Le peuplement monastique des îles de la Méditerranée occidentale au ve siècle

• Autores: Laurent Ripart
• Localización: Antiquité tardive: revue internationale d'histoire et d'archéologie, ISSN 1250-7334, Nº. 31, 2023 (Ejemplar dedicado a: La Méditerranée occidentale au Ve siècle), págs. 165-174
• Idioma: francés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The monastic settlement of the islands of the western Mediterranean was one of the great transformations of the mare nostrum in the 5th century. However, it is important to understand the extent of this phenomenon, distinguishing between the hagiographic tradition and the real documentary and archaeological evidence, which shows that only the Tuscan archipelago and the islands of Provence were really affected by the monastic settlement. In the majority of cases, these monasteries developed in the wealthy seaside villas that the Roman elites had built on the islands, reflecting the highly aristocratic nature of island monasticism. Anachoretic communities often set up close to the cenobies established in the seaside villas, usually on a small rocky outcrop, as in the case of Porquerolles and probably also Gorgona, but sometimes on a neighbouring islet, as in the Lérins archipelago. Far from isolating the island environment from the world, the arrival of monks reinforced their importance, not only because the monasteries often developed the pars rustica of the villas in which they were established, but also because they transferred the old maritime routes into pilgrimage routes, turning the islands into holy places, as in the case of the beata insula of Lerina.