (BP 1192, 69203 Cedex 01) : Groupe Esprit public, 1997) 95 p. : ill. en noir et en coul., jaquette ill. en coul. ; 32 cm ; Note(s) : La jaquette porte en plus : "Basilique Saint-Martin d'Ainay" ; ISBN 2-9510078-2-5.

* "Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Savigny. Suivi du Petit cartulaire de l'Abbaye d'Ainay" / publ. par Aug. Bernard (Paris : Impr. impériale, 1853) 2 vol. (CXX-547, VI-551-1167 p.-1 dépl.) ; 27 cm ; Series : Collection de documents inédits sur l'histoire de France. Première série, Histoire politique ; Vol. 1, Cartulaire de Savigny ; Vol. 2, Cartulaire d'Ainay; Note(s) : Texte en latin, introd. en français. - "Post-scriptum à joindre aux Cartulaires de Savigny et d'Ainay" de 4 p. relié en tête du T. II d'exemplaire conservé à la BnF sous la cote: L45-30 (2).

External links

* [http://notes.romanes.free.fr/images/rhone/lyon/ainay/photos.htm Lyon, Basilique Saint-Martin d'Ainay (in French, with photos and floorplan)]