Procope de Sázava

See also: Procope

Saint Procope (in Czech and German: Prokop ) (approximately 970 with Chotouň - March 25th 1053 with Sázava) is a secular priest, then a Ermite, founder of the Monastère of Sázava.

One knows little of his origins if they are only his/her parents, undoubtedly noble and owners of the strong castle of Chotouň, name Vít (Guy) and Božena and that it is born around year 970. It receives a very complete education in the school Slavon of Vyšehrad. He Marie and becomes priest. The christianization of Bohemia is the fact of the monks Cyrille and Méthode and the Great schism of the East of 1054 did not take place yet what explains why a marriage is not incompatible with its state of ecclesiastic. It has a son, Jimram.

He lives at the time of the dynastic fights between the Přemyslides and the clan of Slavníkov. Without one being able to draw up with certainty a report/ratio of cause for purpose, one can suppose that they play a part in the decision of Procope to be made hermit, first of all near the monastery Benedictine of Břevnov then in a cave with Daleje in Jinonice (today a district of Prague, where a valley, Prokopské udolí and a brook, prokopský potok , keeps the trace of its passage).

Évangéliaire of Procope saint

It is there, according to the Czech tradition, which he writes a évangéliaire which, belonging to the treasure of the cathedral of Rheims, would have been used for the oath-taking of kings de France during their crowning.

The presence with Rheims of this évangéliaire gave rise to the rocambolesques assumptions. According to the abbot Pluche, the lectionnaire came from Ebbon, custos of the library of Louis Débonnaire; some, on the other hand, supported that it had been offered by Anne of Kiev to Roger, bishop of Châlons, when it sought it to lead it to Henri Ier de France; Dobrowski thought, as for him, that it had been given, about 1250, with the archbishop of Rheims by Sainte Helene of Anjou, queen of Serbia; others, finally, claimed that the Crusaders had discovered it during the plundering of Constantinople and that Baudoin had offered it to Guillaume with the White Hands, archbishop of Rheims (Studiacroatica Source).

The Czech sources indicate, for their part, that the évangéliaire of Procope saint was the subject of a gift by Charles IV of the Holy roman Empire to the Cloître of Move, a monastery Benedictine located with Prague and officiating in Slavic Vieux. It would then have been offered to the Byzantine legate at the 15th century which would have taken along to Byzance. It is there that it would have been bought by Charles of Lorraine (1524-1574) or on its orders, to be offered to the chapter of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame of Rheims.

According to the Bulletin of the libraries of France , “this évangéliaire slavon of the 11th century written in Cyrillic characters is often called “Text of the sacring” because of a legend which wanted to see in him the holy book on which the Kings of France would have, the day of their sacring, lent oath. This legend is false, but found its origin in the extreme pump with which the Cardinal Charles of Lorraine (1524-1574) gave it to the Chapter, after having covered it with an invaluable binding sheltering of the relics. This book took a great value nowadays, although of very an other order: it is one of the oldest known texts of the Russian language or Bulgarian Old man and it could be written by Procope saint, who died about 1030. Already Pierre Large the and Nicolas II, travelling to France, had been made it present. ” (Source BBF)

Founder of the monastery of Sázava

Then, Procope leaves the surroundings of Prague for the valley of Sázava to carry out an ascetic life. The legend tells that the peasants of the neighborhoods saw it plowing the ground with the devil harnessed with its plow and led to the cross.

Under the protection of Ulrich of Bohemia, then of its successor, Břetislav and with the assistance of monks aspiring to the same ascetic life, it builds a cloister of which he becomes the father-abbot. The monastery of Sázava, which adopts the rules of the Ordre of saint Benoît, does not remain about it less one of the last places of Bohemia where the liturgy is celebrated in Slavic Vieux and where this liturgical language (more or less equivalent to Latin for the catholics) is taught a long time.

Canonization

In 1204, Procope is canonized by the pope Innocent III. It is the first Czech with being recognized like saint by the Roman Catholic church and he is regarded as one of the saint-owners of the country. In 1588, its remainders are transferred to the Château from Prague and there rest from now on in the vault of All-the-Saint.

Note

Random links: