Pseudo-Odo of Cluny: De Reversione Beati Martini a Burgundia

This dossier tells how the relics of Saint Martin of Tours, taken to Burgundy for safety during the Viking raids, were brought back to Tours. It opens with an exchange of letters between Fulk the Good, count of Anjou, and Odo, abbot of Cluny: Fulk writes with elaborate courtesy, citing the tabernacle, Noah’s ark and the beauty of creation to show that unequal friends may be joined in charity, and asks for an account of the event; Odo replies. A preface and the narrative follow. In one scene, to settle a dispute over whose merits worked miracles, a leper is placed between the relics of Martin and of Germanus of Auxerre to see which side will be healed.

The text is not by Odo of Cluny, and the letters are a literary device; the narrative is generally regarded as a later composition from Tours, written to glorify Martin and to support the claims of his church. Its account of the return of the relics has been widely doubted. It is nevertheless an interesting example of the rivalry between saints’ cults and of the use of famous names, such as Odo and Fulk, to lend authority to a local tradition.