“A Tale of Two Cities’ Saints: St. Denis of Paris, St. Chéron of Chartres, and the Musical (De)Construction of Cult”
Tova A. Leigh Choate

In the mid 830s, Abbot Hilduin of Saint-Denis created a historiographical problem when he drafted his Historia Sancti Dionysii for King Louis I.  Perhaps drawing upon earlier legends, he identified the first bishop of Paris, dated by Gregory of Tours to the third century, as both the Areopagite convert of St. Paul (and thus a contemporary of Pope Clement in the first century) and the later mystical theologian known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.  A liturgical Office and other sacred works trumpeted Hilduin's head-bearing, Areopagite St. Denis.  In turn, the legend of St. Denis, special patron of the monarchy, greatly influenced the hagiography and liturgies of other French saints, inspiring both creativity and controversy.

In this paper I will explore the impact of Hilduin’s account of the Parisian saint on the liturgy of the city of Chartres.  I will first discuss the cult of a local martyr, St. Chéron, whose ninth-century vita identifies him as a Roman called by Pope Clement to join St. Denis in his apostolic mission to Gaul.  I will focus specifically on the ways in which the ties to St. Denis, often only implicit in his vita, are made explicit in the music of his cult: an eleventh-century Office and a twelfth-century sequence.  Through borrowing of images and even a musical theft from the Office of the Parisian saint, the liturgists of Chartres defined their city’s martyr as a second St. Denis.  This association was only strengthened iconographically.  At the same time, however, Chartrain liturgy prescribed separate feasts for Dionysius the Areopagite and Dionysius of Paris, casting doubt on Hilduin’s legend.