The Life of Hyginus from la Luz in Murcia (South-East Spain): A Possible Imitation of Late Roman Hagiographical models

Keywords: the life of Hygininus de la Luz, Murcia, late Roman hagiographical models, imitation

Abstract

Nineteenth-century Scholar Javier Fuentes y Ponte affirmed he could read in an now dissapeared manuscript the story of an anachorete named Hyginus who was disciple of Saint Genesius (Spanish San Ginés) and came from the monastery of his master placed in San Ginés de la Jara (Cartagena Fields) to South Murcia in the 9th century and founded there the rock monasteries and eremitories in the mountains of La Luz. This Information has been considered just a fake by Fuentes himself and therefore it was regarded as very doubtful by the majority of later historians. Even if the lost manuscript was written in modern times it remains still unclear why the anonymous writer knew that there was a late roman chapel placed in a cementery where Saint Hyginus was supposed to to pray and whose existence was fully unknown by Archaeologists until recent times.

Besides Hyginus’ story has many topics of traditional hagiographies, we hypothesize the Hyginus’ lost Life was written in Saint Genesius Monastery and was part of a some late accounts about Saint Ginés Life and his disciples that they still existed in the 16th century and were read and explained to incoming pilgrims.

References

Cascales F., Discursos históricos de la muy noble y muy leal ciudad de Murcia y su Reino, Murcia 1874.

Fernández Nieto F. J., Molina Gómez J.A., «El nombre y el origen de Murcia: la posible impronta cristiana en la fundación de la ciudad”, Antigüedad y Cristianismo. Monografías históricas sobre la Antigüedad Tardía, nº 23, 2006, 133-158;

Fuentes y Ponte J., España Mariana Provincia de Murcia, Lérida 1883.

González Blanco A., Historia de Murcia en las épocas tardorromana, bizantina y visigoda, Murcia 1998.

Jordán Montes J.F., Molina Gómez J.A., Zapata Parra J.A., «La frontera entre visigodos y bizantinos en el Parque Regional de El Valle (ciudad de Murcia)», Verdolay. Revista del Museo Arqueológico de Murcia, nº 13, 2011, 127-142.

Molina Gómez J. A., El martyrium de La Alberca, Murcia 2001.

Molina Gómez J. A., «Los problemas para explicar la pervivencia del cristianismo durante la dominación musulmana en Murcia», Antigüedad y Cristianismo. Monografías históricas sobre la Antigüedad Tardía, nº 28, 2011, 49-65.

Muñoz Martínez J. Los hermanos de la Luz, Murcia 1958.

Peña Velasco C., Molina Gómez J. A., «Ascetismo en imágenes: los ermitaños del Desierto del Sordo», Hispania Sacra, vol. 66, nº extra1, 2014, 225-263.

Pocklington R, «Antecedentes mozárabes y musulmanes del culto a San Ginés de la Jara», Historia de Cartagena, VI, Murcia, 1986, 339-352.

Soler B., Egea A., González A., «El culto a San Ginés de la Jara. Perspectivas históricas- arqueológicas», Actas de la V Reunión de Arqueología Cristiana Hispánica, 2000, 617-625.

Valera E., «Historia de San Ginés de la Jara (Manuscrito del siglo XV)», Murgetana 16, 1961, 77-117.

Published
2022-11-18
Section
Articles