Saint Marcouf

Markulf, French Marculphe, Marcouf, Marcoult and Others ( * 490 in Bayeux, † 558 in Saint- Marcouf -de- l'Isle, Canton Monte Bourg ), was a Frankish hermit, then founder and first abbot of the abbey Nantus in Normandy (now Saint- Marcouf -de- l'Isle ) and missionary of the Cotentin. As a saint and patron saint against scrofula he gained national prominence in the late Middle Ages through its inclusion in the sacred consecration of the French kings.

Life and Legend

Markulf received by Bishop Possessor of Coutances ordination. His missionary journeys should have led him with great success, on the Cotentin Peninsula and the Channel Islands; on Jersey he left his pupil Helier. The Merovingian Frankish king Childebert I gave him land for his monastery was founded. In Markulfs death Bishop Laudus (French Saint- Lô ) was present.

Soon Markulfs was told by numerous miraculous healings at the grave. At an unknown date his remains were collected and in the year 898 by monks of his abbey, possibly brought on the run from the Norman Conquest, after Corbeny. The pilgrimage church was built there for him was destroyed along with the entire place in the First World War in the Battle of the Aisne.

Markulf and the French monarchy

The veneration of St. Markulf stayed for centuries confined to his home diocese of Coutances and the closer environment of Corbeny. Its validity as emergency responders in scrofula may be followed up on a Namensassonanz; mar cou sounded old French ears like " sore evil", and several common diseases in the neck and facial area you took the time together under the generic term scrofula.

The kings of France had since the early Middle Ages to have the reputation of being hereditary miracle healing powers, specifically in the field of scrofula. They underwent regular duty to receive scrofula and they - as dictated the rite - the chin to touch with the words: " The king touches you; God heals you. " For this reason, Louis X is likely on the way back from the coronation in Reims at the Shrine of hectoliters. Markulf be turned around in Corbeny to prayer. This station was from then on - but not earlier; Saint Louis may have not even known the name of Markulf - an integral part of the coronation rites, and the intercession of St. Markulf was now considered of celestial origin of the royal miracle power of attorney. For symbolic act to the scrofulous still felt obliged Charles X in the Restoration era.