29 November 2007
Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series
A CONTEXT FOR AN IMAGE
The cult of Saint Michael in Oteiza and Navarre
D. Roldán Jimeno Aranguren.
Public University of Navarra
National, regional and local cults of the Archangel Michael have been the subject of different programs of study throughout Europe, sample unmistakable evidence of his importance, endurance and cultic revitalisation over time. St Michael, protector of the Hebrew people in the Old Testament, was worshipped in Asia Minor from the 3rd century. From there he passed to south-central Italy, where he had a church from the first years of the 5th century. In the middle of the 5th century, another basilica was erected on the Via Salaria in Rome, and from then onwards Michaelic temples were spread throughout southern Italy. The appearance of the Archangel at cima on Mount Gargano (492) was followed by the erection of the sanctuary, an outstanding centre of pilgrimages due to the thaumaturgical properties of the water that flowed there, from where his fame and devotion spread prodigiously. In France, churches were dedicated to it from the 6th century onwards, although its great impulse came about as a result of the appearance of the archangel to the bishop of Avranches, Saint Aubert, founder of Mont-Saint-Michel (710). In the Iberian Peninsula, we hardly have any evidence prior to the year 711, so we are dealing with an eminently local cult. For his part, A. Fábrega points out that the story of the apparition of Mount Gargano was not introduced into the Peninsula until the second half of the 10th century, which raises questions about the origin of the Hispanic cult. Relics and monasteries dedicated to the Archangel are not recorded in the north of the peninsula until the 8th century. It is precisely in this century that we must place the establishment of the cult in Navarre, showing in turn the zenith of the Christianisation of the territory.
The conquest of the Muslims coincided with the great expansion of the cult of Saint Michael, who as prince of the heavenly militia took on special significance in the subsequent business of the reconquest in the 10th century. It would seem that Oteiza's San Miguel de la Solana should be located here.
The town had two parishes, one dedicated to San Miguel and the other to San Salvador, until they were unified in 1736 because the latter, located in the upper part of the town, threatened ruin. The church of San Salvador is documented from 1074, when Sancho el de Peñalén donated it to Irache. For its part, on the site of the primitive church of San Miguel, a new building was erected in the 16th century, later remodelled at the beginning of the 18th century.
The ascription of Oteiza to the primordial or old Navarre is doubtful. The dedications of San Miguel and San Salvador do not seem to fit in very well with this Christian area controlled by the Pamplona authorities. Its isolated status to the south of Mount Eskinza seems to place it in the New Lands, to which it was directly linked by the road leading to Andelos. However, the surrounding foothills that isolate it from the surrounding area and its position parallel to the Christian towns on the western slopes of Montejurra make it advisable to treat it as part of the core sector of Pamplona's territory.
The role of the archangel in the reconquest has been masterfully highlighted by E. Moreu and F. Marsá in Catalonia. In primordial Navarre, the St. Michael's related to the reconquest are the titulars of the chapels of the castles erected at framework of the defensive system that arose in the kingdom as a result of the fight against the infidel, the examples of Huarte-Pamplona, Monreal, Burgui and San Martín de Unx being well known. In addition to these obvious examples, in Tierra Estella we must add the probable case of the chapel of the Castillo de Oro. issue The high number of early medieval temples dedicated to the archangel in the lands of Degio and Berrueza may have originated in the 8th century, although it cannot be ruled out that they flourished after the reconquest of the 10th century, as seems to be the case of Oteiza. This impression is corroborated by the patron saint of the second early medieval church: San Salvador, a cult introduced into the kingdom of Pamplona mainly from the 11th century onwards, and to which, like San Miguel, different chapels of castles erected against Muslim power were dedicated. However, the choice of the patron saint of San Salvador de Oteiza may also have been influenced by the Jacobean branch that ran through our territory. San Salvador is linked on numerous occasions to different routes of the Pilgrim's Way to Santiago de Compostela. This Jacobean peculiarity must be related to the Christological meaning of the great pilgrimages (Santiago, Rome, Jerusalem). The promotion of the cult of St. James underlined the close unity of the apostle with Christ.